Restaurants in Lesvos

Lesvos is a gourmet's delight. Seafood, especially fish, forms the main ingredient of most recipes on the island. The cuisine is simple and tasty. Salted sardines from Kalloni are a local favourite, and so is moussaka, a dish prepared using aubergines and minced lamb. There are number of restaurants and local tavernas in Lesvos catering to the varied tastes of visitors. In addition, you can also find quite a few bars and cafes too on the island. The native wines suit most palates and are relatively cheap.

Enjoy a delicious seafood meal on Lesvos and wash it down with the world famous Ouzo!

Be tempted with our Lesvos Restaurant Guide below. There are many great places to eat out in Lesvos, and we give you some suggestions for the best places to try the local cuisine for yourself. The perfect end to a day of sightseeing, shopping or simply relaxing. Our Greek restaurant guide provides some general information on Greek cuisine.

Food & Cuisine in Lesvos

Food in the island is known as being delicious and the taste is attributable to many factors. Fish abound in the surrounding seas and fresh seafood is available at all times. The fertile land yields a variety of healthy crops and also nurtures the local livestock. The island produces top quality olive oil most suited for consumption purposes. The oil adds a unique flavour to the local food.

Aeolian Greeks were reputed chefs in neighbouring Turkey with a creative flair for cooking. Their talent has inspired and influenced many a local chef.

The Famous Ouzo of Lesvos

Ouzo, the national drink of the region, is produced at the distilleries located in Plomari in the southern part of the island. The best ouzo in Greece comes from Plomari. The drink tastes very similar to liquorice, but it is recommended that you try it and decide for yourself. Most cafe owners on the mainland order their personal stock of ouzo from Mytilini.

Ouzo is usually served along with a snack (mezedes). The snack prevents you from consuming too much drink! Drinking ouzo is more of a social activity where people gather at the taverns after a day's work and relax over a glass of ouzo. With mezedes as a side dish, the drinking session lasts for many hours.

Villagers enjoy ouzo at all times of the day. On Sundays, however, people visit the cafes just after church. Singing and lively conversations are characteristic of these visits. At the small villages though, the owner of the local cafes is quite familiar with each visitor's preferences. Each person is served accordingly. Usually it is the men who do the cooking at these taverns. However, there are a few exceptions when women don the role of den mothers.

A glass of ouzo, inclusive of a meze, costs about one dollar. Do not drink it straight. Mix it with some water so that you can avoid getting drunk. With time, you will be able to decide on the quantity of water that goes into the glass. Sip the drink slowly and relish the taste. Diluted ouzo is milky white in colour.

Quality of ouzo is standard, but the real competition among the cafes is all about serving the best side dishes. Almost any dish can fill in for a meze, right from cheese, beans, fried fish, vegetable and meat stew, and meatballs, to salad and sardele pastes. Most often the day's special dish gets served.

Many variants of ouzo that are produced in Lesvos are actually blended. No distillation process is involved. The readymade ingredients are brought and then mixed together in the local shops, sealed in bottles and are then sold. Surprisingly a few of the popular brands also follow this approach.

It is rather difficult to describe the exact mix, preference or even the taste of ouzo. Each ouzo variant has a unique taste and actually can be distinguished from the others based on slight differences; however, you'd have to be an ouzo expert to do that. Ouzo is relatively less consumed then other alcoholic beverages and hence not many concurring experts are around to coin terms that describe the qualities of the drink.

You could, however, try to apply the descriptions that go well for drinks like wine, scotch or whiskey, but then none of these descriptions bring forth the qualities of ouzo. Ouzo is not fruity or sweet as the wines, nor does it have a pedigree as the whiskeys do. The drink is readymade, unlike the wines that are allowed to ferment for ages underground in oak casks, and doesn't have a year or batch labelled on the bottle. Ouzo is different and still awaits a good description!