Greek cuisine is the cuisine of Greece and the Greek diaspora. In common with many other cuisines of the Mediterranean, it is founded on the triad of wheat, olive oil, and wine. It uses vegetables, olive oil, grains, fish, and meat, including pork, poultry, veal and beef, lamb, rabbit, and goat. Other important ingredients include pasta, cheeses, lemon juice, herbs, olives and olive oil, and yogurt. Bread made of wheat is ubiquitous; other grains, notably barley, are also used, especially for paximathia. Common dessert ingredients include nuts, honey, fruits, sesame, and filo pastries. It continues traditions from Ancient Greek and Byzantine cuisine, while incorporating Turkish, Balkan, and Italian influences.
Souvlaki is a Greek fast food consisting of small pieces of meat and sometimes vegetables grilled on a skewer. It is usually eaten straight off the skewer while still hot. It can be served with or inside a rolled pita, typically with lemon, sauces, vegetables such as sliced tomato and onion, and fried potatoes as a side. The meat usually used in Greece and Cyprus is pork.
Feta is a Greek brined white cheese made from sheep's milk or from a mixture of sheep and goat's milk. It is soft, with small or no holes, a compact touch, few cuts, and no skin. Crumbly with a slightly grainy texture, it is formed into large blocks and aged in brine. Its flavor is tangy and salty, ranging from mild to sharp. Feta is used as a table cheese, in salads such as Greek salad, and in pastries, notably the phyllo-based Greek dishes spanakopita "spinach pie" and tyropita "cheese pie". It is often served with olive oil or olives, and sprinkled with aromatic herbs such as oregano. It can also be served cooked, as part of a sandwich, in omelettes, and many other dishes.
Gyros, sometimes anglicized as a gyro in some regions, is meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie, then sliced and served wrapped or stuffed in pita bread, along with other ingredients such as tomato, onion, fried potatoes, and tzatziki. In Greece, it is normally made with pork or sometimes with chicken, whilst beef and lamb are also used in other countries.
Kebab, kabob, kebap, or kabab (Kashmir) is roasted meat that originates from the Middle East. Many variants of the category are popular around the world, including the skewered shish kebab or souvlaki and the doner kebab or gyros with bread.
Taste of the Danforth is a yearly festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the Greektown area along Danforth Avenue for a period of three days in August, spawned from the Taste of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is currently Canada's largest street festival. It started in 1993, and in 2013, it completed its 20th year of this event which celebrates Greek food and culture. The owner of Papas Grill – a Greek cuisine on the Danforth stated that the Taste of the Danforth has "grown exponentially and we are still experiencing growth 20 years to the day"
Greek salad or horiatiki salad is a popular salad in Greek cuisine generally made with pieces of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, feta cheese, and olives and dressed with salt, Greek oregano, lemon juice and olive oil. Common additions include green bell pepper slices or caper berries. Greek salad is often imagined as a farmer's breakfast or lunch, as its ingredients resemble those that a Greek farmer might have on hand.
In Greek cuisine, saganaki is any one of a variety of dishes prepared in a small frying pan, the best-known being an appetizer of fried cheese. It is commonly flambéed in North America.
Jimmy the Greek is a quick service restaurant franchise serving Greek and Mediterranean cuisine. In 1963, Jim Antonopoulos from Nafplio, Greece, arrived in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He started the Epikourion, Exquisite Greek Restaurant & Bar in First Canadian Place of the busy Bay Street district of Toronto. The success of the restaurant spun off the current franchise which now has over 50 locations across Canada in Alberta, & Ontario, including more than 50 in the Greater Toronto Area. There are also locations in Dubai, UAE. Its outlets are almost exclusively located in the food courts of office towers and AAA malls. Their menu offers a variety of Greek plates, including chicken and pork souvlaki, schnitzel, lamb dishes, calamari, moussaka and more. They also offer pitas stuffed with different items, traditional Greek style. Additionally, they provide catering services for large parties.
A taverna is a small Greek restaurant that serves Greek cuisine. The taverna is an integral part of Greek culture and has become familiar to people from other countries who visit Greece, as well as through the establishment of tavernes in countries such as the United States and Australia by expatriate Greeks.
Macedonian cuisine is the cuisine of the region of Macedonia, Greece. Contemporary Greek Macedonian cooking shares much with general Greek, wider Balkan and Mediterranean cuisine, including dishes from the Ottoman past. Specific influences include dishes of the Anatolian Greek, Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian, Slavic, Armenian and Sephardi Jewish population. The mix of the different people inhabiting the region gave the name to the Macedonian salad.
Pappas Restaurants, Inc. is a privately held restaurant chain in the Southern and Southwestern United States. It is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Its brands include Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Pappas Seafood, Pappas Bar-B-Q, Pappas Burger, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, Pappasito's, and Yia Yia Mary's.
Greek-American cuisine is the cuisine of Greek Americans and their descendants, who have modified Greek cuisine under the influence of American culture and immigration patterns of Greeks to the United States. As immigrants from various Greek areas settled in different regions of the United States and became "Greek Americans," they carried with them different traditions of foods and recipes that were particularly identified with their regional origins in Greece and yet infused with the characteristics of their new home locale in America. Many of these foods and recipes developed into new favorites for town peoples and then later for Americans nationwide. Greek-American cuisine is especially prominent in areas of concentrated Greek communities, such as Astoria, Queens and Tarpon Springs, Florida.
Papa Cristo's is a taverna styled Greek restaurant and market located in the Byzantine-Latino Quarter across the street from Saint Sophia's Church Greek Orthodox Church in Los Angeles, California.
A Greek restaurant is a restaurant that specializes in Greek cuisine. In the United States they tend to be a different affair, varying in types of service, cuisine, menu offerings, table settings, and seating arrangements. Their menu may also feature dishes from other cuisines.
Shopska salad is a cold salad popular throughout Southeastern Europe. It is Bulgaria's most famous salad and national dish.
Alexis Restaurant was a Greek restaurant in Portland, Oregon's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, in the United States. It was established in 1981 and closed on November 7, 2016.
Antone's Famous Po' Boys, formerly Antone's Import Company, is a sandwich shop chain based in Houston, Texas. Established by Jalal Antone, an American of Lebanese and Syrian descent, it grew to having fifteen locations and having products distributed throughout the Southern United States, but was beset by ownership disputes within the surviving family in the 1990s. Legacy Restaurants now owns the trademark and operates all restaurants with the name. From circa the 1990s until 2018 several shops franchising the Antone's name were operated as the Original Antone's Import Company.
Dolce Vita was an Italian restaurant and pizzeria in Houston, in the U.S. state of Texas. The business operated from 2006 to 2020.
Omega Ouzeri was a Greek restaurant and bar on Seattle's Capitol Hill, in the U.S. state of Washington. The restaurant closed permanently on January 31, 2024.
