In Thessaloniki restaurants, traditional Macedonian culinary, Middle-Eastern food and European cuisine play a dominating role. Thessaloniki is a prefecture known for its traditional cuisine and vast variety of foods. There are restaurants in regards to food, quality and customer service for all your preferences. There are gourmet restaurants, fusion restaurants, taverns and international cuisine in the centre of Thessaloniki, but also in the rest of the city. An integral supplement to a good meal in Thessaloniki is good wine. Macedonian grapes give wine their great taste. In most of the restaurants in Thessaloniki, you will need to make reservations as they are all packed, almost all hours of the day.

Tavern-barbecue

All the restaurants in Thessaloniki maintain the quality and culture of tastes they offer. The residents of Thessaloniki are demanding with their foods and unremarkable culinary is something that cannot be passed unnoticed. Thus, the standards of restaurants and taverns in the city are very high. If you like meat, don’t miss out on trying “kontosouvli” , “kebab”, “gardoumpes” and “giaprakia” at the restaurants in Thessaloniki. Another traditional plate you can’t miss is meatballs with tomato sauce. Traditional taverns are found in almost every part of the city but especially at Kastra.

Ouzo – tsipouro

Whereas if you like most seafood, visit one of the city’s seafood restaurant and try out lobsters, shrimps, fruits of the sea, prawns “saganaki”, “mydopilafo”, stuffed squid, and other seafood titbits. Make sure to accompany your seafood with ouzo, a Greek drink made up of various aromatic herbs and aniseed which is just the right thing to drink with this type of food. Another variety of beverage for alcohol lovers, a little be harder in taste, is Macedonian tsipouro or raki from Creta. Ladadika area's pedestrians are filled with "ouzeri" while at Aretsou and Nea Krini areas there are many fish-taverns and ouzeri.

Cheese pies - Sweets

The prefecture of Thessaloniki is also known for its ‘pitas’ with any filling you can imagine. As far as sweets are concerned, Thessaloniki is widely known for its "mpougatsa" pie, a sweet pie filled with cream and served with flour sugar and cinnamon ("mpougatsa me krema"). However mpougatsa can also be found with cheese with meat, with potato and other fillings. Visitors should also try "samali", a sweet made of semolina and almonds, "cazan dipi", a caramelized Turkish cream, a version of creme brulee and the famous "Panorama' triangles", syrupy sweet filled with cream. Some more traditional sweets are “touloumba and “ekmek kadaifi”. If you are into sweets, you will definitely go crazy with all the above.

Gyros

Take a stroll around centre in Thessaloniki and you’ll soon spot the Greek fast food outlets, souvlaki shops, cooking and selling gyros pitas and souvlaki to customers who walk on, enjoying their fast food in big, hasty bites. Of course some people prefer to sit at one of the few tables to enjoy their food in comfort and drink a beer. A “gyros” is a full turn and the verb “gyrizo” means “to rotate”. In Greece, gyros is also a type of fast food. Gyros turns, cooks and becomes a sandwich for passers-by. Why, the well-known upright spit stacked with thin slices of pork that rotates slowly in front of the electric bars or, in rare cases, coals. The heat melts the fat, which drips from the bottom end of the spit, and the fat cone of meat becomes nicely brown and crunchy as it turns. Sacks of chips are fried in nearby professional chip fryers, while the pita bread is basted in olive oil and heated on the grill. All these ingredients are part of the gyros you’ve just ordered. Thessaloniki is also famous for its big souvlaki, (pork meat slices in a round pita bread with potatoes, tomato, onions, and sadziki, a cucumber-yogurt-garlic sauce)

European

Thessaloniki has been a crossroad between east and west, especially during Byzantine times. As a result Thessaloniki's cuisine combines the spices of the east and the Mediterranean flavors. Whereas true fusion restaurants in Greece are often a rare finding, Thessaloniki’s restaurants suggests the concept of a European food restaurant, with the elegance of a Mediterranean gourmet dinner spots, some of them with the coziness of a bistro.

Asian

Thessaloniki initiates guests into the flavors of international and contemporary Asian cuisine. Lots of stylish restaurants, yet relaxed atmosphere blends gently with the vibes of the city's nightlife for a memorable Thessaloniki dining experience. There plenty restaurants with Chinese, Indian, and Indonesian food.

American

At the moment Thessaloniki hass only a well-known brand throughout the globe for all the barbeque, Tex – Mex, burgers and fries faithful. Two restaurants, one in the center, and its younger sibling - a recent addition to the Mediterranean Cosmos shopping mall for those near the eastern parts of the city.

Beer restaurants

Thessaloniki has many beer restaurants with references from the Wild West to the English bistros. Enjoy unlikely shank, burgers, hot dogs and sausages escorted by different variety of beers.