A Culinary Journey Through Zagori: Pies, Stews, and Quality Meats

Traditional dishes, distinctive flavors with fresh ingredients, and charming tavernas serving local recipes.

Epirus cuisine is a treasure trove of flavors and traditions that reflects the rich history and culture of this region in northern Greece. Epirote cooking is a sensory experience that crosses aromas, tastes, and ingredients, taking influences from all its historical phases.

Zagori in particular is a region that hides an entire taste universe that successfully reflects the area's distinctive culture and rich nature. In Zagori's verdant world, gastronomy is closely connected with local agriculture and livestock farming. The area's residents use their land's natural products to create dishes rich in flavor and authenticity. In what follows, we'll make some interesting taste stops to try the iconic Zagori pies with aromatic greens, cheeses, flavorful and quality meats, and of course traditional sweets. Get ready to travel with your palate through a world of flavors you'll never forget.

Vitsa: Traditional Foundations

We begin this taste journey from the beautiful village of Vitsa, where under the iconic centuries-old plane tree in the square, we'll taste delicious stews, pies, and ultra-fresh meat at Strouga. She came here from Ioannina and has already become a meeting point for food lovers. We remain in Vitsa and visit a historic Zagori establishment, "Sta Riza." It's been here in recent years, but it had already made a "name" since the time we found it in Elati Zagoriou, since distant 2004. It serves traditional Epirote cuisine with small touches of modernization, more in terms of serving than cooking approach. In the same village, we'll meet the restaurant, a solid favorite that specializes in mushroom-based dishes, Kanella kai Garyfallo. Even if you don't like mushrooms, you'll still find tasty options.

Virginia's in Asprangeloi

In Asprangeloi, we'll go to Virginia's, who transformed her paternal home into a restaurant and is a solid favorite, giving life to an entire village. Daily simple ingredients transform into delicious dishes that smell of Epirote nature. Here, lessons in local cuisine and local knowledge are given, with pies at the top of everything, such as the fluffy pumpkin pie and the tasty mushroom pie. They're made with homemade pastry and the ingredients that will make up the filling are always of the best quality. Beyond pies, delicious dishes include oven-baked eggplant with chicken and graviera, and gigantes beans with greens made with eight types of wild greens, creating a unique taste you'll remember for a long time. At the grill is Alekos, Virginia's husband, who knows meat and grills delicious juicy lamb chops and fluffy burgers with 100% beef mince.

Montaza: Premium Meats

A few meters down, in the village square, you'll meet another reason that makes Zagori a special destination, among other things, for its food. It's Montaza, where you'll find delicious meats and salads that you can ideally pair with wines. Try a well-done rib-eye, or even an ideally grilled and flavorful tomahawk. Ask about the day's available meats and find time for a calm and relaxed meal.

Mikri Arktos in Tsepelovo

In Tsepelovo, in the square, we'll eat at Mikri Arktos, where the energetic and creative Giorgos Kittas chooses to cook based on local cuisine and its ingredients. Having studied as a chef and gained experience in kitchens alongside experienced cooks, he returned to his village, where his father had run Mikri Arktos since 1993, picking up the thread and continuing with a focus on his love for the place, food, and local products. The restaurant's menu includes ewe with leek in a clay pot, boiled goat, various pies, and the signature dish called "The Bear's Plate." It's pork with honey, nuts, dried fruits, and sour apple. Worth trying especially on cold winter days.

Lithos in Dilofo: Takis's Stories

We arrive in Dilofo and there we'll taste Takis's delicious dishes at his restaurant, Lithos. We'll start with the bread and let Takis tell us his own gastronomic stories, which he manages each time to present in a unique way and beyond expectations. Tradition and tweaked dishes join forces and unfold his talent. He mixes chickpeas with eggplants, creating a uniquely balanced flavor, makes red-sauced meatballs, fluffy and light in excellent tomato sauce. He serves oven-baked kid goat with potatoes and of course a variety of pies with the cheese pie and traditional Epirote zymaropita at the top.

Salvia at Aristi Mountain Resort

In Aristi, in the spaces of the luxurious Aristi Mountain Resort hotel, operates the restaurant Salvia. It's a restaurant that serves Greek cuisine with a touch of renewal and elevation. Kimon Ligdas, as executive chef, created a menu taking into account Zagori products while also including other options. He moves masterfully between traditional and modern, leaving a sweet aftertaste of real food, like the kind we all remember fondly. Here, we'll find beef carpaccio with truffle and sprouts, stuffed cabbage with pork mince, soutzoukakia, but also trahanas with winter trumpets, porcini mushrooms, and winter truffle. Hilopites, manestra, risotto, kleftiko lamb, and trout complete the menu.

Astra in Papingo: Garden-to-Table

Climbing up to Papingo, we'll go for food at Astra, where after a walk in the garden, we'll be initiated into the seasonality of products and sit either on the beautiful and well-kept veranda or in the hall. Local ingredients, a garden full of vegetables, a trout farm, and love for homemade food. Astra restaurant in Papingo is at the exit toward Mikro Papingo, in a stone building covered with rampant ivy. The garden, right next to the restaurant, reminds us of the concepts of seasonality and freshness.

Veranda 1700 Wine Restaurant

In Mikro Papingo, we'll go for food at Veranda 1700 Wine Restaurant, located at Mikro Papingo 1700 hotel. Also emphasizing seasonality and quality of raw materials, the taste comes to capture the terroir of Northern Pindos and takes us to steep green slopes and delicious surprises. You'll taste the best the place produces, exclusively from small Epirus producers. The goal is to support Epirus producers, placing visitors in the position of ambassadors for Epirus, its cuisine, and its products. Among the choices, we find Pogoni graviera and also from Paramythia, freshly fried potatoes from Chrysovitsa Metsovou, Zagori galotyri, and a series of imaginative salads. Also, Pogoni pork tenderloin, T-bone steak, free-range beef, various pasta dishes, and handmade ones complete the restaurant's menu.

Sotiria Tsigara in Ano Pedina

In Ano Pedina, in Kato Plateia as it's called, you'll find the well-kept restaurant Sotiria Tsigara, which stands out for its beautiful decor with classic furniture and for authentic Greek traditional cuisine at its best. Delicious stews, oil-based dishes like green beans, gigantes beans with greens, stuffed vegetables, okra, but also well-cooked oven lamb, red-sauced beef, boiled goat, wild boar with leek, and handmade pies with airy pastry complete Sotiria's gastronomic universe.

Common Questions

Where can I find this in Athens?

The Central Market (Varvakios Agora) on Athinas Street is the best starting point for any serious ingredient hunt in Athens. It's open weekday mornings and is genuinely one of the great food markets of Europe — chaotic, loud, and completely authentic. Go with a local if you can. I take people there on my Athens food walk.

What makes Greek versions of this different from what I've had elsewhere?

Greek cooking is obsessed with quality of ingredients, not complexity of technique. The olive oil is better. The tomatoes taste like tomatoes should. The feta is brined in whey, not plastic brine. When you eat the same dish in Greece vs. a Greek restaurant abroad, you're eating fundamentally different food.