I can’t say I’m a big fan of Rhodes. Rhodes Town has some beautiful parts in the Medieval City but overall it’s super touristy/tacky and swarmed with slow-walkers from giant ferries during the day. In the mornings restaurants are full of English and Germans eating full English and continental breakfasts. Even a lot of the restaurants that had been recommended to me looked very touristy – if they were in Athens I wouldn’t go anywhere near them. Some people will claim Lindos is beautiful – it might be if you’ve never been to another Greek island before. I thought it was almost equally as touristy and tacky as Rhodes Town. I counted 24 restaurants there and oddly 8 of them served dodgy looking crepes and all the shops were full of cock shaped bottle openers and Labubus. There wasn’t a single Greek restaurant there that caught my eye. There are some good restaurants hidden in villages in the middle of the island or outskirts of Rhodes Town but you shouldn’t have to work that hard to find good food in Greece. On top of that the fact you have to fly to Rhodes on easyJet or other airlines via Gatwick instead of a comfortable BA flight via Heathrow is definitely another negative. Anyway here’s an overview of where I ate below.
A few notes;
📝 There are three restaurants that most people recommended I visit – 4 Rodies, Marco Polo, Meltemi Seaside Restaurant. They all have fairly good Google ratings and I’m sure the food is nice but they all seemed a little touristy to me.
📝 In Rhodes gyros and souvlaki is mostly pork. The meat is often served in a local pita called a ladopita which is similar to an Indian paratha.
1. Το Στενό (To Steno)
Το Στενό (To Steno) in Rhodes Town is nice family-run taverna with a good mix of locals and tourists. They have a lovely little courtyard with a handful of tables. All the food was delicious. We spent €70 between two – an average price in Rhodes it seems. Definitely book ahead as they were turning away people all night. My only complaint is they didn’t let us have a table outside because the tables were “booked” and the people were arriving soon, but come the end of our meal there were still two outside tables free.
2. Taverna Tasos
Taverna Tasos is in the village of Koskinou, fifteen minutes drive from Rhodes Town. This a popular place to come for grilled meat. They had kontosouvli on the menu but my heart was set on lamb chops so I went for half a kilo with fries. The lamb was so tender and beautifully seasoned. I also got talgani cheese (basically halloumi), grilled mushroom & chicken souvlaki.
3. Kellides
Kellides is a gyros and souvlaki spot in Rhodes Town. Interestingly in Rhodes they have a different style pita to the rest of Greece or Cyprus called ‘ladopita’. It reminds me of an Indian paratha – oily and crispy. Like a lot of old school kebab spots in Greece they don’t serve fries let alone put them in the pita. They don’t even serve chicken – just pork gyros and pork souvlaki. The gyros was thick cut and crispy. The souvlaki was tender and flavourful. The ladopita is definitely works a nice addition.
4. Sakellaris Souvlaki
Sakellaris is a souvlaki spot which was highly recommended to me by a few people after I posted Kellides. Here they just serve souvlaki. You can get this in a bread roll or a pita. The pita here isn’t a ladopita but more similar to what you find in the rest of Greece. The pork souvlaki was really tender. I really liked it in the soft white bread roll. The fries are very good here too.
5. Niohori Restaurant
Although in a very touristy area, Niohori Restaurant is hidden away down a quiet side-street in front of a small church. There was a queue to get in and a lot of the popular dishes had already finished. I went for a Greek salad, gigantes, feta in filo, gemista, stifado & sakolatopita. The stifado was great – beef tender, onions sweet… The portion size may have been a little on the small side though. The gigantes (white beans) were also very good although maybe a bit of small portion for the price too. The chocolate cake was also standout. I found it strange that they add lettuce/rocket to Greek salad in Rhodes – something I haven’t seen on any other island in the Aegean. The restaurant had a nice vibe and service was friendly.
6. Άχνη Κανέλα
Bougatsa is more of a Thessaloniki thing but the bougatsa here was great. I went for the meat one which was loaded with meat and really tasty. This bakery is well worth a visit for breakfast.
7. Plimmiri Fish Restaurant
Plimmiri Fish Restaurant is located near the bottom of Rhodes. It didn’t have the have the highest Google rating but I’m a bit of a sucker for anywhere with octopus drying outside, plus they had a big selection of fresh fish, an old man on the grill and a nice sea view. I went for a couple of beers, a Greek salad, tzatziki, fries, octopus, shrimp and a very small grouper. I loved the big shrimp, but the salad and chip portions were a little on the small side, the octopus was particularly tough (it’s not my first dried octopus), and prices were too high. It’s good to be eating seafood by the sea but I’m not sure this place is worth the drive.
James Dimitri 