113 Best Restaurants in Greece

One of the best brunch spots in Athens, this cosmopolitan space has won international awards for its coffee roastery and baristas. A beautifully restored Neoclassical building with an airy atrium and a large outdoor yard is the perfect place on pretty pedestrian Iraklidon Street to start the day’s expeditions in the shadow of the Acropolis. The coffee is famously good, roasted daily at their factory in Gazi, and available to take home for home brewing, but the bar mixes a fine cocktail, too.  

Enjoy a cappuccino and an Italian panini standing inside Cafe Da Capo, or if you have more time, watch the world go by at an outside table. This place is usually packed with trendsetters and stern policymakers.

A cheeky backyard cantina with festival vibes, fairy lights, and colorful barrels, Gialantra is a late-night magnet. It serves up grilled meatballs with tzalafouti, decadent hot dogs, and creative twists like vegan mushroom-truffle ragù rigatoni. Set against a 1920s facade, it serves a lively crowd until the early hours with ice cream, fish-and-chips, and frozen margaritas on tap. Co-founded by chef Gogó Delogianni, it’s equal parts whimsy and substance.

Opposite Avli, and part of the same stable, on one of Rethmynon's myriad pretty walkways, this is a modern reinvention of the classic Greek rakadiko—a place to eat small plates and drink raki. Don't assume the food is an afterthought to drinking, though, this is top-quality mezedes. Plates come thick and fast; it's food to be shared. Think imaginative Cretan tapas—sutzuki (spicy beef sausage), askolymbri (marinated hand-picked mountain greens), pastourma (crispy spiced pork cigar rolls), and hot feta with caramelized figs. It's relaxed dining, in a stylish setting reminiscent of an old grocery store, and perfect for a group of friends.

Elegant Aeglí Zappiou, an excellent, classic spot for a Greek coffee and bites experience, was reopened recently after an impressive renovation on its interiors that have now turned it into a classy venue for a multitude of events. Inside the Zappeion park that borders the National Garden and next to the open air Aigli cinema, it sprawls among fountains and flowering trees offering tranquility. It's an ideal spot to have a work meeting, read your book or relax with friends, and the restaurant serves a quality array of Greek and international dishes.

Popular among locals, this venerable Turkish-Greek joint has a catch-all menu that hits every comfort-food high note. Zucchini flowers filled with lip-smacking Greek cheese, aubergines bursting with meat, and filling pastitsio complement a vast choice of souvlakis and Turkish-style kebabs.

Confections oozing syrup, loukoumades, and a perfectly classic assortment of gelato flavors make a pit stop at this old-fashioned sweet shop a must in the late afternoon.

Housed in an 18th-century fortress at Mikro Kamini, Castello offers sophisticated Mediterranean dishes, including seafood, premium beef cuts, and signature carpaccio and tartare. Enjoy fine dining paired with magnificent sea views from terraces overlooking the beach.

This beautifully designed patisserie offers a range of delicious bijou creations that look like works of art. Gorgeous and chic, they are the best sweet treats on the island and would not look out of place in a Parisian boutique. A breezy shaded terrace with views is a great place to take a break and indulge yourself.

Talented pastry chef Lefteris Kokonas makes a point of only making small batches of his delicious creations, thus ensuring everything in his display cases is as fresh as possible. The 10-minute walk from the beachfront is well rewarded—this is patisserie as an art form.

The life-size black-and-white cow outside tells you that you have arrived at the best ice cream shop on the island. Made from Syros milk by an Italian ice-cream maker, funky flavors exist alongside the classics.

Descend into the rustic interior of this bakery and you will feel like you have stepped back in time; Gioras dates back to the 18th century and is the oldest working wood-fired bakery in the Cyclades. Take a couple of pies for the beach, or sit with a coffee and a slice of baklava and breathe in the history.

In-the-know locals will patiently queue here to get their fill of a fantastic, freshly made sandwich stuffed with deli ingredients of their choice. This small, family-run 1980s place is both vintage and progressive, and despite its huge fan base remains completely unpretentious. Choose among ingredients like cheeses, chutneys, cold cuts, pickled or marinated vegetables, and seafood to create the sandwich of your dreams, made with fresh artisanal bread. You can also buy fresh salads and freshly pressed fruit and vegetable juices.

An ice-cream workshop (dare we say laboratory) and store, Kokkion is the brainchild of a Cordon Bleu patissiere and serves ice cream like no other in Athens. The parlor uses only superfresh ingredients like cow's milk from a small farm in northern Greece, high-quality French chocolate, and homemade caramel, seasonings, and flavorings. Most exciting of all are the unique flavors, like milk chocolate with orange and pepper and coconut sorbet with chocolate steamed biscuit and chocolate pieces, as well as classics like bitter chocolate, salted caramel, and vanilla. Lactose-free vegan options are available, too.

A favorite stop in Chios Town is this cool ice-cream shop that has been making its best-selling ice cream for nearly 100 years. It is open from 10 in the morning until 10 at night and it is always busy. The praline is famed, but new flavors are given a trial every month and you have to try the mastica when in Chios.

Try (and probably get addicted to) one of Greece's most popular and traditional desserts—loukoumades. These doughnutlike balls are deep-fried, then stuffed and slathered with an impressively enormous variety of delicious fillings and toppings. You can sit at the bench outside to feast on your selected sweets, or take them to go. The dough is freshly prepared every day using quality ingredients, as are the sauces and toppings that are sprinkled over them.

At the back of the Anargyreos and Korgialenios School, overlooking Kaiki beach and the waters beyond, sits this lovely pine-shaded café. Named after the John Fowles classic (Fowles was a teacher at the school back in the day), the Magus Art Cafe is set in the school's beautiful gardens. The coffee is good, the snacks decent, and the cocktails satisfactory but these consumables are merely a secondary reason to spend a few magical hours here.

The coffee here is pretty special, but what really steals the show are the delightful desserts. Treat yourself to one of the maison speciality waffles, the honey-soaked French toast, a chocolate cheesecake, or the deconstructed banoffee pie (a British pie made from bananas, cream, and caramel), all with an innovative twist inspired by pastry chef Dionisis Alertas. If you're feeling peckish you can grab a serving of the gastro-fare dished out here, more at home in a fine dining establishment than a café.

A short walk through Isternia's mazelike streets leads to an unexpected terrace in the shade of a plane tree that overlooks the Aegean. Sitting here makes you understand how the gods must have felt, idly toying with the people below. Grab a table at the front if you can, order a spritzer and soak in the rays of the dying sun—the view is one of the best in the islands, a pure blue wall of sea and sky.

Though an increasing number of restaurants are catering to vegans and vegetarians these days on the island, restaurants where you can find truly outstanding such dishes are thin on the ground. This ingenious restaurant rises to that occasion. The soy-and-lentil moussaka is as light and cheesy as anything you'll ever taste, which accompanies an ever-changing menu of bites and larger dishes, most with a Middle Eastern influence.

Just around the headland west of Yialos harbor, Paradeisos nestles next to the closest stretch of beach to town, where it rents loungers for €5 a day and offers an array of water sports plus chilled beers, snacks, and dips, and even a small library of tattered paperbacks for beach reading.

Totem poles, colorful coconut lamps, tiki masks, and a raffia roof make this beach bar endearing in its evocation of the South Pacific, as if the setting wasn't transporting enough. Serving omelets, fruits, yogurt, and sweet Greek coffee for breakfast, the rest of the day runs an eclectic Asian-Mexican menu, alongside pasta and pizzas. Loved for over 25 years, it attracts a bohemian crowd who appreciate the diverse soundtrack and cracking cocktails.

From flaky, buttery croissants to eggs Benedict on smoked salmon-covered brioche to many more sinful and super-satisfying bites and top-quality coffee blends, this is the ideal stop for a leisurely morning start or a quick, delicious escape from the city's frenetic pace.

On a tiny pedestrian street a block back from the harbor, sweet sorcery takes place. Extraordinary creations are offered; minitarts, macarons, and éclairs that would grace the finest Parisian patisserie. The pastries are beautifully presented and look like they belong on a Michelin-starred dessert menu. Tea and coffee is served in fine china; choose the charming interior or the alleyway tables but be prepared for serious cake envy from passersby.

There's a lot of fun to be had at this lively taverna, where tsipouro is more the order of the day than its wide range of gyros and souvlaki dishes. That said, its food is plentiful and delicious—and if you're lucky, your visit will coincide with a set from its resident three-piece rembetika band, who really get things going.

This old-school café is a hit among locals, who come for the homemade karydopita (a deliciously syrupy local walnut cake). This is best washed down with a cup of traditional Greek coffee and preceded by a delicious zucchini pie.

Aqua Marina is an old favorite among locals. It's hard to resist its list of sweet treats, from a huge wedge of tasty baklava to a great splodge of galaktoboureko, a custardy classic topped in filo pastry and sweet-scented syrup. Stick to the desserts though—the savory stuff is a bit overpriced.

Famously known as Zonars until falling into new ownership recently, Athenee is one of Athens's most established and elegant restaurant-cafés, where a multitude of international film stars, academics, and politicians have sipped their coffee since 1939. Located on the cosmopolitan Voukourestiou street, the plush Art Deco decor, elegant atmosphere, and sophisticated crowd create a feeling of nostalgic old-style luxury combined with modern urban liveliness. Throughout the day Athenee caters to all culinary desires, offering plush brunches, modern Greek dishes, exciting varieties of sushi, mouthwatering pastries, and perfectly mixed cocktails.