Eating our way around Greece

jalapeno_pretzel · Jul 3, 2023

Back from a couple weeks in Greece, and I thought I would share some of the food we had. I am loving the food in FL trip report, and I've never tried to do a trip report, so I'm going to give it a go. I didn't get a picture of every single dish, and at some point it gets a little redundant (Greek salad, pizza, pasta, souvlaki), so I'll skip over some anyway. I also am not sure of all the restaurant names ... I had really good intentions starting out, and was keeping a little notebook, but after a few days I kind of started skipping it. Traveling are me, DH, and 2 teenage kids.

The first day, we landed in Athens in the late morning, and got a cab to our hotel, which was right in the middle of the tourist area ... very walkable, and easy to get to many of the sites we wanted to see. We checked in, dropped off our luggage, and went out for a late lunch. We were all exhausted, so we took the first place that caught our eye, Quick Pita. We sat outside (as we did for nearly all our meals in Greece). Really enjoyed this meal, however, it did take a long time ... we quickly learned you have to flag the waiter down if you want attention, and this was the case everywhere we ate in Greece.

Chicken Skewer

Chicken Souvlaki - this was the only one on the trip that came rolled up like this - everywhere else they were all separate and you could assemble them in a wrap if you wanted or just eat the items individually.

The first Greek salad of the trip!

Bruschetta

We had another Greek salad in there, and I had a shrimp tempura appetizer that isn't pictured.
Kids went back for a little nap while DH and I wandered a bit, taking in some sights and drinks. It was warm, and the cold Mythos beer was perfect.

Random gelato pic ... we didn't get this but we did have some the next day.

Dinner that evening was at our hotel at their rooftop restaurant/bar.
I had a trio of dips - hummus, fava bean, and a roasted red pepper dip I think.

Not pictured at the evening meal was a burger & fries, Greek salad, Greek Meatballs, and multiple orders of bread.

The hotel restaurant was really good, and had a beautiful view of the Acropolis. We would end up eating there one more time during our stay in Athens.

tarheelmjfan · Jul 3, 2023

Great start to your review. I'm looking forward to reading more.

jalapeno_pretzel · Jul 4, 2023

I didn't take pictures of any of the hotel breakfasts - I had booked places where that was included every morning. But, they were all fantastic, with slices of cheese, meats, eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, yogurt with tons of things to add - dried fruits, jams, honey, nuts, spanakopita, all kinds of cakes and pastries, juices - sometimes fresh squeezed, and fresh fruit.

Our first full day we had a guided tour of the Agora, Acropolis museum, and Acropolis. This was really good, but also a long day with lots of crowds. We didn't stop for lunch, so it was a good thing we had filled up for breakfast. After the tour, we went for a late lunch around 3pm at a restaurant near the hotel called Kitro.

Greek salad (and pepperoni pizza in the background - the kids had pizzas fairly often, and all of them were amazing)

Gyros

And I had dips again .. tzatziki, fava bean, and a fish roe

After this, we rested, and I took the kids out for gelato around 7pm. (Salty caramel for me, chocolate, and cookies & cream for the kids). We were still full from lunch, still recovering from jet lag, and no one wanted to go back out, so we snacked on some fresh fruit we had bought earlier, and made it an early night.

The next day we had a sailing trip where they served lunch on the boat. This was Greek salad, bread, beans, potatoes, and pasta. They had chicken and pork, but I'm pescetarian, so those aren't on my plate.

It was a long day and we had lunch back at the rooftop restaurant of the hotel.

I had a couscous/quinoa salad that was incredible. It had this cream cheese with cranberries on top that was unusual but worked really well.

Bruschetta

Chicken souvlaki (there were 2 of these)

The next morning we would be heading out of Athens!

jalapeno_pretzel · Jul 9, 2023

We picked up our rental car and headed out of Athens. It was a little stressful driving, but I soon got the hang of it. We stopped at Ancient Corinth for lunch. We could see the ruins from our restaurant, but it was really hot and we still had a while to drive, so we didn't actually go in to see them.

View from restaurant:

Yemistas .. stuffed vegetables:

Greek salad. Notice none of the Greek salads ever have any lettuce in them. It's all tomato, cucumber, pepper(sometimes), feta, onion, olives, and olive oil/capers/herbs.

Chicken souvlaki.

We arrived at Nafplio and dinner was just DH and I. I had ceviche and he had grilled tuna. Both were fantastic. When we paid the bill they gave us a complementary house shot of something. Apparently this is a thing, because from here on out, most of the restaurants gave us either a complimentary shot, or a complimentary dessert. Neither of us could tell what it was, but it was really smooth.

Ceviche:

Grilled tuna:

Nafplio:

limace · Jul 13, 2023

Those Greek salad pics sure take me back-we spent a few days in Athens before two weeks sailing in the Dodecanese Islands when we were first dating and make Greek salads like that-no lettuce, big chunk of feta and dried oregano-to this day. The best.

dvcgirl67 · Jul 13, 2023

The food looks good!

How was the weather when you visited....particularly temperatures. I'm seeing that Southern Europe is in for an epic heat wave....temps of 111 degrees (before heat index), all kinds of records are going to be broken. I've never been to Greece, but have been to Italy where they're going to see similar temps this week. I can't imagine being in Rome in that kind of heat....it's all stone and it would just be unbearable. Also, can't imagine even wanting to eat all of the delicious food and drink red wine in those conditions. We've never been in the summer....only fall and spring, but can't imagine it.

jalapeno_pretzel · Jul 14, 2023

We were there in mid-June ... we left as soon as we could once school was out because I knew it would only be getting hotter and more crowded later in the summer. High temps ranged from lower 80s to lower 90s towards the end of our trip. I checked just the other day and saw Athens is in for 104/105 temps this weekend! I can't imagine it that hot - I don't think we would be able to do much at all in that kind of heat. It was already too much some of our days. It's not just the heat there, but the sun feels extra intense. We were lucky to have some cloud cover occasionally. We also had some cooler than normal weather in Delphi ... it was drizzling and windy and actually kind of chilly when we started our tour that morning. The guide said it had been unusual for that time of year.

The restaurants were mostly all outside, but it was really pleasant in the shade, and most of them had fans going also. We quickly got into a pattern where we would do most of our touring first thing in the morning into early afternoon, sit down for a late lunch, and then rest for a while in the hottest part of the mid-late afternoon. Sometimes we weren't going to dinner until 8:30 or so, and it was much more pleasant temps then.

jalapeno_pretzel · Jul 14, 2023

Our first full day in Nafplio, we headed out early for Epidavros, about a 30 minute drive away, to see ruins and a small museum. The amphitheater is still in use. It wasn't crowded at all at first, but as we were leaving the tour buses were starting to arrive, so we were glad to have been there early.

Back to Nafplio and found a lunch spot at the harbor area.

Another Greek salad:

Couscous salad … this was delicious:

Pizza:

Sea bass:

We rested for awhile, got gelato for the kids, looked in some shops. The kids wanted to relax for awhile in the hotel, so DH and I walked to a nearby beach and back. We went out for a late dinner and chose an Italian place near the water front.

I had linguini with shrimp:

The kids had pasta, DH had some kind of chicken, and then for dessert we received a complimentary panna cotta. I don't normally like desserts like this - something about the texture - but it was really delicious!

The following day was a full day sail out of Nafplio, and I didn't get pictures of the lunch they served. It was a really great day. We anchored in 3 spots and they had water noodles and a stand up paddle board. The water was cold but really refreshing. For dinner we shared 2 pizzas, and then we received complimentary shots .. limoncello for the adults, and pineapple/grenadine for the kids. I think we wandered around after dinner and found more gelato for the kids.

BrianL · Jul 14, 2023

Oh man, you're making me hungry! I love Greek food!

dvcgirl67 · Jul 14, 2023

jalapeno_pretzel said:
We were there in mid-June ... we left as soon as we could once school was out because I knew it would only be getting hotter and more crowded later in the summer. High temps ranged from lower 80s to lower 90s towards the end of our trip. I checked just the other day and saw Athens is in for 104/105 temps this weekend! I can't imagine it that hot - I don't think we would be able to do much at all in that kind of heat. It was already too much some of our days. It's not just the heat there, but the sun feels extra intense. We were lucky to have some cloud cover occasionally. We also had some cooler than normal weather in Delphi ... it was drizzling and windy and actually kind of chilly when we started our tour that morning. The guide said it had been unusual for that time of year.

The restaurants were mostly all outside, but it was really pleasant in the shade, and most of them had fans going also. We quickly got into a pattern where we would do most of our touring first thing in the morning into early afternoon, sit down for a late lunch, and then rest for a while in the hottest part of the mid-late afternoon. Sometimes we weren't going to dinner until 8:30 or so, and it was much more pleasant temps then.

I'm glad you had temps that you could navigate. I'd have a tough time with temps in the 100's in Europe, because as you said, lots of restaurants are indoor/outdoor...open to air. I haven't been in the summer but I'd imagine that the A/C isn't super cool in a lot of the restaurants we've been in. I'm sure we'd enjoy a beach-resort European vacation though...so that's doable in high temps for sure.

Your plan to eat later makes sense....that's a nice time of night. Really enjoying the food pics!

jalapeno_pretzel · Jul 16, 2023

We left Nafplio and it was about a 4 hour drive to Delphi, not including a couple of stops along the way. We opted for a longer route because I wanted to drive around the Gulf of Corinth rather than come back around Athens. There's a pretty big highway for the southern part, but it was clear that we would need to get off that and drive the smaller roads to find a good lunch spot. I'm not sure what town we were in, but it was on the southern side of the Gulf when we stopped. There were orange trees all around the restaurant, and we had a fantastic meal.

This doesn't look appetizing, but it was incredible. It's a roasted eggplant stewed with onion and tomato. It just melted in my mouth and had such a great flavor. I'm going to have to work on recreating this. It was way up there on the list of my favorite foods I had in Greece. We also all had fresh squeezed lemonade that was so refreshing.

Lamb & fries ...

We crossed a big bridge spanning the gulf, and started back eastward toward Delphi. It got pretty rainy during the afternoon part of our drive. But we made it to Delphi around 4pm, and a few minutes after checking into our room, someone came up with a complimentary bottle of wine. Delphi is a small little mountain town. The tourist area was really just on two streets, and it was about a 10 minute walk to the ruins (which we would do the next day). There were great views everywhere, of both the mountains and out to the Gulf of Corinth.

That evening we went to a restaurant across the street recommended by the hotel.
Fried squid. I saved a few pieces of this to feed the street cats later - there were tons of cats everywhere we went.

Some kind of stewed lamb dish:

Another Greek salad:

Complimentary chocolate cake. The kids had already headed back to the hotel by the time this was served. Their loss, it was delicious!

AndreaDM · Jul 18, 2023

This all looks amazing! DH turns 50 in November and is trying to decide what to do, we'd both rather travel than have a party. We did 10 days in Italy for my 50th, and he's about 90% convinced he wants to go to Greece for his, and I'm sure if I show him these photos it'll be 100%! I'm just wondering about the weather in mid-November. Did you go to any of the islands?

Also, were the prices of meals comparable to the US? I have recently read where it was less expensive than Spain, so I was curious.

mickey916 · Jul 18, 2023

Thank you for posting! All the food looks amazing!

Gr8t Fan · Jul 18, 2023

Loving this trip report! Thanks for sharing.

jalapeno_pretzel · Jul 18, 2023

We spent the next morning touring the museum and archeological site at Delphi. Our guide was really great showing us interesting things in the museum and explaining all about the Oracle of Delphi and how that all worked. We loved the ruins and mountain views. We got an early start, and nothing was too crowded, though it was definitely getting busier and hotter by the time we were finishing up.

We had lunch at a restaurant back near our hotel. Here was our lunch time view ...

And some of the food ...
These were pea croquettes with an onion jam. They were so good.

We had to get grape leaves at some point in the trip!

We also had a couple of Greek salads, chicken souvlaki, another lamb casserole type dish. Then came the desserts. This was the chocolate cake, but it was more like yellow cake with a chocolate mousse topping.

And complimentary baklava, which was amazing:

Some of the cat friends we made. There were cats all over the place. Someone had set out bowls of food and water for them in the background. My animal loving kids were so excited about all of the cats.

jalapeno_pretzel · Jul 18, 2023

AndreaDM said:
This all looks amazing! DH turns 50 in November and is trying to decide what to do, we'd both rather travel than have a party. We did 10 days in Italy for my 50th, and he's about 90% convinced he wants to go to Greece for his, and I'm sure if I show him these photos it'll be 100%! I'm just wondering about the weather in mid-November. Did you go to any of the islands?

Also, were the prices of meals comparable to the US? I have recently read where it was less expensive than Spain, so I was curious.

It was definitely an incredible trip. I think it would be really nice to go at a cooler and less busy time of year. We did go to one of the islands ... coming up soon!

The meals were less pricey than US, but they weren't exactly inexpensive. Of course, we were mainly in tourist areas, so things could have probably been found cheaper. Also, we encouraged the kids to try things, and weren't stressed if they didn't like it and needed something else. My youngest is apparently growing, and frequently would order 2 items. I think most meals were in the $60-$100 range for 4 of us, and that was almost always including a bottle of wine at dinner.

tarheelmjfan · Jul 18, 2023

Sounds like a great trip. The food looks delicious. The other photos are gorgeous too.

E&Cmom · Jul 18, 2023

Looks wonderful! Following along as Greece is my bucket list trip and hoping to do it in 3 years for our 25th anniversary.

jalapeno_pretzel · Jul 19, 2023

We had pizzas and pasta to round out our final evening in Delphi. (As much pizza and pasta as we consumed, perhaps a future trip should be to Italy).

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel, drove back to the Athens airport (about 2.5 hours), returned the rental car, and flew to the island of Naxos, in the Cyclades island group. It was only about a 40 minute flight. The Cyclades also contain the more famous islands of Santorini and Mykonos, but I opted for Naxos. Naxos is the largest in the group, and has a nice balance of beaches, mountainous areas, and the old town was beautiful. We were at a hotel on the beach, about a 10 minute walk to the old town/harbor area.

Quick flight to Naxos:

We wandered around and found a dinner spot - I think the name of the restaurant was Oasis.
Another Greek Salad:

More fried squid:

There were also some pastas and some sea bass.

It was a little hectic and stressful dealing with the airport and getting to Naxos, but once there it was very relaxing, and I'm glad we included it. It had a much different vibe than the mainland parts of the trip.