My favourite place to eat in Crete
It is no hardship to eat well anywhere on this island. Once tasted, the local and famed foods will tempt you back – again and again. Increasingly, rather expensive and gourmet-style eateries have established themselves in the main towns on the north coast; as have foreign-style cuisines that range from Spanish to Italian to Mexican to Indian/Eastern. If one style of eating palls, another beckons!
Gastronomy one might think is a French word. However it is Greek, blending the words nomos (a custom) and the gastros(the stomach).
This below is just a small example of how the Greeks relate to food in their culture and long history. Of all the people of the Mediterranean the ones who use virgin olive oil the most and eat more farm-grown and organic components are the Cretans.
To experience the variety and possibilities one has when arriving here. I have compiled a small list of my favourite eating places from every region of the island. However, once you have tasted the different regional approaches, you really ought to experience the preparation of the food in a home with a family to fully realise the ‘stories’ behind the language of food.
Chania
Tamam, in the back streets of the Venetian harbour, was once an Ottoman bathhouse; today it is a restaurant that combines Cretan, Greek and Middle Eastern food. Crete is a crossroadsof civilizations due to its situation in the Mediterranean, so one should consider that eating is just another way of appreciating the history of the island too.
Salis, is set on the Venetian harbour front: great food with a hint of the old Serene Republic of St. Mark, fused with the local lives of the people that once lived and worked on the docks.
Kõuzina Epe, in the square of St. Nicholas’ Church of the old town of Chania, serves everyday ‘soul’ food: an easy-goingaffair with simple but good food.
Well of the Turk, just off the Splantzia area, in the back-streets of the old Venetian-Ottoman residential area, surrounded by old and magnificent structures – this serves a mix of eastern Mediterranean and North African dishes alongside native ones.
Rethymno
Cavo, one of my favourite eating places in all Greece, is situated at the best location to feast one’s eyes as well as one’s tummy – views of the Venetian Fort, the old town and at the very water’s edge. Sea food, salads, cocktails: be they experienced with gorgeous sunsets or a rising moon – it is just amazing.
Avli, 35 years of keeping up the standards of a famous establishment is not easy. A 16th century Palazzo has beenrefurbished into a beautiful boutique hotel restaurant. Here you can through the menu’s magic experience the history of food of the island until today!
Meat, fish, salads – all are organically sourced, and home-made. Centuries of history and its people can be experienced through taste.
Set in the heart of the old town of Rethymno city. Gnostosimio: one cannot visit Crete and not experience a kafeniontavern, seated amongst the locals, here within the old town.Near the church of St. Barabara, this consists of just a few tables with a limited cuisine: where one can sample salads,legumes, meat and meze.
Heraklion
Apiri, an eatery with a creative cuisine with only local organicproduce from their own farm products. This lies in the neighbourhood of the church of St.Minas. It reminds me of a Parisian-style eatery, but with Greek portions and prices.
Antipodas, near the Archeological museum of Heraklion in a back street, is great for meat, meze, salads, vegetables. ACretan taverna that the locals enjoy to eat in, with friends and family.
Ippocampos, a sea-food taverna on the sea front by the port of Heraklion, the oldest sea food restaurant, hugely frequentedby the locals of Heraklion. Fresh fish of the day and loads of salads and meze.
Agios Nikolaos
Giovani at Plaka, Elounda, is a sea food restaurant visited frequently by the jet-set that stays in Elounda from all over the world. Sea food and a great view of the Venetian islandfort of Spinalonga.
Kohilias, at the small beautiful fishing village of Mochlos, serves fresh sea food and salads. It is situated opposite the tiny island of Mochlos, a famed Minoan settlement. The village lies a bit out of the way to the east of Agios Nikolaos, but is a popular summer destination.
Hiona, close to Palaikastro on the eastern tip of Crete, set on an isolated spot and once again near an important Minoan settlement (down the coast is the palace of Zakros, with its own sea-side tavernas). This is a sea-food taverna: on arriving here you have reached the spot where even time stands still, lulled by quietly plashing wavelets at your feet.
Every region can have its own twist and palette concerning some dishes or other. So by traversing across Crete through its landscape, its cities, ancient sites, museums, visiting itstavernas and restaurants, you have seen the external face of the island. One that is obvious. But being able to enter someone’s home, to cook with them and eat with them is what reveals the soul of a place .. and may touch your own. The stories behind the dishes and why they choose to do it like this or that, or why its done this way, what do the words of the dishes mean: this is the way to learn the language of food, a tongue that records and reflects the long history of Crete.
Sharing the hearth, the food, bread and wine together with a Greek, and especially a Cretan, and in their home epitomizes the famed philoxenia of this culture. It is, of course, something harder to sample nowadays – given the constant pressure and abrasion of mass tourism, but even so ….
All suggestions are my personal favourites you can easily find them online or through TripAdvisor and arrive at your own conclusions
