Etrusco

Etrusco is the original Botrini family restaurant — opened in the early 1990s by Ettore Botrini's father Tonino in the village of Kato Korakiana, ten kilometres north of Corfu Town. The building is a 17th-century stone farmhouse converted into a dining room, with the original family kitchen visible through an arched opening and a garden terrace shaded by old olive and lemon trees. The restaurant holds one Michelin star and is a perennial entry on The World's 50 Best Discovery list.

Ettore Botrini is Italy-Greek by birth and training — he ran the two-Michelin-star Botrini's in Athens for over a decade and remains the most decorated Greek chef of his generation. The Etrusco menu is a running dialogue between the two halves of his heritage: a sea bass ravioli with sea urchin sauce plays Venice against the Ionian, a Corfiot lamb with local mountain herbs plays home tradition against French technique, a dessert of almond granita with Corfu mandarin plays the island's citrus groves against Italian summer.

The wine list is one of the best on any Greek island — deep in Greek producers from Santorini Assyrtiko to Naoussa Xinomavro, but also Italian (with particular strength in Friuli whites and Barolo reds) and French. The pairings with the tasting menu are built personally by the sommelier, and the €190 full tasting with wine is the expression of the kitchen at full range.

The garden terrace, open from May through October, is the reason this restaurant has a reputation for proposals. Dinner service starts at 20:00 and stretches past midnight under the olive trees, with cicadas giving way to crickets as the evening progresses. The indoor dining room, used from November through April and on wet summer nights, is equally atmospheric but in a warmer register.

For a proposal in the Ionian islands, Etrusco's garden terrace in high summer is the single most romantic dining setting in Corfu. The olive trees, the candlelight, the pace of a four-hour Greek dinner at a one-Michelin-star kitchen — every element is orchestrated for exactly this kind of evening. Book two months ahead for July or August. Request a garden table.