6 Best Restaurants in Rhodes and the Dodecanese, Greece

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.

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.

This is a fantastic little Greek bakery filled with myriad honey-soaked and cheese-covered treats, ranging from baklava to bagel-style kalouri and pizza-like peinirli. It's perfect for a midmorning snack or lunchtime treat.

The most popular hangout in town serves homemade ice cream by day and cocktails by night in the cool, blue-cushioned interior and pebbled courtyard as well as on the rooftop terrace of a sea captain's house.

Occupying the same spot in the New Market since 1946, this traditional café has been trendily face-lifted but stays true to its roots with a menu of salty snacks, sticky sweets, and more substantial seafood dishes. Plenty of dishes here are homemade, laced with specialist local ingredients. It has an excellent value-to-quality ratio and is a hit while in this part of town.