Kirkor has long sold bougatsa on Lions Square in Heraklion, sweet myzithra or plain custard inside hot phyllo, dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar.
Signature drink: Greek coffee
Order: Bougatsa with sweet myzithra, honey and cinnamon
Tip: Order at the counter, take a table on the square, and expect the bougatsa to arrive scalding hot.
Phyllosophies has worked Smyrna phyllo on Lions Square in Heraklion since 1922, filling its bougatsa with fresh cream or sweet myzithra to order.
Signature drink: Greek coffee
Order: Bougatsa with myzithra, honey and walnuts
Tip: The recipe traces to a bougatsa master from Smyrna, and the phyllo is still opened by hand every morning.
Melba holds a corner of Lions Square in Heraklion, running waffles, crepes, freddo coffee and ice cream for families until well past midnight each night.
Signature drink: Freddo espresso
Order: Waffles or crepes, eaten out on Lions Square
Tip: Right on Plateia Venizelou, so it fills with families in the early evening and stays open past midnight.
Phyllosophies is the bougatsa house on Lions Square in Heraklion, opening its phyllo by hand every morning since 1922 and across three generations.
Order: Bougatsa with myzithra, honey and walnuts
Tip: Also bakes chortopites, tyropites, baklava and loukoumades, all from the same hand-opened phyllo.
Worth the queue: Bougatsa with sweet myzithra
Kirkor has baked bougatsa on Lions Square in Heraklion for generations, and is still the first place locals name when you ask them about breakfast.
Order: Bougatsa with custard, cinnamon and icing sugar
Tip: A bougatsa counter rather than a cafe, so expect to eat standing or take it away.
Worth the queue: Bougatsa with custard and cinnamon
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.
Kirkor sells bougatsa on Lions Square in Heraklion for just a few euros, which makes its counter the cheapest good breakfast in the entire city.
Try: Bougatsa
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.
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.