Little Venice · Mykonos Town
Dinner facing the Mykonos sunset
Cantera sits on the water in Little Venice, on the western edge of Mykonos Town — the side the sun goes down on. The windmills stand on the headland to the left, the sea takes the light, and the whole row of houses turns orange for about twenty minutes.
What you actually see
Little Venice is the stretch where the houses are built straight out of the rock, with their balconies over the water. Cantera is on that waterfront, one floor up, so the view is over the balconies rather than through them.
Look left and the Kato Mili windmills sit on the rise above the bay — the row of five that appears on every postcard of the island. Straight ahead is open sea toward Delos. The sun drops into that gap.
It is a working part of town, not a terrace behind glass. Boats pass. The water comes up the rocks. On a windy evening it comes up further than you expect.
When the sun actually goes down
Sunset moves a long way through the season. In late June it is about 8.45pm; by the middle of August it has come back to around 8.10pm; by late September it is nearer 7.15pm, and by the end of October, earlier still.
We open at 6pm. If you want to be at the table before the light goes rather than arriving into it, book about an hour ahead of sunset: you get the blue hour, the drop, and the afterglow, which is often the better half.
When you book, you choose where you sit. The indoor room books with no deposit; the balcony — these seats, at the rail — is held with a €50 deposit per guest that comes off your bill. That deposit is not a fee: it is what guarantees your table for the hour everyone wants.
The light lasts. Little Venice keeps colour for a good while after the sun has gone, and the windmills are lit once it is dark.
- Opens6pm daily
- Best arrivalAbout an hour before sunset
- Closes1am
- ReservationsBook online · +30 22890 77404 · Reservation terms
What to eat while it happens
The raw end of the menu suits the hour — beef sushi, tartare, crispy rice — food you can share slowly over a cocktail while the light changes, without anyone having to look away from the water.
The grill comes later. Black Angus entraña, picanha, beef fillet and Iberian pork are the things to order once it is properly dark and the room has turned toward the table rather than the view.
Finding us
Little Venice is on the west side of Mykonos Town, below the windmills. The lanes there are narrow and largely unnamed, and map pins in Chora are approximate at the best of times — most people walk in from the windmills or along the waterfront and find the sign on the whitewashed steps.
Mykonos Town is pedestrian. There is no driving to the door; you walk the last stretch whichever way you come.
