Greek Food and Wine

By Frank Adam Burns · Updated 31 August 2026

Greek cooking is ingredient-driven rather than technique-driven, which is why it is so good in Greece and so ordinary elsewhere. Tomatoes that taste of something, olive oil pressed nearby, fish bought by weight and grilled plainly, and a table that nobody is trying to turn over.

What to eat

Start with the small plates — tzatziki, taramasalata, fava, grilled octopus, saganaki, dolmades — and order three or four between two people rather than a course each. Then grilled fish or lamb. Moussaka and pastitsio are the baked classics; souvlaki and gyros are the street food; horta, wild greens with lemon and oil, is what Greeks actually eat every day.

Dessert is usually fruit, or yoghurt with honey and walnuts. Baklava and galaktoboureko come from the pastry shop rather than the taverna.

Regional differences

Crete has its own cuisine — dakos, snails, wild greens, and raki instead of ouzo. Northern Greece around Thessaloniki is spicier and more Ottoman-influenced, with the best pies in the country. The islands are seafood-first, with each one claiming a speciality: Santorini's white aubergines and capers, Sifnos's chickpea stew, Naxos's cheese.

Greek wine is better than its reputation

Santorini's Assyrtiko is the standout — bone-dry, mineral and high-acid, grown in low basket-woven vines that survive the wind on volcanic soil. The island's wineries make an excellent half-day away from the caldera. Nemea in the Peloponnese produces structured Agiorgitiko reds within reach of Athens. Naoussa in the north grows Xinomavro, often compared to Nebbiolo. Crete has indigenous varieties — Vidiano, Liatiko — you will not find at home.

How eating out works

Lunch runs from around two, dinner rarely before nine. Bread and a cover charge appear automatically and are normal. Fish is priced by the kilo and you choose it at the counter — ask the price before it is cooked. A small carafe of house wine is usually local, cheap and perfectly good.

Tavernas that display photographs of the food or employ someone to wave you in from the street are, almost without exception, not the ones to eat at. Walk two streets back from the water.