Blu Santorini Redefines Sunset Dining and Style

Hinton Magazine
Aug 21
2 min read

There are few combinations more effortlessly seductive than feta, rosé, and a plate piled high with tzatziki — but Santorini has a way of taking even the simplest pleasures and elevating them into the extraordinary. The island’s newest opening, Blu, is testament to that. Perched high in Imerovigli on the island’s dramatic west coast, this is not merely another restaurant with a view; it’s an invitation to dine on the edge of the Aegean, front row to Santorini’s legendary sunset.

Blu arrives as part of Sandblu, a retreat where hospitality and hedonism meet in quiet harmony. At the foot of ancient Thira Mountain and a stroll from the black sands of Kamari Beach, Sandblu is an oasis of contemporary refinement: 67 immaculately dressed rooms and suites, infinity pools that blur into the horizon, a concept boutique for curated finds, and a spa crafted in partnership with cult skincare house 111SKIN. It is Greek island living, distilled to its purest, most polished form.

Food, naturally, is its beating heart. Nectar, Sandblu’s signature dining room, offers a modern hymn to Greek gastronomy — think just-caught seafood, local ingredients reimagined, and plates that balance restraint with indulgence. For the oenophile, Aroma Wine Bar houses over 300 bottles, an encyclopaedic selection that invites exploration as much as celebration. Even mornings are elevated; the Stari Bakery fills the air with the perfume of buttered pastries and rich coffee, making the dawn almost as tempting as the dusk.

But Sandblu doesn’t rest on elegance alone; it thrives on discovery. Hidden within the rock lies Santovini Wine Cellar, a natural cave reimagined as an intimate temple to viticulture, where tasting becomes theatre. Beyond that, the Sandblu Garden invites guests to forage their own herbs and vegetables before learning to cook them the Greek way — not through textbook precision, but through the instinctive, generous spirit of a yiayia’s kitchen, guided by the estate’s Head Chef.

What Sandblu has managed is rare: the art of balancing modern refinement with authenticity. Here, Santorini’s elemental beauty — its volcanic cliffs, its incandescent sunsets, its salt-sprayed breezes — is paired with a philosophy of hospitality that is both timeless and unapologetically current.