Tholos Restaurant

A two-storey Greek courtyard, candlelit and arranged for music, is not the room an Ontario ski village trains you to expect at the base of its hills. Tholos builds exactly that. The Greek-Mediterranean restaurant occupies the heart of Blue Mountain Village, laid out as three intimate dining rooms and a large bar around a courtyard-style centre, and it runs dinner as an occasion rather than a stop between runs. Everything about the layout points one direction — toward a long, shared table and an evening built to last.

The menu opens on mezze and asks the table to share. Saganaki arrives first for most groups, Vlahotiri cheese flamed with ouzo and meant to be split before anything else lands. Around it sit housemade dips and pita, fried calamari, and the grilled octopus that gives the kitchen its coastal edge — Santorini fava, capers, shallot, dill, and fingerling potatoes on one plate. The mains hold the Greek line without narrowing it. Moussaka layers lamb, beef, eggplant, potato, and bechamel into the menu's comfort anchor; New Zealand lamb loin chops and a full rack of lamb cover the grill; and the seafood tagliatelle pulls shrimp, calamari, mussels, bay scallop, olive, sundried tomato, and myzithra through white wine. Chicken souvlaki and a falafel-and-quinoa plate give cautious and vegetarian diners an easy way in.