The Best Mexican Restaurant in Mykonos — What Every American Traveller Needs to Know

You didn't fly to Greece to eat tacos.

We know. Nobody does. You came for the whitewashed walls, the Aegean light, the sunsets over the Cyclades, the kind of beauty that makes you understand why the ancient Greeks invented the concept of paradise. You came for all of that.

And then, somewhere around day three, something shifts. The grilled fish is still beautiful. The Greek salad is still perfect. But a quiet craving starts building — something with heat, with acid, with smoke, with the kind of bold flavour that makes your whole face react.

That's when you find Pūblico.

What Is Pūblico?

Pūblico Restaurant & Mezcaleria is Mykonos' only authentic Mexican seafood restaurant — and it has been named by Condé Nast Traveler as "Greece's Most Soulful Mexican Restaurant."

Read that again. Condé Nast Traveler. Greece's most soulful Mexican restaurant. On a Greek island. In the middle of the Aegean.

It sounds like it shouldn't work. It works better than almost anything else on the island.

Located on one of Mykonos Town's most beautiful cobblestone streets — steps from the legendary old port, beneath a flowering bougainvillea that turns pink-red every summer — Pūblico is the kind of place that makes you cancel your other dinner reservations. Guests do this regularly. It's practically a tradition.

The Chef — Why It's the Real Thing

This matters to Americans, and it should.

Head Chef Martin Barrera is from Baja California, Mexico — the Pacific coast region that gave the world the fish taco, the aguachile, and one of the great seafood culinary traditions on earth. Before Mykonos, he cooked at Carbone Doha. Before that, years of Baja California coastal kitchens.

This is not a European chef who learned Mexican recipes from a cookbook. This is someone who grew up eating this food, who understands the difference between authentic Baja California technique and the Tex-Mex approximation most Americans know from chain restaurants back home.

When a guest from Mexico City or Los Angeles sits down at Pūblico and says "this tastes like home" — and they do, often — that's the highest possible validation. It happens regularly enough that the team posted about it on Instagram. It went viral.

The restaurant was founded by Edgaras Gaidamavicius, formerly of Zuma London, and Antonina Krokhina, a Paris and London-based restaurateur. The combination of a London-trained hospitality mind and a Baja California-trained kitchen is exactly as good as it sounds.

The Food — What to Order

Forget Tex-Mex. Forget burritos, fajitas, and loaded nachos. That's not what this is.

Pūblico is Baja California Mexican seafood cuisine — think Pacific coast Mexico, where the fishing boats come in every morning and the kitchen decides the menu based on what they caught. Applied to the Aegean, where the fishing boats also come in every morning and the catch is extraordinary, the result is something that exists nowhere else on earth.

The dishes you need to order:

Prawn Ceviche — Fresh Aegean prawns delivered that morning, thinly sliced cucumber, red onion, coriander, chilli, lime. The citrus cure is done right. The heat is calibrated. The prawns taste like the sea they came from four hours ago. This is one of the best ceviches in Greece.

Aguachile — If you've never had aguachile, prepare yourself. It's ceviche's bolder, spicier, more intensely flavoured cousin — the dish that separates the people who know Baja California food from the people who think Mexican cuisine means tacos and guacamole. Order it. Your palate will thank you.

Octopus in Ancho Chile Sauce — Aegean octopus, slow-roasted, served with a rich ancho chile sauce and finished with an open flame. The Aegean grows exceptional octopus. Ancho chile sauce makes it extraordinary. This is the dish that most represents what Pūblico does — Greek ingredients, Mexican soul.

Handmade Corn Tortilla Tacos — Pressed and cooked to order, every single service. Not flour. Not packet. Handmade corn tortillas the way they're made in Mexico, loaded with fresh Aegean seafood. Soft-shell crab. Grilled fish. Shrimp with chipotle aioli. These are the tacos that make people write TripAdvisor reviews at midnight from their hotel room.

Whole Grilled Fish — The day's catch from Aegean waters, grilled over open flame with a Mexican-spiced crust, served with house salsas. Simple concept. Extraordinary execution.

The Mezcaleria — A Bar Americans Will Understand Immediately

Here's the thing about mezcal in Europe: most bars don't know what they're doing with it. A bottle of Del Maguey on the back shelf does not a mezcal program make.

Pūblico's Mezcaleria is different. It holds one of Greece's finest collections of artisanal agave spirits — mezcals and tequilas curated by character, provenance, and production method. The bar team can talk you through the difference between an espadín and a tobalá, between a joven and a reposado, between sipping something neat and building it into a cocktail.

For American guests who know their agave — and increasingly, Americans do — this is a revelation. For guests who don't yet know their mezcal, this is the best possible introduction.

What to drink:

• Smoky Paloma — mezcal, fresh grapefruit, lime, agave, chilli salt rim. The definitive mezcal cocktail done properly.
• Mezcal Margarita — you know what this is. You've never had one this good.
• Mezcal Tasting Flight — let the bar team guide you through three pours. Tell them what whisky you drink. They'll find your mezcal.

The Mezcaleria is Mykonos' only dedicated tequila and mezcal cocktail bar. There is no equivalent anywhere else on the island. For Americans who have spent years watching the mezcal revolution sweep through New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago — this feels like finding something familiar in the most unexpected place.

The Setting — Yes, It Looks Exactly Like That

The photos don't lie. The terrace at Pūblico is one of the most beautiful restaurant settings in Mykonos Town.

Cobblestone street. Whitewashed Cycladic walls. A bougainvillea that flowers pink-red overhead from May through September. Candlelit tables. The old port two minutes' walk away. The kind of setting that makes you put your phone down and just… be somewhere extraordinary.

It seats enough people to feel alive but never so many that it loses intimacy. On a warm July night with a mezcal paloma in hand and a plate of aguachile arriving, the backdrop looks like a film set. It's real.

The Numbers — What Americans Want to Know

• Rating: 4.9 stars on TripAdvisor — the highest rating of any Mexican restaurant in Mykonos. Featured in Condé Nast Traveler.
• Price range: Mid-to-upscale. Budget approximately €80–120 per person for a full dinner with cocktails (roughly $90–135 USD at current rates). For a Mykonos dinner of this quality, this is exceptional value.
• Reservations: Essential. In peak season — July and August especially — Pūblico fills weeks in advance. Americans who plan their Mykonos trip 3–6 months ahead should book before they fly.
• Hours: Open daily, 18:00–01:00. Dinner and Mezcaleria only — no lunch service.
• Location: Mykonos Town, Old Town. Steps from the old port. Walkable from virtually every hotel in Mykonos Town.
• Group dining: Curated group tasting menus from €75 per person — ideal for birthday celebrations, bachelorette parties, and the kind of group dinners that become the highlight of a trip. Book via the group bookings page.

How Pūblico Fits Into a Mykonos Trip

Americans visiting Mykonos typically spend 3–5 nights. Here's how Pūblico fits into that trip:

Night 1 or 2: Pūblico for dinner. Make this your first or second evening — early in the trip means you can talk about it for the rest of the stay, and if you love it (you will), you have time to come back.

Morning after: The Mykonos Brunch Club — the daytime concept from the same team, open 09:00–16:00, walk-ins welcome. Coffee, açaí bowls, brunch cocktails, and the same warmth as the dinner experience. The two together — Brunch Club by day, Pūblico by night — represent the best food Mykonos has to offer.

Pro tip: If you're dining in peak season (July–August), book your Pūblico table the moment your flights are confirmed. The restaurant is small. The reputation is large. Tables in the bougainvillea terrace at 20:00 on a Saturday in August are not available on 24-hour notice.

What American Guests Say

The TripAdvisor reviews from North American guests follow a pattern. Words like "best meal of the whole trip," "completely unexpected," "felt like we were back in Mexico," and the recurring phrase that appears in review after review: "I can't believe this exists in Mykonos."

One review from a guest from Southern California — someone who noted they had been to Mexico many times and knew the food well — described the shrimp tacos as "sooooo gooood" in a review that has become something of a landmark on the listing. People who know this food recognise it. That's the point.

The Canada/USA market represents nearly 23% of Pūblico's actual reservations — the second largest nationality group after the UK. Americans and Canadians who find Pūblico book tables, show up, and go home and tell people about it. The word-of-mouth from North American guests is among the strongest the restaurant has.