Makris is the fine dining room at Chora, Domes of Elounda, Elounda, Crete. Elounda sits in the Agios Nikolaos district, in the prefecture of Lasithi. The room stands at the edges of the estate grounds and is staged around the hotel pool, with the tables nearest the edge appearing to hover above the water. Across the bay in front of them is Spinalonga, the small island with a Venetian castle on its crown.
Makris describes itself as a modern gastronomic restaurant where refined technique meets a comfort fine dining approach, with a theatricality drawn from ancient and modern Greece.
The kitchen and the name
Petros Dimas is chef patron, and he runs every Makris kitchen in the group of hotels the restaurant belongs to, Domes Resorts and Reserves. Makris is the ancient name of Corfu, and that is where the kitchen started, in 2018 at Domes Miramare. Four rooms carry the name: Chora at Domes of Elounda, Domes Miramare on Corfu, Domes White Coast on Milos and Athens.
Dimas works by contrast. Unexpected pairings, different temperatures inside one dish and textures built in layers are set against each other so that the taste and what follows it balance out. Greekness, seasonality and sustainability are the terms the kitchen uses for itself.
What comes to the table
A degustation menu and a comfort fine dining menu run side by side. The degustation is modern Greek cooking served à la carte, taken course by course. Comfort fine dining is the restaurant’s own term for the menu beside it, and it means the same kitchen in an approachable register. The wine list is Greek throughout and weighted towards Crete.
The farm
The Makris farm and local producers supply the kitchen. The cooking follows the cycle of cultivation, down to the herbs and the edible flowers, and the raw material is organic before technique touches it. Dimas is as committed to growing the organic vegetables and herbs as he is to cooking them.
Where it sits on the estate
Makris is one of five signature restaurants at Domes of Elounda, alongside Thólos, Vilebrequin La Plage, CORE and Antonino’s. Thólos is the domed room that carries the resort’s own design, with a buffet breakfast in the morning and Greek and Mediterranean dishes at night. Vilebrequin La Plage puts seafood and seasonal cooking by the sea. CORE is a plaza of deli stalls and food trucks, open from 6.30pm to 10.30pm. Antonino’s is the Italian room, open to every guest on the estate, where a margherita is snipped at the table and the gnocchi come with guancia di manzo.
Three bars run alongside the restaurants: the Vilebrequin La Plage beach bar on the private beach, the Grand Domes lobby bar from morning to midnight and the Neema pool bar by the Luxury Residences. A pool bar carries the Makris name too, set against stone walls with the rough Cretan mountains behind it and serving snacks and cocktails at the lounger; Domes of Elounda calls its outlook the island’s closest view of Spinalonga. Kooreloo is the adults-only pool, where cocktails are served by the water.
Planning a table
The season runs April to November, Saturday to Thursday, 6.30pm to 10.30pm. Dinner is 60 to 80 euro a head.
Who is this for
Anyone who wants one long dinner to stand at the centre of a few days in Elounda, and is content to give it the whole evening. Guests at Domes of Elounda have the shortest way there, from their own room down to Chora. It suits a table of two or four with the night to give it, and a reader who likes being shown what a kitchen is thinking.
