The fastest, cheapest, frequently best food on Heraklion's streets.
Vendors, food trucks and stalls: the cheapest, fastest, frequently best food in Heraklion.
Phyllosophies is the Heraklion bougatsa counter on Lions Square, hand-opened phyllo filled with cream or sweet myzithra and cut with scissors.
Try: Bougatsa
Order: Bougatsa with sweet myzithra and honey
Tip: Eat it standing on Lions Square while it is still too hot, which is how everyone in Heraklion does it.
Kirkor has long sold bougatsa on Lions Square in Heraklion, and it is still the fastest breakfast in the whole city if you eat it standing up.
Try: Bougatsa
Order: Bougatsa with custard, cinnamon and icing sugar
Tip: The queue moves fast, because there are really only two things on the menu.
Thraka Grill turns out gyros on Daskalogianni square in Heraklion until midnight, the local answer to where to eat well for about five euros.
Try: Gyros
Order: A pork gyros pita with everything on it
Tip: On Daskalogianni square, and it is the gyros stop the local food tours use rather than the seafront chains.
Souvlaki Point grills skewers on Menelaou Parlama in Heraklion until one in the morning, a takeaway counter rather than a sit-down taverna room.
Try: Souvlaki
Order: Two pork skewers with pita and chips
Tip: Open until one in the morning most nights, and set up for takeaway rather than a sit-down meal.
Spiros Psitopoleio is the neighbourhood grill house on Christomichali Xilouri in Heraklion, selling meat by the portion to a mostly local queue.
Try: Grilled meats
Order: A mixed grill portion to take away
Tip: A neighbourhood psitopoleio on Christomichali Xilouri, which means grilled meat by the portion rather than by the plate.
Gyrogonia works the gyros spit on Christomichali Xilouri in Heraklion until midnight, a plain takeaway counter with prices that match the setting.
Try: Gyros
Order: A chicken gyros pita, wrapped to go
Tip: Two doors from Spiros on the same street, which makes the corner a useful late-night detour east of the centre.
Mavrokostas sells homemade Greek food on 62 Martiron in Heraklion through the small hours, long after every other kitchen in town has shut down.
Try: Homemade Greek food
Order: Whatever 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 kitchen standing in Heraklion.
Krasas grills on Leoforos Ikarou in Heraklion until three in the morning, the default late gyros stop for anyone heading home from the east.
Try: Gyros and grills
Order: A gyros pita on the way home from Ikarou
Tip: Open until 03:00, and there is a second Krasas near the airport in Nea Alikarnassos.
Savoidakis sells kalitsounia right across Heraklion, and a warm bag of the Cretan cheese pies is the best two euros you can spend near the Agora.
Try: Kalitsounia
Order: Kalitsounia, eaten warm out of the paper bag
Tip: The Dikaiosinis branch is the handiest for the Agora, and the pies come out through the morning.