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Greek Restaurants
There’s a big Greek and Greek Cypriot community in the capital, mainly clustered around Harringay, Wood Green, Palmers Green, Southgate and Cockfosters, and given the centrality of food in Greek culture, it’s no surprise that there are plenty of places to find Greek food in London.
There are lots of old-school and family-run joints that have been serving up the same food for decades. There’s Primrose Hill institution Lemonia, which has been run by the same family since 1979 and been a beloved local spot for the same amount of time, with its whitewashed walls and abundance of greenery inside transporting you to the sunnier climes of Greece.
Another North London classic, Andy’s Taverna (open since 1967) has been serving up the greatest hits of Greek cuisine with a hefty side of warm hospitality. A regular haunt for Wood Green kebab lovers, Paneri does some of the best souvla and souvlaki in the area and delivers a real taste of home for the Greek Cypriot locals.
There’s also been a new wave of modern Greek restaurants open in the capital over the last decade or so, twisting traditional dishes into more contemporary creations. OPSO in Marylebone was one of the first, opening in 2014 with dishes like octopus stifado with black eyed beans, dolmas with herb pesto trahanas, and brittle parfait with pomegranate soup on the menu, and it’s been such a success that the team went on to open INO in Soho. And over in Notting Hill, Mazi, and its sister site Suzi Tros, have been putting a modern spin on traditional flavour combinations and presentation, as well as championing Greek wine.
VORI GREEK KITCHEN
If you love being on holiday and Greek’s your thing then Vori is just the spot for you. The latest restaurant to grace Holland Park Avenue offers a truly authentic Greek dining experience, with a rustic menu based on recipes passed down for generations. Expect savoury mezze, calamari, traditional moussaka and beef shin with Naxos Graviera aubergine mash, perfect for enjoying family-style. And if cocktails are what you’re about there’s a Greek take on the classics, including an “All-Greek Negroni” with Amaro Bitters, and a “Vori Margarita” that’s packed full with Ouzo. Yamas!
INO
INO is all about live-fire cooking, celebrating the Greek tradition of cooking over charcoal, so there’s a large grill in the open kitchen running down the length of the front of the restaurant, complete with counter stools to watch the action from. It’s a small plates menu, and they are small so you can get through a fair bit of them – highlights included the tarama with a handmade pitta for dipping action; the octopus taco, tender meat on a super-thin disc of pitta bread; and the souvlaki, another traditional kebab given an upgrade with Iberico presa. The wine list is all Greek, changing regularly to feature new and exciting producers, so definitely ask for a reccy. INO is a buzzy little spot, which may not have the Greek sunshine but the holiday vibes are definitely there.
CATALYST
Catalyst is a very sleek coffee shop on Gray’s Inn Road serving up very high-quality small-batch coffee alongside a menu of highly rated food. Expect the likes of eggs kayanas (with fresh tomato and feta on sourdough), avobergines (sourdough bread topped with roasted aubergines & red peppers, avocado, tahini sauce, Coffee Sriracha, Chalkidiki XV olive oil, za’atar and pomegranate molasses) and fish goujons filet (daily fresh fish goujons sandwich with house coleslaw, lettuce and cheese) on the menu. They also host loads of one-off foodie events in collaboration with some of the city’s favourite chefs and brands.
KIMA
Andreas Labridis and Nikos Roussos, the co-owners of Greek restaurants OPSO, INO and Pittabun, have brought a bit of the Greek coastline to Marylebone with their fourth spot, seafood restaurant Kima, named after the Greek word for wave. You’ve heard of nose-to-tail cookery, Kima runs on the fish equivalent philosophy, fin-to-gill cookery. Using various fish butchery and dry ageing techniques ensures that not only do all parts of the fish get used, they get used in inventive and interesting ways, offering a wider variety of flavours and textures for us diners. You can select what you like the look of from the fish counter and then have various cuts of that fish prepared in different ways, or you can order from Kima’s a la carte menu, which features some of the dry-aged fish amongst the different dishes. The raw fish (we had bream on our visit) with olive oil, lemon and thyme is a stunner, and don’t miss the chargrilled octopus, yellowtail shank with a fricassee of greens and the 75 dot seaweed millefeuille, where the typical puff pastry is swapped out for caramelised nori.
Mazi, run by husband and wife team Adrien Carre and Christina Mouratoglou, takes inspiration from traditional Greek food – tarama, tiropita, prawn saganaki, grilled octopus, stifado and loukoumades are all on the menu – but gives the dishes a modern spin, both in terms of flavour combinations and presentation. The wine list is all-Greek too so you’ll find bottles here that you likely won’t have seen before. On a sunny day, you’ll want a table in the garden…that way it’s much easier to pretend you’re on holiday in Greece.
SUZI TROS
The team behind Mazi didn’t got far for its second Greek restaurant, only a door down in fact. Suzi Tros – more of a bistro than Mazi, with a cocktail bar downstairs – is small, simply decked out in wood and white, with seating around the kitchen counter at the front. Suzi Tros serves up a seasonal small plates menu that showcases the food of Thessaloniki and northern Greece, including dishes like tuna tartare with lagana bread, courgette cakes with cucumber & mint dip, wild cod with chickpea revithada, herby grandmama’s meatballs with garlic yoghurt, and Greek coffee profiteroles. The wine list is exclusively Greek, there are Greek beers on offer too, and cocktails made using Greek spirits like Mastika and Tsipouro. If you want to relive the summer but can’t jet off to Greece, just head for Notting Hill instead.
You can’t beat a good wrap and The Athenian is slinging souvlaki and gryos ones just how they do them in Greece. Soft pitas are filled with marinated and chargrilled chicken, pork or halloumi; tomatoes; red onion; tzatziki; mustard sauce; and spicy feta sauce. The real highlight though? Oregano-dusted fries are stuffed in there too, so you got a full and fast meal that you can eat with one hand.
MILOS
If you want to splash the cash on some seafood, Milos (which also has sites in Montreal, New York, Las Vegas, Miami, Los Cabos, and Athens) is the place to come. It’s an upmarket restaurant with a focus on seafood and high-end takes on traditional dishes you’d find across Greece. It’s a pretty grand dining room, with high ceilings, white tablecloths, lots of marble and a big fish counter displaying the fresh catch in all its glory. There’s a raw bar and a cured fish selection, while the options on the counter can be grilled, poached with veggies, fried or baked in sea salt. Aside from the fish, don’t miss the Milos special, a big stack of thin slices of fried courgette and aubergine with tzatziki and kefalograviera cheese, the gigantes and the steamed wild greens.
LEMONIA
A Primrose Hill institution, Lemonia has been run by the same family since 1979, and as a beloved local spot, you’re guaranteed of a buzzy atmosphere whenever you drop by. The whitewashed walls and abundance of greenery inside does its best to transport to you to the sunnier climes of Greece but its the menu, filled with classic dishes like dolmades, calamari, souvlaki, kleftiko, tavvas, moussaka, pourgouri, gemista and baklava, that’ll take you there.
OPSO
One of the first modern Greek restaurants to open in London, OPSO has been serving the people of Marylebone since 2014 and its success has led its founders to open two other places, Kima and INO. The long central marble table epitomises the sociable sharing vibe that OPSO is going for and with the likes of octopus stifado with black eyed beans, feta kataifi, dolmas with herb pesto trahanas, giouvarlakia dumplings and brittle parfait with pomegranate soup on the menu, you’ll want a group with you so you can try lots of dishes (and help with the bill because it’s on the spenny side!) Don’t skip the wine list either as OPSO boasts the largest selection of Greek wines in London.
PANERI TAVERNA
A regular haunt for Wood Green kebab lovers, Paneri does some of the best souvla and souvlaki in the area and delivers a real taste of home for the Greek Cypriot locals. The portions are reliably hefty, with fluffy pittas stuffed with chargrilled lamb, pork, chicken and sheftalia (homemade pork sausage), tomatoes, cucumber, and onion. The menu is very meat heavy, with afelia, pastichio, stifado, keftedes and pastourma on offer, but they do have a veggie moussaka as well as the classic dips, salad, and chips.
ANDY'S TAVERNA
Andy’s Taverna is a Camden classic, a proper family-run joint that’s been serving up homemade Greek food, with a hefty side of warm hospitality, since 1967. The menu reads like a greatest hits list; there’s spanakopita and saganaki, kleftiko and stifado, souvlaki and swordfish, baklava and kataifi, all complemented by Greek and Cypriot wines. And if you’ve really got an appetite, there’s meat and fish mezedes options too.
DESERIE
This Cockfosters restaurant is well worth a trip to the end of the Piccadilly line. The starters and mezedakia sections are what to focus on at Deserie, as you can order up smaller portions of the kebabs, octopus and calamari as well as traditional but lesser-seen dishes like courgettes with eggs. And don’t forget to check out the board for daily Greek specialties.
