Yali Seafood is a deck over the water on the resort beach at Corfu Imperial, the Grecotel estate on the Kommeno peninsula. The address is Tzavros-Kommeno, on Corfu, and the estate stands on a private peninsula above the Ionian Sea. Tables go down on a wooden deck at the edge of the sand, and from them the water sits directly below the planks, clear and blue. The views are panoramic, and after dark the lights of Corfu Town sit on the horizon across the water. The beach the deck stands on is the resort’s own.
Yali is one of seven rooms on the estate, and it keeps the shortest season of them. Most of the resort’s restaurants open in April or May and run to October, while Yali opens in June and closes at the end of September. That makes it a four-month room on an estate that eats for six or seven. It serves at midday as well as at night, which among the restaurants only the Trattoria & Wine Bar also does. The rooms around it run to other cooking: fine French at Aristos, Italian at the Trattoria & Wine Bar, Asian and Latin American fusion at Merlin’s, international and Mediterranean at Mon Repos.
The deck reads as two rooms in a day. At midday it is a beach table, sand at the edge of the planks and the bay flat and bright under the sun. At night the same boards are laid for dinner, the water goes dark beneath them, and the far shore picks itself out in lights. The restaurant’s own account of itself holds both: seafood on a private beach, under the sunshine of a bright summer’s day or the moonlight at night.
The kitchen
Seafood is the whole of the card, and the catch of the day is what it leads on. The resort sets it out as an imaginative seafood menu served with champagne, and the eating is al fresco throughout. Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dishes are available, and the wine list carries vegan and organic bottles.
Shellfish and selected seafood are cooked with the least possible intervention, so what arrives tastes of itself. Large fish are cooked whole, either on the grill or baked in salt.
The beach bar
Yali Beach Bar is a venue in its own right on the same stretch of sand, listed among the resort’s restaurants and bars beside Yali itself. It runs 10:00 to 23:00, which brackets both of the restaurant’s services and opens two hours before lunch. It pours drinks and serves snacks from morning to evening, at the bar itself or under the shade of an umbrella on the beach.
A name the group carries twice
Yali is a Grecotel seafood name, and Corfu is not the only place it appears. A second Yali runs at Cape Sounio, on the Athens Riviera, set to fresh fish, seafood and Greek dishes. The brief is the same at both, and each room keeps its own season.
Before you go
The season runs June to September. Lunch is served 12:00 to 17:00, and dinner 19:00 to 22:00, 19:30 to 22:30 in high season. Reservation required at both services, through the Grecotel app or the resort’s reservations desk, by email or by telephone.
Who is this for
This is a table for anyone who likes to eat with the sea within reach of the chair and a meal that takes its time. A long lunch on the planks can drift through the afternoon in full sun; a late dinner on the same boards is the quieter of the two. The mood is unhurried and informal, with sand underfoot and a walk across the Kommeno estate to get there. Champagne is on the table if the occasion wants it.
