Kos with Kids - Ikos Aria Food Review


Birthday Cake 
For me, travel is all about food. Whenever I plan a trip, after booking flights and hotels the next thing on my list is food. When your travel all inclusive the research element is removed, which for me is half the fun but having access to delicious food 24 hours a day makes up for it. There is often a misconception that if you go to an All Inclusive Resort you will have to eat the same food in the same buffet every evening, but if you do your research and pick the right hotel this does not have to be the case. Ikos Aria is a perfect example of an all inclusive with lots of different restaurants and food options available. With eight restaurants in total, plus 3 dine out experiences, pool and beach menus plus 24 hour room service; you really are spoilt for choice. Overall I thought the food quality was expectional, we really enjoyed all of our meals with some being stand out favourites.



In terms of drinks, over the last 5 years or so I have always either been growing babies inside me (preganant) or outside of me (breastfeeding), so I have not been able to drink much. This time though I was free and really enjoyed all the drinks on offer. Fresh orange juice, expertly made coffees, cold beers, delicious cocktails and well matched wine was often how our day went. The lobby bar was always lovely after dinner and during the day we loved the pool and beach pool bars.
Sparking Rose in Kos, Ikos Aria
Example of wine menus


Example of wine menus


My review of all the restaurants we visited whilst at Ikos Aria.

Latte at Ouzo, Ikos Aria


Flavours

Breakfast - the only buffet option for breakfast and actually only dined here once, all other restaurants open for breakfast have a smaller buffet selection plus a la carte menu. 
Great selection of food items including fresh fruits, cheese and meats, fresh juices, hot food and eggs made to order. 
Lunch - A similar selection to breakfast, with main hot dishes, freshly made pizza, build your own pasta bar and grilled meats and fish. The highlight though was the dessert table. Amazing pastry chefs who created lots of magic on that table. We popped in here twice for lunch when we wanted a quick bite.
Breakfast at Flavours
Dinner - We only went once, on our last day just before we checked out and the selection for mains was very akin to lunch. In addition they also had a kids corner of food set up with nuggets, chips etc.

Breakfast at Flavours
All about balance
Unless it is your birthday - then all the deser


Kos

My ultimate favourite restaurant of all at Ikos Aria. I loved the views, all of the staff were great, the ambience and decor looked as if the whole place was a magazine and the food for all three meals of the day was always perfect.
Breakfast -The eggs benedict with smoked salmon on top of courgette fritters was delicious followed by the french toast smothered in honey, bananas and chocolate.
Lunch - We had our last lunch meal here and it did not disappoint, the kids had soft kotfe with a side of chips and we shared a delicious fattoush salad with chicken soulakvi and koftes too. Followed by a desert of Greek bakalava with ice cream.
Breakfast at Kos
Breakfast at Kos
Dinner - Not only was the food and drink great but so were the staff, from getting us blankets for a sleeping Big Bubs to picking up their constantly dropping building blocks and for us, always making sure our glasses were filled with wine.



Breakfast at Kos
Dinner at Kos
Dinner at Kos
Dinner at Kos







Dinner at Kos
Dinner at Kos
Birthday Breakfast
Leaving Lunch
Leaving Lunch


Fresco

Breakfast - At all the restaurants when you sit down the chef will send out a small tasting dish, for breakfast here they served mascapone cream with freshly baked biscotti, it tasted divine with my morning coffee before I had even started breakfast.
Lunch - We only came here once for lunch on a date with just me and Big Bubs, shared a kids pizza and the mushroom pasta along with the chocolate fondant for pudding - which although delicious was more like a brownie than a fondant.
Breakfast at Fresca
Dinner - We had dinner here on the first evening after just landing and it was good, but not my favourite. I think the pizza and pasta dishes are a lot nicer than the meat and fish. Desert however was the best part, a tiramisu cannoli - combining the best part of both deserts, I would love to recreate this at home.
Dinner after a day of travelling 











Anaya


Dinner - Asian food is one of my favourite cuisines, so we saved this restaurant especially for my birthday. We ordered a duck salad and spring rolls to start and for the kids I ordered from the adults menu again - chicken noodles and egg fried rice which they really enjoyed. For main I had a seafood thai yellow curry and Mr S ordered the duck which he really enjoyed. We spent the evening enjoying lots of sparking wine - Moscato D'Asti. A beautiful restaurant with lots of choices on the menu however there was an unfortunate error with my birthday cake that evening.









Ouzo

The only beachfront restaurant in the resort, making it very popular during the day, located at the far end of the resort in the deluxe section.
Breakfast - The views are stunning from here, however both times we went the eggs were either too over or too under. Apart from that though we really enjoyed spending lazy mornings here, especially as the kids could play on the large grass area nearby.
Amazing Views from Ouzo
Lunch - For lunch they setup a beach bbq which smells amazing, however taste wise, the meat itself was not amazing. The fresh pitas and salads were very good.






Provence

Decor wise, this was my favourite restaurant, it was very windy the evening we visited so outside was closed off, however inside had been made to recreate a jungle. It really made me feel like ordering more plants for our home. For dinner I asked the chef to create the kids a prawn pasta dish, which he really delivered on, juicy prawns in lots of butter with fresh pasta - the kids loved it.
The bread here was amazing and as our food took quite a long time to come out that evening we ended up having thirds of it, along with the french butter and salmon mouse accompaniments. For starters I had the mussels, which were so good, the chef came out later in the meal and explained they were in season at the moment hence extra large and sweet. Such a simple dish but very well done, for mains we both opted for the slow cooked beef with mash. For desert we ordered all three items that took our fancy, creme brule, strawberry tart and profiteroles - with the first being my favourite.










Oliva

The Spanish tapas restaurant which does not serve actually tapas, as in the menu has the items listed but they are served in way too large portions to be tapas, cannot complain about too much food though. The best items from here were the croquettes and the paella which both myself and the kids had. The churros were also delicious, and me the Big Bubs think ourselves churros experts these days.











Seasons


The second restaurant located in the deluxe section, one of its greatest assets being Anne - Marie at front of house.
Breakfast
Enjoyed our breakfast on both days here, fabulous service and eggs were also cooked to perfection.
Lunch is for deluxe guests only.
Dinner - this was our first dinner experience and the food was beautiful, lots of unique flavours and textures made this place very memorable. Unfortunately one of our party had a bit too much first day fun and fell asleep poolside before the evening was over.















Beach, Pool and Room Service.


The best Burger in Town
A really well rounded menu with lots of options, I feel a few more light bites and salads would take it to the next level. The quality of the food however is delicious and you could very easily enjoy lunch from either of these options. The burger and pork gyros were my favourites. An ice cream bar is available near the main beach pool bar, around 6 flavours of ice cream and 3 sorbet with a variety of toppings all served in fresh waffle cones, hard keeping the kids away from this. For desert there is an epic brownie triffle too in case desert at dinner is just not quite enough one night. Even the snacks served with the drinks to be honest were morish.











Mylotopi


Saving one of the best meals we had in Kos until the end. Mylotopi is a family run restaurant in a converted old functioning windmill. A transfer from the hotel will collect you and drive the 10 minutes up the mountain where the restaurant manager will meet you to host you for a very memorable night. As part of the evening you are given a tour of the windmill, the gardens including the resident donkey and converted rooms showing a traditional Kos village from the past. It was great to see the history and see how lovingly restored the restaurant has been to reflect the original buildings. The restaurant grows a lot of its own produce, including fresh herbs and you can definitely taste this in all of the food. The kids menu here is actually just versions of the adult mains, which for me is perfect and what a kids menu should be, they loved their fresh chicken burgers and pasta along with the home made chips ( had to order two portions of these). I had some of the tastiest prawns I have ever eaten, along with feta coated in filo drizzed with honey. For mains I enjoyed the greek style pasta and for desert the orange yoghurt cake was a must.

Not only was the food amazing but so was the service, the restaurant owner himself dropped us back to the hotel as they did not want us to rush our meal that evening in order to make the hotels return transfer. You leave feeling a real connection place with the place, despite having only spent a few hours there. I would highly recommend visiting this dine out option as part of your stay at Ikos Aria.













If you want to read more about our stay here beyond what we ate, check out my other post.

Additional posts on our trip to Greece:




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