7 Best Restaurants in Hydra Town, The Saronic Gulf Islands

Don't leave Hydra without some traditional almond macaroons in your suitcase. The Tsagkaris family, led by octogenarian matriarch Anna Tsagkari, have been lovingly making them in their workshop for nearly a century.

This spot where Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas once danced is a vision in minimalist island stone and white. The restaurant-bar is set in the high-ceiling Hydra Nautical Club and the deck outside, which affords an exquisite sea view. Gourmet seafood dishes, and lively salads are the light standards that will help ensure you keep the energy levels up if you choose to stay on and dance the night away as the night time revelry kicks in and cocktails start flowing.

The Corola family, originally from Naples, welcome you to dine in a traditional Hydriot courtyard and entertain your palate with traditional southern Italian cooking made with the finest ingredients Hydra has to offer. All the pasta is made fresh on the premises in the morning by chef Pietro and his brother, and they turn out exquisite dishes such as succulent salmon caviar gnocchi, saffron shrimp spaghetti, and ravioli ragù. The tuna tartare or octopus carpaccio give off the right tones for a Greek island affair. Desserts are no let down either!

This harbor-front institution has something for everyone. It opens early with espresso, fresh juices, and breakfast, rolls through brunch, lunch, and snacks, then slides into easy dinner plates, sunset drinks, and late-night cocktails. Tea drinkers aren’t forgotten, with loose-leaf blends brewed properly.

No Greek experience is complete without a quick gyro pita on the hoof. And if that's what you're after pop into Kai Kremmidi for the best of that ilk on Hydra. Also try the tasty lahmacun, an Arabic-style mini pizza topped with spiced ground meat and a squeeze of lemon. It's located a couple of blocks up from the harbor.

This family-run taverna, a father-to-son legacy, hides behind a stone-walled garden on a nameless back lane in town. Charismatic Dimitris moonlights as a fisherman, so whatever he nets at dawn lands sizzling on the grill by dusk. Enjoy sea-bream and red mullet, graze on classic mezedes—silky fava, vineleaf dolmades, and crisp kolokithokeftedes (courgette fritters) dusted with mint. Take note the house wines go down very easily.

Christina and Manolis, the former owners, have now passed the baton to their son Constantinos, who has modernized the homestyle Greek dishes served here, in his traditional old Hydriot house with stone floors and wooden ceilings, where time seems to have been standing still since the 1950s. If it's available, try the fresh fish that is prepared to perfection. Rooftop tables sit beneath a vine-draped pergola and vanish quickly, so aim for dinner before 9 pm.