JAY OH! (ARACHOVA)
After leaving Patras and visiting Delphi I arrived in the super cute mountain village Arachova. I went for a bit of a walk around looking for somewhere to eat and came across Jay Oh!. The host was lovely and helped me out letting me know what vegan options they could offer. I just went for the spaghetti and tomato sauce.
Italian restaurants are very popular in Greece I have noticed. So I have had more spaghetti with tomato sauce while I have been here than I have over the last… forever? This one was pretty nice, the sauce had good flavour.
TARANTULA (THESSALONIKI)
This was a Happy Cow app find on my post check in walk when I arrived in Thessaloniki. I ended up choosing their beet salad and potatoes. It was actually pretty tasty, cheap, and did the job of putting food in my belly.
This place does a lot of sandwich take away type stuff it seems, but I really also liked the art they had on display. It was a cute little place but nothing I got overly excited about.
ROOTS (THESSALONIKI)
While walking around and exploring Thessaloniki I stopped by Roots, a vegan/vegetarian restaurant for some late lunch/early dinner. There was a few things I ummed about before deciding on their falafels. For something that might look a little plain, the flavours were on point! It also filled me up and satisfied my hunger.
HANDWICH (THESSALONIKI)
I had just been walking around checking out the last places that were included with the ticket I had purchased at the museum 2 days ago. I spotted this place as I was approaching The Rotunda so decided to stop by and see what they had. I saw they had hot chips and I was honest with myself about my desire to eat them. It was interesting with a pile of vegan cheese on top and no sauce.
I think I would of preferred sauce and no cheese, but as I hadn’t really eaten anything all day I did a pretty good job of eating it. There are a few seats out on the street but this place is just a hole in the wall street food style place. I can see it being popular with the after drinking, late night crowd. Kind of a bit of a Lord of the Fries type thing I guess.
LA STRADA (METAMORFOSI)
I got to Metamorfosi a little bit earlier than my check in time so I went to grab some lunch to fill in some time. La Strada was another Italian restaurant that I ordered a spaghetti and tomato sauce at.
Since arriving in Greece I have had a few of these dishes now. This one wasn’t anything special and like all of them, the pasta had been cooked perfectly. This could have done with a little bit more sauce. There was barely enough to stir through it all. The husband and wife team running the place were lovely and their two children were just hanging out at a table near me. The girl noticed me and plucked up some courage to come over to me and say hi. She then went away and said something to her brother for a bit. After a while she came back over to me, said hi again, but this time also told me her name.
I could tell she was trying to practice her English. I told her my name and we had a short exchange before she ran back off shyly again, I enjoyed eating here for the bit of interaction and the food did the basic requirement of putting some energy in my body.
VALIA CALDA (KALAMPAKA)
I had a quick look on the apps before leaving my hotel I had just checked into in Kalampaka and saw that this place was really close. I had a quick look at their menu at the front of the restaurant and spotted a few labelled vegan options so decided to sit in and see what they had.
I ended up choosing the Great Beans with Leek. This dish was labelled as being from the monasteries of Meteora so decided to try a local dish. It was really tasty, and filling. The beans were cooked really well and it was a nice meal. It was also good just to eat something different. As quite a few of my meals, though good, were very samesie.
PIZZA FIESTA (KALMAPAKA)
I was just doing a looking at restaurant menu wanders when this joint had their own separate vegan menu. This had me a bit excited as there were more options and so I went with their Greek pizza. It was really good. They also only did wine by the .5 or a full litre, so I decided I had nothing else I was rushing to do so let’s have a good lunch. I ordered the half a litre bottle of red and took my time, eating the pizza and drinking the wine.
After the meal I went for a walk up and down the street before heading back to my hotel room and ended up having a nap. So wine in the afternoon is great for helping to get a few extra hours sleep in the afternoons it seems. The pizza was really good and I enjoyed devouring it.
GYROS HOUSE (KALAMPAKA)
This place showed up on all of the apps and also had more signage around the shop with the word vegan than anywhere else. So I decided to come here after waking up from my lunch wine nap for dinner. I opted for the vegan falafel plate. MY deconstructed falafel arrived and the falafels were delicious. They were so lovely and crunchy on the outside and not dried out in the middle. They were very nicely done. The chips were also good. It was a good sized meal ( I didn’t eat all the bread – kind of why I ordered the plate instead of a wrap), I was still quite filled from eating an entire pizza a few hours earlier.
O KAKOS O LYKOS (KAMENA VOURLA)
Kamena Vourla is a little seaside town about 2 hours from Athens. The main street runs along the beach and there are lots of restaurants. Nothing that really is highlighted by a vegan food search so I just went for a walk, sussing out the places. I stopped to read the menu and the host of this place came over and started to go through what he could offer me. A veggie sandwich actually really appealed to me so I went with that.
I had been up and driven, hadn’t really eaten and it was early afternoon. So sandwich o’clock it was. I really enjoyed it, especially with the mushroom. I also appreciated the effort in making something up to fit my requirements. I also got to sit and enjoy eating it with a beach side view. This ended up being my last ordered meal in Greece too.