You can eat badly on Crete, but you have to try quite hard. The island grows its own olive oil, cheese, wine, honey and vegetables, and Cretans take a quiet pride in feeding guests properly. A trip to Crete is as much a food holiday as a beach one, and this guide covers what to order, where to sit down, and why a small carafe keeps appearing at your table.
Start with dakos, the dish that defines the island
Dakos looks simple: a barley rusk softened with grated ripe tomato, topped with crumbled mizithra cheese, olive oil and oregano. In practice it depends entirely on the quality of each ingredient, which is why it tastes better here than any copy you will make at home. On the island it rivals Greek salad in popularity, and you will find it in every taverna, usually as the first thing on the table.
The dishes worth ordering twice
- Kalitsounia, small pies filled with soft cheese or wild greens. The fried version is crispier, the baked one lighter, and the sweet cheese variety comes drizzled with thyme honey.
- Antikristo, lamb slow-roasted for hours next to an open fire, a shepherd's technique from the mountains. Seasoned with nothing but salt, and it needs nothing else.
- Gamopilafo, the buttery wedding rice cooked in meat broth. Festive food that tavernas now serve year-round.
- Chochlioi boubouristi, snails fried in olive oil with rosemary and a splash of vinegar. More delicious than it sounds, I promise.
- Bougatsa, a warm cheese or cream pie dusted with sugar and cinnamon. In Chania, locals argue about which of two old shops makes it best; order it for breakfast and join the debate.
Raki, the punctuation mark of every meal
On Crete the local spirit is called tsikoudia, though everyone says raki. It is distilled from grape pomace after the wine harvest, and it arrives unasked at the end of almost every meal, in a small pitcher with shot glasses and usually a plate of fruit or tiny sweets. The bill is already closed at that point; this round is hospitality, not commerce. In cooler months try rakomelo, raki warmed with honey and spices. Sip slowly. Nobody is timing you.
Where to eat: harbor views versus village plane trees
The harborfront restaurants in Chania and Rethymno are lovely for a coffee, but the kitchens a few streets back generally cook better and charge less. My rule on the island: if the menu has photographs and a host waving you in, keep walking. If there are paper tablecloths, a handwritten menu and grandmother's pots visible from the door, sit down.
The real treasure is the village taverna. Places like Argiroupoli, Vamos or the hamlets of the Amari valley serve slow lunches under plane trees, with meat from the hills above and vegetables from the garden behind the kitchen. Portions assume you worked a field that morning.
One more habit worth adopting: order the way Cretans do, several small plates for the middle of the table instead of one main course each. The kitchen sends dishes out as they are ready, the meal stretches pleasantly, and you get to taste twice as much. Service runs slower than northern Europeans expect, which is not neglect but philosophy. Nobody will bring the bill until you ask for it.
Markets and what locals drink besides raki
Start one morning at the cross-shaped Agora market hall in Chania, built in 1913, where stalls sell mountain herbs, graviera wheels, olives by the scoop and honey from villages you have never heard of. It is the best place on the island to assemble a beach picnic. For a quick lunch on foot, a souvlaki wrapped in pita with tzatziki still costs pocket change and tastes better at a corner grill than at any waterfront table.
Wine deserves attention too. Crete has been making it for four thousand years, and local grapes like white vidiano and red liatiko finally get serious treatment from a new generation of winemakers. In tavernas, house wine arrives in aluminum carafes, costs very little and is usually far better than the price suggests. The Cretan diet, heavy on oil, greens and pulses, is credited with some of the longest lifespans in Europe, so a second helping counts as preventive medicine.
Bring some of it home
Cretan olive oil is among the best in the Mediterranean, and a tin from a village cooperative costs less than airport versions and tastes brighter. Thyme honey, graviera cheese and mountain tea also travel well and survive a charter flight without complaint.
Greek islands each cook their own dialect of the same language. On Corfu the Venetians left slow-cooked pastitsada; Larnaca does a meze marathon that stretches across an entire evening. Crete stands out for the sheer quality of raw ingredients and for portions that treat hunger as a personal insult.
If this has you planning dinners already, WAYLY runs packages to Crete from 1090 ā¬ with direct flights from Belgrade. Check the current arrangements, book a table on your first evening, and let the raki find you.
