Food: Dishes

Warning: this page includes images of meat dishes.

• Appetisers & sides
• Main dishes
  • Vegetarian
  • Cooked meat
  • Souvlakia
• Desserts

Regardless of the food place, during your stay in Greece, you may want to try out the following dishes:

Appetisers & sides

Tzatziki: the most popular Greek dip, made of thick yogurt, garlic, cucumber, olive oil, and vinegar.

Taramosalata (or taramas): a fish roe dip blended with olive oil and potato or bread. It has a particularly strong taste, pink or white colour, and it is rich in protein and Omega-3.

Dolmadakia (or dolmades): hand-rolled parcels of rice and herbs wrapped in vine leaves.

Keftedakia (or keftedes): small fried meatballs made of beef, seasoned with oregano, onion, garlic, and parsley or spearmint.

Pies: savoury pastries with thick or crispy filo and a large variety of content. They come with:

• feta cheese ("tiropita")
• spinach ("spanakopita")
• spinach & feta ("spanakotiropita")
• weeds/herbs ("hortopita")
• mushrooms ("manitaropita")
• gourd ("kolokithopita"—slightly sweet this one)
• chicken ("kotopita")
• minced meat ("kimadopita").

Main dishes

Vegetarian

Gemista: peppers and tomatoes in the oven, stuffed with rice and herbs, is one of the Greek's favourite traditional dishes. It can include minced meat, but the most common is the vegetarian version.

Cooked meat

Papoutsakia (translated: "little shoes"): eggplants stuffed with meat, cooked in tomato sauce, and covered in béchamel.

Pastitsio: baked pasta dish made with layers of macaroni, minced beef in a tomato sauce, and topped with creamy béchamel.

Moussaka: classic dish in layers of potatoes (optional), eggplant, ground beef in tomato sauce, and béchamel sauce on top. Cooked in the oven and a favourite of many.

Lahanodolmades: cabbage leaves stuffed with minced beef and rice, with "avgolemono"—a delicious, thick sauce of egg and lemon.

Kleftiko: slow-cooked lamb dish, typically seasoned with garlic, onion, and oregano, and served over potatoes and vegetables. The slow cooking makes the meat extra tender, almost melting in your mouth.

Souvlakia

When a Greek says, "let's eat souvlakia," they mean a variety of grilled meat dishes:

• souvlaki: diced pork (or chicken) on a small wooden skewer
• gyros: pork (or chicken) grilled on a vertical rotisserie, then cut in thick juicy flakes
• kebab: spicy mixture of ground lamb and beef meat, grilled on a small metallic skewer.

Any of the three can be served as:

• pieces (with lemon and bread)
• portions on a plate (usually with pita bread, tomato, tzatziki or sauce, fried potatoes, and lots of raw onion rings with parsley on the side)
• wrapped in a pita bread that also contains tomato, tzatziki or sauce, raw onion & parsley, and—optionally—fried potatoes.

Desserts

Syropiasta: a whole family of syrupy sweets. The most common are galaktoboureko (a syrupy semolina custard pie, with a delicate rosewater flavor and a filo pastry shell), baklava (filo-wrapped walnut pieces, with syrup and cinammon---sometimes with pistachio, too), and kataifi (walnuts wrapped with a characteristic dough that ressembles grandma's hair, soaked in syrup).

Loukoumades: Greek doughnuts. Fried dough balls drenched in syrup, topped with walnuts and cinnamon.

Now, see our recommendations on restaurants, taverns, and coffee shops.