A few cafes of Ikaria Island

When I last visited my family’s island 16 years ago, I can’t remember a single café. I'm sure one existed, but coffee didn’t interest me back then, neither did sitting outside in the shade and hanging out with my family.

But on this trip I couldn’t wait to sample all the new hip cafes tourists money helped build. In two weeks I thought I would surely have enough time to sample them all, but time moves slowly on Ikaria, and most days I couldn’t even go two blocks from the house because of so many appointments with relatives nearby. When I did go to a café, it was kind of a hassle. The ones on my side of the island are all in downtown Agio Kyrikos, which is a 30-minute walk away. Being gone for a few hours from family was hard to schedule, and often I didn’t get to go until late at night. Thankfully, Greek cafes are open late, so the hours were not an issue.

As with all cafes on the island, outdoor seating is the ambiance, and most cafes barely had any indoor seating at all – a nice escape from usually rainy Portland.

Alecafe, Agios Kyrikos

The first café I visited on the island and the only one I went to twice! The first times my father ordered filtered coffee that came with a creamer that looked like buttermilk, and I got an iced cappuccino. But the pistatio milkshake on the menu was too much to resist so I came back a second time and got that too, along with a Greek-style coffee.

Senso, Agios Kyrikos

Senso is located right beside Alecafe which just has much seating and a slightly more robust menu. I enjoyed by iced latte and iced mocha (notice a theme here – not much reason to drink hot drinks under the Mediterranean sun).

Mikro Café, Armenistis

I insisted we stop here after our long and arduous road trip around the island and I am so glad we did. Located on the other side of the island, this posh cafes feels worlds away from the standard shops in Agios. They had a small but decadent menu featuring an iced chocolate, ice cream espresso, and a honey bread snack.

Celeste Café, Evdilos

Another pleasant iced latte by the edge of the ocean on the north side of the island. A relative small place with coffee tables and lot of ashtrays, but still decent.

Taza Café, Agio Kyrikos

A second café on the strip in the capital, and it had the coolest menu of all. We were there late at night and ordered a club sandwich and amazing red velvet latte.