Kirkor is a bakery budget eat in Lions Square, Heraklion.
Editorially verified August 1, 2026 by Lewis Vaughan, TableJourney editor. Source.
Must order: Bougatsa with custard, cinnamon and icing sugar
Tip: A bougatsa and a Greek coffee is breakfast for under five euros, which is the cheapest sit-down in the old town.
Address: Plateia Eleftheriou Venizelou 31, Iraklio 712 02, Heraklion
Phyllosophies keeps prices low on Lions Square in Heraklion, where a bougatsa or a hand-opened greens pie costs less than a coffee elsewhere.
Try: Bougatsa and pies
Order: Bougatsa with sweet myzithra, honey and walnuts
Tip: The savoury chortopites and tyropites cost about the same as the sweet bougatsa and travel better in a bag.
Phyllosophies keeps prices low on Lions Square in Heraklion, where a bougatsa or a hand-opened greens pie costs less than a coffee elsewhere.
Try: Bougatsa and pies
Order: Bougatsa with sweet myzithra, honey and walnuts
Tip: The savoury chortopites and tyropites cost about the same as the sweet bougatsa and travel better in a bag.
Souvlaki Point is the takeaway skewer counter on Menelaou Parlama in Heraklion, Crete, where a full pita meal still lands under nine euros a head.
Try: Souvlaki
Order: Two pork skewers with pita, chips and tzatziki
Tip: Set up for takeaway rather than sitting down, and it keeps serving until one in the morning most nights.
Spiros Psitopoleio sells grilled meat by the portion on Christomichali Xilouri in Heraklion, a neighbourhood grill with local prices to match.
Try: Grilled meats
Order: A portion of mixed grilled meat to share
Tip: A neighbourhood psitopoleio east of the centre, which means grilled meat by weight rather than a composed plate.
Gyrogonia is the plain gyros counter on Christomichali Xilouri in Heraklion, open until midnight and priced for the neighbourhood rather than tourists.
Try: Gyros
Order: A chicken gyros pita, wrapped to take away
Tip: Two doors from Spiros on the same street, so the corner works as a single cheap-eating detour east of the centre.
Mavrokostas sells homemade Greek food on 62 Martiron in Heraklion at neighbourhood prices, and keeps selling it long into the following morning.
Try: Homemade Greek food
Order: Whichever tray of homemade food is still hot
Tip: Open until six in the morning on weekdays and eight at weekends, which makes it the last cheap kitchen standing.
Krasas is the cheap grill on Leoforos Ikarou that keeps Heraklion fed after midnight, with pita gyros and skewers priced well under a tenner.
Try: Gyros and grills
Order: A pork gyros pita, with chips added in
Tip: Open until three in the morning, which is why the queue builds long after the tavernas close.
