How to Say It

This page will give you an idea of what you can eat and how to pronounce it so that you can order on your own in a Greek restaurant without pointing. But pointing is OK too so if you don't memorize all these don't worry. This may be a good page to print out.

Mezedes (Appetisers)

Greek Salads

• Choriatiki Salata (hoe-ree-ah-tee-key sa-lah-tah): Village salad or what we in America call a Greek Salad, except in Greece you usually don't get lettuce. It generally consists of Tomatoes(tho- mah-tes), Cucumbers(an-goo-ree), Onions(crem-ee-thya), Feta, Olive Oil( la-thee), vinegar ( ksee-dee) and olives (ill-yes ). Sometimes they leave off the feta so you have to ask for it and they charge you extra. When I order I ask for a hoe-ree-ah-tee-key meh feh-tah, a village salad with feta, just to avoid this. If you want it without any of the above items just tell the waiter: hoe-ris (without) and the name of the item.
• Lachano-karota (la-cah-no-kah-ro-tah): Cabbage and Carrot Salad
• Horta (hoar-ta): Boiled greens. Very healthy and good with lemon, oil and vinigear.
• Vleeta (vlee-tah): Cooked and served like horta but different greens. Restaurants will have one or the other.
• Marouli Salata (mah-roo-lee sah-lah-ta) Lettuce salad
• Dakos (dah-kos) Cretan salad, like a village salad but on a husk of dried barley bread
• Tomato salata (do-mah-to sa-lah-ta) is a plain tomato salad
• Politiki Salata (poh-lee-tee-kee sal-ah-tah) means City salad and is a spicy slaw from Constantinople
• Salata Vrasta (Sal-ah-tah vrah-stah) is a boiled salad usually served in the winter and consists of broccoli, cauliflower, beets, horta, zucchini
• Batzaria me Skordalia (bah-dzah-ree-yah meh skor-dah-yah) Boiled beets with garlic sauce

Greek Vegetarian Dishes

Pre-cooked Dishes (Magerefta)

Grilled Meats (Tis Oras)

• Sta Carbona (sta car-bon-ah): anything charcoal grilled.
• Paidaikia (pie-dye-kya): Lamb grilled, like lamb chops but way better. Probably my favorite thing to eat in Greece
• Provatina (pro-vah-tee-nah): Like paidaikia but old lamb or mutton. When it is good it is amazing. It can also be cooked on a rotisserie
• Kotopoulo Tis Skaras ( koh-toh-pou-low tis ska-ras): Grilled Chicken. Ask for Podi (poh-thee) if you want the leg and thigh or stithos (stee-thos) if you want the breast and wing.
• Kotopoulo Paidaikia (koh-toh-pou-low pie-die-kyah) Like lamb paidaikia but made from chicken. That's it in the photo.
• Moschari Brizoles (mos-kah-ree bree-zoh-les):Beef Steak on the grill
• Hirini Brizoles (he-ree-neebree-zoh-les) Pork Steak on the grill
• Souvlakia (sue-vlak-yah): Shish-kabob with pita (pee-tah) or on a plate with rice and condiments. So if you wanted the souvlaki wrapped in pita like the sandwich you are probably familiar with you would say sou-vlah-kyah meh pee-tah. If you wanted the gyro which is the meat sliced off the rotisserie you would say yee-roh me pee-tah. I know it is complicated but there is a whole section about it on my Souvlaki page
• Loukaniko (lou-con-ee-koh): sausage
• Kokoretsi (ko-ko-reh-tsee): Entrails of lamb wrapped up and roasted on a spit.
• Kontosouvli (kon-toh-sou-vlee): Big hunks of pork cooked on a spit.
• Beefteki (beef-teh-kee) Like grilled hamburgers but more meaty and without the bun
• Tsikoti (tsee-koh-tee) liver
• Gouranopoulo (goo-rah-no-pou-low) Roast whole suckling pig
• Arni to Souvlas (are-nee to sou-vlas) Roast lamb on a spit
• Paspala (pas-pah-lah) Like strapadsada but this has big hunks of pork in it

Fish and Seafood

• Astako (as-tah-koh): Lobster. Mediterranean style with no claws and really expensive and not that great but people order it to show off
• Garides (gah-ree-des): Shrimp, usually grilled or fried or in sagonaki
• Xifia (ksee-fee-ya): Swordfish. Grilled steaks or souvlaki. I never order this even though it tastes really good because I heard that the fishermen refuse to eat it so there must be something they know that we don't.
• Barbounia (bar-boon-yah): Red Mullet. Expensive and delicious grilled or fried. Probably my favorite fish when it is fresh. If you don't know fresh from not then you probably should not order it. We don't have this in the USA. A cheaper version is koutsomoura (kou-tsoh-moo-rah) though even these are going up in price. That's OK. The more expensive they are the fewer people will eat them and maybe someday they will be plentiful again.
• Marides (mah-ree-des): Small deep-fried fish that can be eaten whole, heads bones and all.
• Gavros (gah-vros): Anchovies that like marides are deep fried and eaten whole, though they cut the heads off. They are also served marinated as a meze called Gavros Marinatos (gah-vros mah-ree-nah-tos)
• Atherinia (ah-theh-ree-nyah) These are really small fish that are deep fried with onions
• Gopes (go-pes): Small tasty inexpensive fish served fried or grilled.
• Soupia (soup-yah): Cuttle fish. Served grilled or with a red wine-sauce.
• Midia (me-dee-yah): Mussels, Steamed or in a wine sauce.
• Bakaliaro(bak-ah-lar-oh): Fried salted codfish battered and deep fried and served with garlic sauce (skor-da-ya). You can also get it fresh sometimes and they also cook it in a red sauce and call the dish Plaki (plah-kee)
• Galeos (gah-lay-os) Dogfish or small shark battered and deep fried and served with skordalia.
• Octopodi (och-toh-poh-dee) Octopus which can be served grilled (tis skah-ras) or boiled (vrah-stah) or in a wine sauce or stifado. Excellent with ouzo by the sea but you have to ask yourself if you want to eat a creature that may be smarter than you are?
• Kalamarakia (kah-la-mah-rak-ya) or Kalamari (kah-lah-mah-ree): Squid, small and large. The small is frozen, comes from far away and is usually fried in small pieces. The large is fresh and is usually caught locally then fried or grilled whole. Both delicious with lemon. The really big ones may be called Thrapsala (thrap-sah-lah) and the really, really small ones are called Gones (go-nes)
• Sardeles (sar-dell-ess): Sardines. Can be served fried, grilled or from the can packed with oil or salt. In Lesvos a special treat is pastes (pas-tess) which means that the sardines were caught that morning, salted on the boat and served raw that night. With ouzo it can't be beat.
• Rega (reh-ga): smoked herring in olive oil. Usually an appetizer.
• Psarosoupa (psar-oh soup-ah): Fish soup. Potatoes, lemon and egg base, can be ordered with or without fish. I t can also be called kakavia (kah-kah-vyah)
• Tsipoura (tsee-poo-rah) Sea Bream which is usually farmed and eaten grilled
• Lavraki (lah-vrah-kee) European sea bass is usually from farms and eaten grilled
• Fangri (fan-gree) Common sea bream is excellent grilled when fresh as is
• Kolios (kol-yos) Chub mackerel is excellent grilled and one of the healthiest fish you can eat along with sardines
• Skoumbri (skoom-bree) Also in the mackerel family is usually found pickled or smoked and eaten as meze with ouzo

Other Greek Food Pronunciations