Thessaloniki, Greece (October 12, 2025)
Food, glorious, food!
“I think we need to come back to Greece with a foodie,” Elena commented over lunch today. Why? I asked her. All we need to do is walk into any authentic Greek restaurant and we are likely to have one of the best meals of our life. Where’s the need for the guide in that?
Authentic Thessaloniki (Greek) restaurant via mom and pop owners
The plan was simple. Get off the boat. Walk past the tourist area down into the heart of the city of Thessaloniki and see where locals are gathering for lunch. Wherever there are many Greeks eating and old restaurant owners who look like they could be your parents (or grand parents) serving meals, then we’ve found the spot for lunch.
No Google. No Yelp. No ChatGPT, AI or other tech support. Just old fashioned burning shoe leather and see what we see.
Elena out in front wondering if this is the right direction we should go
The walk was beautiful. The water on one side and the shops on the other. Yes we needed to leave the tourist area and at the same time there’s a reason so many shops set up right here. The views are spectacular. I have a gut feeling that the restaurants here are not the best, but they for sure have the best views.
Violet finds one of many local cats hanging out at the restaurant
Once we were off the main road and deeper into the city, we began to see more outside seating and more locals dining. And yes, we did have a peek at the menu before we sat down. Seeing a few of the dishes we had in mind gave us comfort that we were not looking at a “fusion” or new age restaurant, but rather a traditional Greek style “just-the-way-your-parents-made-it” kind of food we were seeking.
Another epic meal. Violet ordered the “Traditional Beef Dish” (the English translation of the Greek name) and it was heavenly. Slow cooked beef, seasoned to perfection. Spinach and some sort of sauce that we light and delicious. That plus the slow cooked beef stew over eggplant puree, Greek salad, and even the simple chicken and large sized couscous in a light (tahini?) sauce. Everything was gone and no room for desert. So good. So authentic. So wonderful to be here enjoying this with my family.
We all miss Will (and Leo, our cat). Other than that, it was perfect.
Elena shared that Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece, after Athens. It felt very cosmopolitan. After lunch, Violet went back to the boat while Elena and I walked around a bit and explored further.
Back on the boat, Elena and I worked on finalizing our plans for Japan and Thailand so that when we get off the boat, we’ll have our train tickets for the places we need to travel to and flights that we hadn’t yet booked. There’s always a bit more left to do, isn’t there?
