Top 5 Greek restaurants in Toronto
Published August 16, 2024 at 3:27 pm
The top Greek restaurants in Toronto transport diners to faraway isles. Spanakopita, souvlaki, gyros, dips, salads, lamb, seafood and all the feta you can handle can be found on the menu at these places.
Greek traditions are strongly rooted in a culture of sharing food, and these spots have plenty of mezes that everyone at the table can dig into.
Building blocks of tomato, cucumber, onion, olives, dairy, herbs, grilled proteins and fresh veggies all come together to create something truly wonderful at these Greek restaurants, usually accompanied by soft, fluffy bread.
Here are some of the best spots to get Greek food in Toronto.
5 – Pantheon
The Danforth is where to head for a taste of Toronto’s Greektown, with many Greek restaurants clustered in the area. This is one of them, serving everyone’s Mediterranean favourites since 1997.
Here, you can find go-to appetizers like dips as well as rarer options like market price small fish imported from Greece. For something fresh and light but very flavourful, opt for the iconic horiatiki salad. Rustic chunks of tomato, cucumber and pepper mingle with a ton of onions and capers that balance out the sweetness of the veggies with brine and acidity, and a few olives add a pop of richness.
This place is known for its gyros, available in pork, chicken, a mix of both, or beef and lamb. They’re stuffed with fries, tomato, onion and tzatziki, and the crispy caramelized meat is shaved off rotating spits in full view of the entryway to the restaurant.
The restaurant has been operating for over 20 years, and their gyros are made using a recipes that dates back to the 1960s. These gyros might just be the closest you can get to ones on the streets of Greece.
If you want to deviate from the gyros they’re famous for, Messini also serves souvlaki, as well as typical appetizers and options like Greek poutine with feta.
3 – Mezes
This restaurant was once located a few doors down on the Danforth, but they’ve now moved into a bigger corner spot, with the old location solely doing takeout, catering and private events. Big groups head here for platters of dips, seafood and meats as well as mezes like meatballs made using a secret family recipe, plus hearty traditional main dishes.
Out of the lineup of textbook Greek fare here, souvlaki is a great option, available served with bread or in a full dinner with salad, rice, roast potatoes and tzatziki. The chicken is juicy, tender and well seasoned, and you can’t go wrong accompanying it with pillowy pita that soaks up all the meat’s juices and the creamy tzatziki.
2 – Koukla
Try some of the tastiest mezes in Toronto at this Ossington small plates restaurant that represents the best of Greece.
A raw bar offers flavours of the sea, and other shareables like kebabs and salads highlight the brightness of Greek cuisine in a fresh, modern way. Impressive cocktails here are just as Greek as the food, with one option called the Tzatziki that remarkably recalls the famous dip.
The lamb ribs are a standout, incredibly rich with a touch of char to them, served with cooling tzatziki and acidic, balancing pickled onion that brings the whole bite together.
1 – Mamakas
Elegance meets traditional Greek flavours at this airy tavern on Ossington. Classic dishes like Greek salad, iconic dips, lamb chops, whole fish, souvlaki and saganaki are reinvented here, but are still powerfully recognizable.
One of the most notable of these reinventions is the spanakopita, a fat spiral of paper thin pastry that conceals a thick, creamy filling of cheese and spinach. The sticky, lacquered surface cracks apart as you break into it.
Even a simple dish of olives or feta accompanied by a cocktail, wine or a Greek beer from this restaurant will have you feeling like you’ve just stepped off the boat on a beautiful island.
