The Best Greek Restaurants in London

Real choice now available ?

Firstly I need to state that there is no Greek Cuisine as such and it's very difficult to make a case for any national cuisine . In the case of Greek food many dishes are in fact found in other countries that were part of the Ottoman Empire and adapted/evolved to suit local tastes and or ingredients.

Having said that there has been a steady growth in “Greek” restaurants in London over the last five years or so and many “Greek” dishes and or ingredients have crossed over into a variety of restaurants. A good example of the latter are a number of dishes in the excellent Nick Bramham’s repertoire at Quality Wines. I don’t know many Chefs who research recipes so meticulously and travel to eat as Nick does.

So for the purposes of this post I will categorise restaurants into five types.

Firstly inspired by the late great restaurateur Russell Norman who called Mishkin’s a Kind of Jewish Deli. So we have Kind of Greek restaurant exemplified by both Oma and Agora opened in Borough market by maverick restaurateur David Carter. A number of restaurant groups are launching Greek restaurants and one has even pivoted from Peruvian to Greek.

Secondly we have what represents the most common type namely Cypriot restaurants often founded by first generation Cypriot immigrants to the UK. The best in my opinion is Halepi. The quality of ingredients here is very high especially fish and lamb.

Thirdly we have representations of what can best be described as modern Greek. The best exemplars of this category are Opso and Kima from Andreas Labridis and Chef Nikos Roussos who were also behind the ground-breaking 2 Michelin starred Funky Gourmet in Athens. The quality of ingredients and execution of dishes at both is second to none.

Fourthly we have another interpretation of a Greek Taverna . Whilst being modern the dishes are generally closer to the originals and more in line with some of the Gastro Tavernas of Athens and Thessaloniki . Vori and Krokodilos represent this category best producing very well executed classics coupled with great wine lists.

Finally we have restaurants or even Cafés where Greek dishes may appear on a wider menu and those very dishes may in fact be the best in town. Qulaity Wines has already been mentioned. Catalyst Coffee Roasters & Café is another example where the dish of the day is often Greek or let’s call it Ottoman. Towards the end of the week they extend their hours and become a de facto wine bar with excellent bar snacks/mezze. In terms of restaurants John Gionleka’s Peckham Bazaar was the first to work within the lexicon of what can be called Ottoman food with versions of dishes that hail from Thessaloniki , Damascus , Izmir or Durrës. John is an amazing Chef and you will find some of the very best “Greek” food at Peckham Bazaar.