Restaurant Near Ancient Side & the Harbour: Eat Inside History

Most restaurants have a location. Side's old town restaurants have a setting: streets the Romans laid, the Apollo Temple catching fire at sunset, the old harbour where cargo once meant amphorae rather than sunbeds. Hawaii Restaurant & Bar lives in the heart of this — dinner inside an open-air museum, since 2000.

The sightseer's perfect loop

1. Late afternoon: enter the old town as day-trippers leave — the ruins soften in the lowering light.
2. Golden hour: the Temple of Apollo at sunset is the coast's most photographed moment; earn it on foot via the colonnaded street.
3. Dusk: loop the old harbour, watch the boats settle.
4. Dinner: five minutes' wander later you are at our table — no taxi, no planning, just the correct ending to the walk. (The 19:00 Happy Hour exists precisely for this arrival.)

Why old-town dining beats strip dining

• The walk is the aperitif. Amphitheatre walls and marble streets before dinner beat a hotel corridor every time.
• Real address, real accountability. Old-town restaurants live on repeat guests and reputation — 26 seasons of ours — not on passing foot traffic that never returns.
• The night continues on foot — post-dinner ruins-by-moonlight, harbour breeze, karaoke back at ours: all within the old town's embrace.

The practical old-town notes

• Staying outside the old town? Every resort area's route in is covered by the area guides — or skip logistics entirely with the free pickup.
• Sunset dinner timing: reserve for just after golden hour — you keep the temple show and the best table. Book here.
• Combining with the museum & amphitheatre: do the ticketed sites in the late afternoon, then the free show (temple, harbour, dinner) after. Correct order, maximum magic.