Saranda, the jewel of the Albanian Riviera on the Ionian Sea, is famous for Ksamil's crystal waters and ancient Butrint. Restaurants reflect this — fresh fish, shellfish, Greek and Mediterranean cuisine, southern Albanian dishes.
The beachfront promenade offers restaurants with views of the Corfu Channel and the Greek island opposite. From seafood restaurants to hidden tavernas.
With Resto.al, find the best restaurants in Sarandë and Ksamil and book online free.
Most Popular Restaurants
High-quality seafood, Mediterranean with ocean views, authentic Greek tavernas.
Dining Areas
Beachfront Promenade
Heart of the dining scene with restaurants along the shore.
Ksamil
Beachside restaurants with turquoise waters, ideal for seafood lunch.
FAQ
What are the best restaurants in Sarandë?
Sarandë has excellent fish restaurants, Mediterranean tavernas, and southern Albanian cuisine.
Should I book in advance?
In summer, advance booking is highly recommended. Resto.al lets you secure your table free.
Are there restaurants in Ksamil?
Yes, Ksamil has many beachside restaurants with fresh fish.
Nautical is a modern seafood restaurant in the heart of Ksamil, with a bright, minimalist dining room under woven rattan lamps and tables spilling onto the terrace. Carefully plated dishes range from grilled octopus and prawns to crab spaghetti and the day's fresh fish, alongside grilled meats and Mediterranean salads.
Why We Love It
Plates arrive looking almost too pretty to touch — octopus curled over painted purées, prawns still smoky from the grill. Behind the polish it remains a warm, unhurried neighbourhood spot that quietly raises the bar for dinner in Ksamil.
Restaurant Sole Mare is the dining room of the Sole Mare hotel in Ksamil, serving Mediterranean cooking with a clear seafood accent. The kitchen moves from grilled octopus and fresh burrata salads to house pasta and steaks, all plated with care in a bright, polished setting.
Why We Love It
Generous Mediterranean plates — charred octopus, burrata with ripe tomatoes, properly grilled steak — arrive without any fuss or pretension. It is the kind of steady, welcoming table that closes a Ksamil beach day on exactly the right note.
Taverna Hotel Afa is a family-run seafood taverna on the Ksamil hillside, open through the day for long lunches and sunset dinners overlooking the bay and its islands. The kitchen is built around the fresh local catch — whole grilled fish, seafood platters, mussels and seafood linguine — alongside village salads and Mediterranean classics.
Why We Love It
The dining room opens onto one of Ksamil's loveliest sunset views, and the fish on your plate was very likely swimming that same morning. It is the kind of easygoing family taverna where a long seafood dinner slips naturally into watching the sky change colour.
Eagle Nest Grill&Restaurant is a lively grill house in Ksamil, serving char-grilled meats and fresh seafood on a lantern-lit terrace framed by flowers and olive trees. Generous mixed-grill boards, skewers, whole grilled fish and fried calamari form the heart of a menu built for sharing.
Why We Love It
Platters arrive on rustic wooden boards piled with skewers, chops and crisp fries — honest grill cooking without fuss. The grilled seafood holds its own too, which makes this an easy pick when half the table wants meat and the other half wants fish.
Attiko Restaurant & Sushi is an upscale sushi and seafood restaurant in Sarandë, plating modern Japanese-leaning fusion — signature maki and uramaki, tartare and nigiri alongside seafood pasta and grilled mains. Dishes arrive artfully finished, from a crab-clawed seafood linguine to avocado-wrapped tartare with caviar.
Why We Love It
The cooking is more ambitious than the seaside setting suggests, with beautifully plated rolls and tartare that wouldn't look out of place in a big-city sushi room. It's a polished choice for a special dinner on the Sarandë coast.
Pontil is an Italian and seafood restaurant on the Sarandë promenade, open from breakfast until late with a covered terrace facing the bay. The display counter shows the day's fish and shellfish, which arrive as oysters on ice, grilled seafood platters, mussels and seafood pasta, alongside wood-fired pizzas and grilled meats.
Why We Love It
Evenings on the promenade drift past the terrace while plates of grilled prawns and clams land on the table and a singer works through old favourites. It is relaxed, well priced for what arrives, and easy to linger at long after the sun is gone.
Markata Don Peshk is a seafood restaurant in Sarandë built around a family fishing tradition that dates back to 1974 and its own adjoining fish market. Whole fish from the Ionian is weighed in front of you and priced before it goes to the kitchen, alongside raw platters, fried calamari and shrimp, mussels and seafood pasta in a bright, blue-toned dining room.
Why We Love It
There is something reassuring about picking your fish off the ice, watching it weighed and knowing the price before you sit down. The room is fresh and nautical without trying too hard, and the cooking keeps out of the way of very good raw material.
Manxurane Restaurant & Wines is a family-style restaurant and wine bar on Rruga Butrinti in Sarandë, open from breakfast through late evening. The menu moves from Albanian breakfasts with petulla and honey to sharing platters of local cheese and cured meats, fresh pasta, grilled meat and seafood, backed by a list of Albanian and international wines.
Why We Love It
Embroidered placemats, a leafy terrace and plates that arrive generous and colourful give this place the feel of a well-run family home. It is an easy spot to start the day with eggs and mountain tea, then come back at night for a cheese board and a glass of Albanian wine.
Finest Grill Saranda is a casual grill house a few streets back from the Sarandë seafront. The kitchen turns out mixed grill platters of skewers, chops, wings and sausages alongside big fresh salads, served in a bright modern room with pale wood and orange accents.
Why We Love It
Wooden boards arrive heaped with smoky meat straight off the grill, with a Greek-style salad and a pot of garlic sauce to cut through it all. It is straightforward, generous cooking that suits a hungry evening after a day on the beach.
Lost Seaside is the open-air restaurant of a beach resort on Rruga Butrinti in Sarandë, with rattan and timber tables under thatched pergolas on decks that run straight to the water. The kitchen serves Mediterranean dishes with Asian touches, from sushi to grilled seafood, alongside signature cocktails, moving from breakfast and casual lunches to a more refined dinner service as the beach club winds down.
Why We Love It
Everything here faces the water: the decks, the daybeds, the pool and the long dining terrace with Corfu on the horizon. Come for a lazy lunch of sushi and something cold, stay as the lights come on around the giant sculpted hands at the entrance and the evening turns into a party.
Haxhi is a family-run seafood restaurant on the hillside above Sarandë, with a terrace that looks straight out over the Ionian. The kitchen turns out grilled fish, prawns, octopus and seafood pasta alongside home-style Albanian plates, inside a warmly lit dining room packed with maritime curios, antiques and string lights.
Why We Love It
Every shelf, beam and wall carries something to look at, so the wait for a plate of grilled prawns never feels long. The family running the room treats the place like their own kitchen, sending out fruit and a shot of raki at the end without being asked.
Mesdheu is a Mediterranean restaurant and lounge in the heart of Sarandë, built around a lush, plant-filled garden terrace with a bright coastal look. The kitchen keeps to fresh Mediterranean cooking, from grilled octopus, garden salads and seafood to all-day brunch plates, served from morning through late evening.
Why We Love It
Tucked among banana palms and bougainvillea, the garden feels like a green pocket of the Riviera, glowing with lamps and string lights after dark. The charred octopus and the generous brunch make it as easy to settle in for a long lunch as for a slow dinner.
Harmony is a chef-owned contemporary restaurant at the quiet southern end of Sarandë, set in a whitewashed, Cycladic-style house with a plant-filled terrace. The menu is modern Mediterranean with a seafood focus: ceviche, tartares, slow-cooked meats and composed desserts, plated with care and paired with a considered wine list.
Why We Love It
Whitewashed walls, rattan chairs and cactus pots set a calm, island mood that feels a world away from the busy seafront a few streets below. The cooking is precise and pretty on the plate, which makes this the address in Sarandë for a slow, grown-up dinner.
Limani is a family-run waterfront bar and restaurant on the harbour promenade in Sarandë, started in 1998 as a small cafe by the port. Open from breakfast until late, it serves grilled fish and seafood, pasta, risotto and pizza at tables set along the water with the bay and the fishing boats in view.
Why We Love It
The tables sit so close to the water that the boats bobbing in the harbour feel like part of the room, and the promenade drifts past all day. It is the kind of easygoing seaside spot where a morning coffee turns into grilled fish at lunch, with friendly service and fair prices for the location.
Manxurane is an all-day restaurant and wine bar on Rruga Butrinti in Sarandë, moving from Albanian breakfasts of petulla and farm eggs to Italian pasta, meat and seafood dishes and sharing boards of local cheeses and cured meats. The list leans on Albanian wines alongside international bottles, served in a homely room dressed in embroidered textiles and a leafy street-side terrace.
Why We Love It
There is a homely, lived-in feel to the place, with patterned cushions, mountain-herb tea in the morning and a glass of Albanian wine by evening. A bowl of paccheri with seafood or a plate of slow-cooked meat over saffron risotto is the sort of food that makes you settle in rather than move on.
Pizza Savos is a small, family-run pizzeria in central Sarandë, a short walk from the seafront. The menu is built around thin-crust pizzas baked to order, alongside grilled pitas, sandwiches and fresh salads, with delivery available across town.
Why We Love It
A generous pizza, a cold drink and a table by the open front is the whole idea here, and it works. Prices stay honest, portions stay big, and the locals who fill the place most evenings are the best sign that the kitchen is consistent.
Oda e Babes is a traditional Albanian restaurant in the centre of Sarandë, run alongside a small family guesthouse. The dining rooms are dressed like an old village oda, with woven textiles, copper pans and family photographs, and the kitchen serves home-style classics such as tavë kosi, fërgesë and generous sharing platters of meze.
Why We Love It
The meze tray arrives first, a dozen little bowls of pickles, dips and fried bites that cover the table before the mains even show up. Between the folk textiles, the Albanian and Greek music and a host who likes to explain each dish, dinner here feels like being welcomed into someone's home.
Italian Mattarello is an Italian-owned pizzeria and street-food spot on the seafront at the southern end of Sarandë's promenade, run by a family whose pizza and panzerotti business dates back to 1958 in Puglia. Wood-fired pizzas, panzerotti, baked pasta and bruschette are made with ingredients brought in from southern Italy, and the open terrace faces the bay across the road.
Why We Love It
The pizza comes out blistered and thin from the oven, the panzerotti taste like Puglia, and the owners greet regulars by name from morning coffee until the last late-night slice. Tables under the palms with the bay turning pink at sunset make this an easy, unpretentious favourite on the Sarandë seafront.
Black Marlin is a fish restaurant in Sarandë, open since 2022 and known for wild-caught Ionian seafood. The kitchen grills whole fish and octopus and serves seafood pasta and risotto, including a house paccheri in truffle cream with prawns, in a sleek dining room that spills onto a street terrace.
Why We Love It
The whole grilled fish comes to the table simply dressed with lemon and olive oil, which is exactly what wild catch this fresh deserves. Portions are generous, the octopus is charred and tender, and the terrace fills up early on summer evenings, so arrive with time to spare.
