Grandma’s is the restaurant of Liostasi Hotel & Suites, Chora, Ios. It stands on the road that joins the port at Gialos to Chora, its terrace cut into the rock above the harbour, and the dining room is an open-air deck by the water with panoramic sea views. The restaurant names Alex Lepesis as its executive chef. What makes it worth the table is the sourcing, which the menu states island by island on the plate.
Dinner is à la carte or a tasting menu at 100 euros, with a wine pairing alongside it of seven glasses, 35 euros. The tasting opens with sea bass carpaccio under sea fennel, capers, lemon and olive oil, then a fisherman’s soup of stonefish with garlic bread, garlic pasta with chilli flakes, ginger and Messolonghi bottarga, and the catch of the day in a fricassée of wild greens, celeriac and leek bound with egg and lemon. The meat courses are slow-cooked oxtail with mushroom, wheat trahana and Naxos Arseniko cheese, and local goat with charred aubergine purée. Baklava closes it, with pistachio mousse, praline and vanilla ice cream.
The kitchen
In 2017 Liostasi engaged Lefteris Lazarou as consulting chef to rework the menus and appointed Alexandros Lepesis as executive chef. Lepesis came to Ios from kitchens in Greece, France and the United States, among them Pierre Gagnaire’s GAYA, Agape, Caius and the Sani Resort in Chalkidiki. The restaurant has held a Toques d’Or in the Modern Cuisine category every year from 2019 to 2024, and a Top Notch award in 2022.
The island on the plate
The à la carte is where the sourcing reads most plainly. Grilled octopus arrives with fava from Schinoussa and capers. A salad of tomato and cucumber is built on Ios sour cheese, sea fennel, green olives and capers. Purslane comes with Cretan Xigalo cheese, carob rusks and Florina pepper, and charred aubergine with feta, fresh herbs, aged vinegar and toasted bread. Among the fresh pasta there is matsata with slow-cooked rooster and burnt mizithra, and a shrimp risotto with smoked Florina peppers and aged graviera. The main courses run to seabream fricassée, the catch of the day in the chef’s seasonal preparation, and a beef steak of the day with fries and herb butter. A vegan card runs in parallel, from a chilled vegetable soup with herb caponata to an orange sorbet over dark chocolate mousse.
The list
The wine list is set out by Greek region and grape variety, and it leans local before it travels. Santorini Assyrtiko from Artemis Karamolegos is poured by the glass and the bottle, and there is Assyrtiko grown on Ios itself, from Mykoniatis Winery, along with a Mandilaria rosé from the same vineyard. Deeper in, the Cyclades carry Sigalas Nychteri Grand Reserve, Argyros Cuvée Palatia and Manalis Mavrotragano from Sikinos. The international pages are short and chosen: Taittinger and Laurent-Perrier, a Chablis, a Pouilly-Fumé, a Nahe Riesling, Margaux and Brunello di Montalcino. Cocktails are 15 euros at The Bar, which stands between the hotel and the sea.
The hotel around it
Liostasi is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, which lists the property with 22 rooms and one restaurant, Grandma’s. The restaurant’s own room takes its cue from Cycladic architecture and natural textures.
Who is this for
Grandma’s suits a traveller on Ios who wants one dinner taken seriously, and anyone who likes to eat late: the restaurant gives its hours as noon to midnight, daily, so lunch and dinner are both on offer. Come at the turn of the light, when the water goes the colour the bar’s own cocktail, the Aegean Sunset, is named for. The tasting menu and its pairing ask for a long evening, with nothing planned after it.
