What to eat in Skiathos

Dinner is late. Demand at a town taverna builds from 20:00 and peaks between 21:00 and 22:00. A room that is quiet at 19:30 is early, not bad. See avoiding the crowds for what that means for booking.

Order in the middle of the table. Greek eating is not one-plate-each. Order fewer mains than there are people, add several mezedes, and share. Waiters expect this and will often steer you towards it.

Bread and water arrive automatically and are usually charged as a small cover. This is normal and is not a scam.

Chips are a legitimate side, and inside a gyros wrap they are structural. Do not ask for them to be removed.

Cash still matters. Card acceptance has improved but is not universal, especially at beach kiosks and smaller tavernas.

Layered aubergine, spiced minced lamb or beef and potato under a thick béchamel, baked until the top sets golden. The dish everyone knows, and the one most often done badly for tourists — a good one is dense and rich rather than watery.

Worth knowing: It is a lunch dish as much as a dinner one, and it is usually cooked in a tray in the morning. Ordering it at 11pm is not the way to meet it at its best.

Small cubes of pork or chicken grilled on a skewer. In most of Greece souvlaki means the skewer itself; ask for it 'in a pita' and you get the wrap.

Worth knowing: The cheapest genuinely good meal on the island, and the one locals eat most.

Meat stacked on a vertical rotisserie, shaved off as it cooks, wrapped in pita with tomato, onion, tzatziki and — this surprises visitors — chips inside the wrap.

Worth knowing: €3–4.50 and it is a full meal. The chips belong in there; do not ask for them to be left out.

Lamb slow-cooked for hours, traditionally sealed in a parcel or a clay pot with garlic, lemon and oregano until it falls off the bone. The name means 'stolen' — bandit food, cooked buried in a pit so the smoke would not give the thieves away.

Worth knowing: Often needs ordering in advance at smaller tavernas, because it takes half a day.

Strictly the name of the small two-handled pan, not the dish. Usually means fried cheese; 'shrimp saganaki' is prawns in a tomato and feta sauce, which is a different thing entirely and one of the best plates on any Greek menu.

Worth knowing: If a menu just says 'saganaki', it is the cheese.

Tenderised, often sun-dried on a line by the harbour, then charred over coals and dressed with oil, vinegar and oregano. The single most Aegean thing you can order.

Worth knowing: If you see octopus hanging on a line outside a taverna, that is not decoration — it is that day's stock, and it is a good sign.

Squid, either floured and fried in rings or — better, and more common in a serious fish taverna — grilled whole and cut at the table.

Worth knowing: Frozen rings and fresh grilled squid are barely the same food. If it is on the menu grilled, order it grilled.

Tomato, cucumber, onion, pepper, olives, oregano and a slab of feta on top. Note the Greek name means 'village salad' — there is no lettuce in it, and a version with lettuce is a version for tourists.

Worth knowing: One between two is plenty, and the leftover oil and tomato juice is meant to be mopped with bread.

Strained yoghurt with cucumber, garlic and oil. Served cold, as a dip and as a counterweight to grilled meat.

Worth knowing: It should taste aggressively of garlic. If it does not, it was made for visitors.

Vine leaves rolled around rice, herbs and sometimes mince. Served warm with lemon and egg sauce, or cold with oil.

Worth knowing: A test of a kitchen — the good ones are rolled by hand that morning and the difference is obvious.

Spinach and feta in filo pastry. A bakery item as much as a taverna one, and the standard Greek breakfast-on-the-move.

Worth knowing: Buy it from a bakery in the morning, not from a restaurant at night.

Not broad beans — split yellow peas, slow-cooked to a purée and served warm with raw onion, capers and a hard pour of olive oil.

Worth knowing: One of the cheapest things on the menu and one of the best. Order it with bread and let it be lunch.

Meatballs with bread, herbs and often mint, fried rather than baked.

Worth knowing: The mint is the point. If they taste like Italian meatballs, something has been lost in translation.

A slow stew — beef, rabbit or occasionally octopus — with a great many small whole onions, red wine, cinnamon and bay.

Worth knowing: A winter dish that persists on summer menus. Order it on a cool evening and it makes far more sense.

Tomatoes and peppers hollowed out, stuffed with rice and herbs, and baked in oil until they collapse slightly. Usually served warm rather than hot, which is correct and not a mistake.

Worth knowing: A genuinely good vegetarian main, and one of the few that is not an afterthought.

Small yeasted doughnuts, fried and drowned in honey and cinnamon, sometimes with walnuts.

Worth knowing: Late-night food. They are made to order and should arrive too hot to eat.

Ouzo (ούζο, OO-zo) — anise spirit, served with water and ice, which turns it cloudy. It is a food drink rather than an aperitif: order it with mezedes, not on its own.

Tsipouro (τσίπουρο, TSEE-poo-ro) — the pomace spirit of northern Greece and mainland Thessaly, which is what Skiathos looks towards. Stronger and less sweet than ouzo, sometimes without the anise. A tsipouradiko serves it with a small plate at each round.

Retsina — resinated white wine, and much better than its reputation. The modern versions are nothing like the 1970s stuff that ruined its name.

Greek coffee (ελληνικός) — boiled in a briki, served with the grounds, drunk slowly. Order it metrios for medium-sweet unless you know what you want. Do not drink the last centimetre.

Freddo espresso and freddo cappuccino are what Greece actually drinks all summer, and are far better here than the words suggest.

The dish descriptions are general Greek culinary knowledge. The interesting half — which venues are known for what — is matched against our own editorial notes on all 130 venues, recorded when we researched them.

That is a record of what each place is known for, not a menu. A taverna missing from a dish's list will very probably still serve it. And three dishes here have no matches at all, which we have left visible rather than quietly dropping — an absence in our notes is information too.

Menus change. Nothing here is a guarantee that a specific dish is on tonight.

Frequently asked questions

What food is Skiathos known for?

Skiathos eats like the rest of the Aegean rather than having a distinct cuisine of its own: grilled octopus and squid, moussaka, souvlaki and gyros, slow-cooked kleftiko, and the meze plates — tzatziki, fava, saganaki. The one genuinely local product is Alypiakos, a red Muscat that the Evangelistria Monastery has again produced and bottled since 1998 after a 150-year break.

What time do people eat dinner in Skiathos?

Late. Demand at a town taverna builds from 20:00 and peaks between 21:00 and 22:00. A taverna that looks quiet at 19:30 is early rather than bad — though on a tourist island it is already about four-fifths as busy at 19:00 as at its 21:00 peak, so the effect is smaller than the cliché suggests.

How much does a meal cost in Skiathos?

A sit-down taverna dinner runs roughly €25–45 a head, and a meal for two at a typical taverna about €45–70 including local wine. A gyros pita is €3–4.50 and is a full meal. Skiathos is moderately priced by Greek island standards and clearly cheaper than Mykonos or Santorini.

What is the difference between souvlaki and gyros?

Souvlaki is small cubes of pork or chicken grilled on a skewer — in most of Greece the word means the skewer itself, and you ask for it 'in a pita' to get the wrap. Gyros is meat stacked on a vertical rotisserie and shaved off as it cooks, wrapped in pita with tomato, onion, tzatziki and chips inside the wrap.

Why is there no lettuce in a Greek salad?

Because there is not supposed to be. The Greek name, horiatiki, means village salad: tomato, cucumber, onion, pepper, olives, oregano and a slab of feta on top. A version with lettuce is a version made for tourists.