Sainis - Greek Traditional Cuisine Meze and Tapas — Restaurant in Municipality of Ios

I wish I had more than 5 stars to give to Sainis. We ate here 3 out of the 4 nights we stayed in Ios and my only regret was not making that 4/4.

We tried nearly every dish on the menu and every single one of them was delicious. Standouts on the menu were the hot appetizer dishes, particularly the mushrooms, bougiordi and eggplant. The shrimp saganaki was also top notch. Authentic Greek cuisine expertly made; no extra bells on whistles on the presentation (other than the wonderfully decorated interior of the dining area) as none was needed with the level of care and effort put into making the dishes taste incredible.

On the service: this is a family-run restaurant and upon being seated we felt immediately welcomed to be part of that. I could go on and on but I will leave you with what stood out to me: we had a dish the first night on the specials menu that was our favourite dish (Imam) but it was not there the second time we dined in. We asked the chef if he would have it on the menu for the following day and he offered to make it special for us if we came back. He started working hours earlier than normal the next day to prepare the dish and I could not be more grateful and impressed by the level of care and service these people gave to us (we ordered two orders of that dish in the same night so I hope we made it worth his time).

If you’re looking for an experience in authentic Greek food, taking your time to enjoy every dish and every moment in a warm, friendly environment of a family restaurant, this is the place.

Only warning: bring cash and a large appetite;...

Man oh Man. Our trip to Greece was a feast of the soul, mind and heart. A soul touching people, a mind blowing food and and a love story you live with every minute you spend with a local chef. We have been advised that a visit to Ios is not completed without eating at Sainis! First night we went, the chef, his wife and daughter ALL three there to welcome us with a smile, generosity, aperitivo in hand and makes sure that he sets near you, interests to know who you are and what he advise or wish to share with you from his heart and kitchen. Then comes a beautiful angel to chat with you with her beautiful good English and charming good Italian! The daughter.. She is one of a kind young girl, she is there working with a smile all the time.. I have rarely met and seen nowadays a very young girl this well behaved, this responsible, this generous, this angelic, this mature and this educated. The food.. Ohh the food. It was beyond amazing.. A super fresh and amazing quality ingredients. We ended up going 4 times in a week passed on Ios. We wanted to try the whole menu.. Maybe asking our selves!are we going to try anything less than very good? None.. Everything perfect. Dreaming to go...

I wouldn’t recommend based on the food we had but the service is good.

I don’t know if we were unlucky or what but apart from not liking the food I got super sick of the stomach after the meal and this is very very rare for me (and when it happens is really quick so I always know what’s the cause).

I had chicken in wine sauce (18-19€) and it was literally 4-5 small pieces of chicken (luckily half a chicken breast but probably not even that) floating in a lot of sauce made of store-bought stock that didn’t tasted like wine at all. I can tell it was with commercial stock because of taste and texture. My partner had kleftiko and the good point was the meat that was tender but not great on taste either.. The tzatziki wasn’t really great neither, just correct. Another person on the table had moussaka and also said it was all right but not to remember.

You can have much better food in Ios paying the same and even just better paying less. Overrated in my opinion, maybe they have some good options in the menu but I wouldn’t pay again to take the risk. It doesn’t make any difference in my reviews but you can tell it isn’t 100% traditional greek when you don’t get the...