Athens
Guided tour · 3 hours
Athens: Street Food Tasting Tour
Immerse yourself in Athenian cuisine, sample the best street food with beer or wine, explore Athens, and hang out where the locals do on this guided...
from€59Check dates
History
Saganaki takes its name from the two-handled frying pan it cooks in, which itself derives from the Turkish sahan brought to Greek kitchens of Asia Minor before 1922. The cheese version using kefalotyri, kefalograviera, or graviera became the canonical taverna meze across mainland Greece in the 20th century. In Athens, it is a permanent fixture on every taverna menu from Plaka to Exarchia, served with a wedge of lemon. The flaming version is a 1968 Chicago invention with no Greek precedent.
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Tours, tastings and classes from the cities on this page, bookable on GetYourGuide.
Heraklion
Guided tour · 7 hours
Knossos & Historical Heraklion City Tour with Old Market
Visit Knossos Palace, Crete’s most famous archaeological site, and explore Heraklion city. Enjoy a guided tour, free time, and a walk through the Old...
from€40Check dates
Thessaloniki
Guided tour · 4 hours
Thessaloniki: Food Tastings and Drinks Tour with a Chef
Delve into Greek cuisine and go on a walking tour of Thessaloniki with food tastings and drinks included. Taste local dishes such as koulouri, wander...
from€80Check dates
Common allergens: Dairy, Gluten
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 400g kefalograviera (or kefalotyri, graviera, halloumi), cut into 4 slabs 2cm thick
- 60g plain flour
- 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 lemon, halved
- Black pepper
- Optional: 1 tsp dried oregano
- Crusty bread to serve
Method
- Soak the cheese slabs in cold water for 5 minutes; this stops them burning before the surface crisps.
- Pat the slabs dry. Dredge in flour, shake off the excess.
- Heat the olive oil in a small heavy frying pan over medium-high until shimmering.
- Lay the cheese slabs in the pan. Fry 90 seconds undisturbed until a deep golden crust forms on the bottom.
- Flip carefully with a fish slice. Fry 60 seconds on the second side.
- Slide onto a warm plate. Squeeze lemon over the top, crack pepper.
- Scatter oregano if using.
- Serve immediately with bread torn from the loaf.
Tip from the editors. Soak the cheese in cold water before flouring; otherwise the surface burns before the inside warms. Halloumi is an acceptable substitute outside Greece.
Where to eat saganaki
Saganaki in Athens
Mavro Provato ★ 4.7
Mavro Provato in Pangrati Athens is the daily mezedopoleio favourite for small-plate Greek cooking, Greek wine by the glass and a sidewalk of regulars.
OrderThe smoked aubergine, the saganaki and a half-litre carafe of house white.
TipBook three days ahead for dinner; lunch tables on the pavement are walk-up after 14:00.
Klimataria ★ 4.3
Klimataria on Theatre Square in Athens runs until past midnight every night, the Psyrri institution since 1927 where rebetiko plays live and the wine comes.
OrderGigandes plaki, slow-cooked lamb and a half-kilo of the house red from the barrel.
TipLive music runs most evenings from around 22:00; book a fortnight ahead for the weekend seatings.
Athinaikon ★ 4.2
Athinaikon on Themistokleous is the Exarchia ouzeri of record in Athens, an institution opened in 1932 that moved to its current corner in 1989 with vintage.
OrderThe shrimp saganaki, a plate of marides and a carafe of tsipouro from Tyrnavos.
TipThe Mitropoleos sister room is the modern outpost; the Themistokleous original is the destination.
Karavitis Tavern ★ 4.5
Karavitis Tavern on Pausaniou in Pangrati is the 1926 neighbourhood taverna with a rustic courtyard, barrels of house wine and a point-at-trays system.
Why locals goPangrati neighbourhood taverna since 1926 with a rustic courtyard, barrels of house wine, and an order-by-pointing system that keeps the tourist trade away.
TipNo reservations are taken; arrive before 21:00 on weeknights and before 20:30 on Saturdays.
Tzitzikas kai Mermigas ★ 4.1
Tzitzikas kai Mermigas on Mitropoleos in Athens has cooked Greek small plates with seasonal ingredients off Syntagma Square for three decades.
OrderThe keftedakia and the kayianas allios with a glass of the house assyrtiko.
TipLunch from 13:00 is the easier seating; book three days ahead for Friday and Saturday dinner.
Manimani ★ 4.4
Manimani in Koukaki cooks the food of the Mani peninsula in a neoclassical building near the Acropolis Museum in Athens: cured pork siglino and handmade.
OrderThe siglino with handmade pasta and a half-litre of the rosé from the Peloponnese.
TipClosed Mondays. Sunday lunch from 14:00 is the easiest service to find a window seat.
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