Elements is the fine-dining restaurant of Canaves Oia Epitome, in Oia on Santorini, postcode 84702, with the Aegean below it. The room was built from the island’s own materials: local volcanic stone and whitewashed Cycladic walls, a floating deck above the infinity pool, and every table turned west, towards the sunset Oia is known for.
The kitchen began from a conviction that the island, its volcanic earth, its sea and its light, deserved cooking of the same precision. Nothing on the plate is there for decoration, and each course is a study of a single element.
Dinner runs from 7.30pm to 11pm, and it arrives in stages. There are two degustations. Taste the World is the fuller of the two, modern European technique carrying flavours from well beyond the Aegean. Taste Nature is vegetarian throughout, resting on the island’s volcanic soil, its wild herbs and the season’s harvest, and it asks no less of the kitchen.
Tasos Stefatos has been Executive Chef of the Canaves Collection since 2019, with more than two decades of fine dining behind him: stages in kitchens in San Sebastián and Cologne, then Athens, where he was sous-chef and later chef de cuisine at Hytra, and where he also cooked at Botrini’s. He works between modern European method and the Greek table he was raised on, and gives each the same weight. The post carries the collection’s other rooms as well, Petra among them.
The premise
The restaurant takes its name from four forces: earth, water, air and fire. The four balance one another, and the menu is built on that balance. The island comes into each course as well, with dishes steamed on volcanic rock, flavours carried in from the sea, and a finish as light as the evening air. The front of house is set out on the same four terms: fire for the energy that carries the room, earth for hospitality without pretence, water for service that anticipates the pause and knows when to step back, air for an evening with room to breathe.
The room and the deck
Inside, the warmth of timber runs against volcanic rock under white Cycladic render. Tables are set in the open air. The deck is the reason to book ahead: the Experience Tables stand out on it, above the infinity pool, with nothing between the guest and the west, and the restaurant’s own advice is to reserve early for priority on them. Nikolas Bousa is restaurant manager, with a career in luxury hotels and fine dining behind him and an executive master’s diploma from Les Roches Marbella.
The cellar
The cellar runs to around 580 labels, 35 by the glass. Greek wine holds the weight of the list, with Champagne and white Burgundy beside it and bottles drawn from both the older growing countries and the newer ones. A sommelier takes the table through the list and pairs by the glass across the whole dinner, and will build the pairing from cocktails or juice where the table prefers one.
Elina Dakanali is wine director, and holds a WSET Level 4 Diploma together with a certification in wine list and cellar management. She has more than 15 years in luxury hospitality across Greece and Switzerland, including the cellars of Estate Argyros on Santorini.
The kitchen’s manner
Each course starts from something a guest already knows, a flavour or a dish they can place, then moves it somewhere they cannot. The menu changes from one season to the next, so a second visit a year later is a different dinner. Christos Kalomoiris is pastry chef, with more than a decade in five-star hospitality behind him, and the bar works to the same measure as the kitchen.
Who is this for
Elements suits a table happy to hand the evening over to the kitchen and to sit through a tasting at its pace, with the west open in front of it. Dress is smart elegant. It suits a party where one guest eats no meat, and anyone who likes to go through a wine list with the person pouring it. Book early enough in the evening and the light over the Aegean changes while you eat.
