Ombra is the restaurant of Esperas, a small hotel of rock-cut houses on the Oia cliff on Santorini. Cliff-edge, Oia, Santorini: dinner is served across the whole of the site, a main dining room and then terraces and verandas on several levels, stepped down the caldera face. The cooking is Mediterranean, Santorini produce, seafood-led, and the kitchen buys its seasonal ingredients on the island and in the region around it. Giorgos Chatzimichail is the executive chef, and the card he oversees is Greek, built on local produce and on fish.
The same space also runs as a sunset lounge, Monday to Saturday, 18:00 to 22:00, which covers the evening the Oia sunset falls in. The kitchen sends sharing platters and light dishes through those hours. At the other end of the village the same sunset draws coach crowds onto the castle walls, and sailing boats come in below to watch it from the water. From these terraces the caldera view is unobstructed, and the crowds are no part of it. Directly below, Oia’s stepped path drops to Ammoudi, where the fishing boats work, and the volcano sits across the water.
The house it belongs to
Esperas, 17 rooms, opened 1992, was among the first three hotels in Oia. An Athenian doctor had bought the site in 1989 as a ruined house with a view of the land and the sea. A run of caves then appeared in the ground, the plan changed, and the hotel was made out of them. Each island house on the site is carved into the cliff, and the pool beside the terraces is cut out of the same rock. A demolished cave complex beside the site still shows the cut the earthquake left in the cliff. Julia Mavrelou, the founder’s daughter, has run Esperas since 1999.
On the card
The lounge list is short, and much of it is written from the island’s own produce. Tomatokeftedes are fritters of Santorini cherry tomatoes, served with a Greek yogurt mousse and fresh herbs. Fava, the split-pea purée the island is known for, comes as a dip under capers and onion. An Aegean bruschetta sets grilled octopus on sourdough with Santorini fava and baked cherry tomatoes. A trio of spreads puts taramosalata, tzatziki and tyrokafteri Thessalonikis beside warm pita, saganaki bites are Mastelo cheese from Chios with honey and thyme, and the arancini are filled in the manner of gemista, with peppers, tomato and a feta mousse. Crispy baked potatoes come with smoked paprika and Metsovone cheese.
Seafood appears three times on the list. The ceviche is sea bass fillet with mango, avocado, chilli and lime, and the shrimp come crusted in panko. Beyond the Greek end of the card there are tacos two ways, one with chicken gyros and one with feta and kalamata olive powder, bao buns with a slow-cooked mushroom ragu, and mini burgers of beef and lamb with goat cheese. Puddings keep to two, a mango cheesecake and a dark chocolate mousse with caramelised hazelnuts. The drinks are signature cocktails and mocktails built on Greek spirits. On the house’s wider menus, sea bass fillet and cod are the two dishes it puts forward.
Who is this for
Ombra suits a couple marking an occasion, and anyone content to give a whole evening to one table above the water. The house puts the room forward for an intimate dinner as readily as for a drink at dusk, and the lounge format carries both: a long order of small plates for two, or one dish and a cocktail. Anyone who likes a kitchen cooking the island’s own tomatoes, capers and split peas will find most of the card on that ground.
