The Essential Gluten Free Guide to Greece

I was midway through my dessert at a tiny restaurant on Syros, Greece, when I realized that I might have made a mistake. A soft and pliable custard topped with honey rested on a base that seemed far too wheat-like for my liking, especially given that the restaurant had not heard of celiac disease before I ordered.

Before eating, I showed restaurant’s owner my free gluten free travel card, and had explained that eating any wheat would make me really sick. He assured me that the dessert had no wheat or flour in it at all, that it was full of honey and dairy products and “beyond delicious.”

On the latter front, I completely agreed. On the former, not so much—that night was one where I communed heavily with the toilet in my tiny bedroom. Since the restaurant was near where I was staying, I returned the next day to ask about ingredients. He listed them off, wheat-free. I asked what the base of the dessert was made of.

“Pastry dough!”

“Wait,” I said, “pastry dough? Made from wheat flour?”

Sheepish recognition slowly dawned on his face. “Ah, yes. But you didn’t say pastry dough? You said wheat flour…?”

Well, that explained everything.

LAST UPDATED MAY 4, 2023 

Already know you want a gluten free restaurant card? You can buy my Greek card here, as well as Italy, Japan, Spain, and more! 
what to eat in athens if you're gluten free: picture of athens in miniature
Athens in miniature from the Parthenon

For celiacs, eating out can be incredibly stressful. It’s not merely a strong stomach ache, or a dash to the toilet. It’s that for many of us, the next morning you find that you cannot bend your joints in your hands, or you are lethargic and weary for days. There are varying levels of people affected by the disease,  but I realize when travelling to foreign places that my stomach’s restrictions are an imposition on cultures that are not as sensitive to allergies or autoimmune diseases as my own.

Tips for eating gluten free in Greece

  1. Be aware of cross-contact risks: Thankfully, french fries are fried in a separate fryer more than I was used to coming from North America, but it’s important to convey the risks of grilling on the same surfaces and, for gyro spots, that you can’t have any bread touching your meat.
  2. BYOB — not GF beer, GF bread! In addition to any snacks to tide you over between meals, a lot of the things I ate in Greece were delicious appetizer sized dishes that are normally served with pita. I brought some rice crackers to scoop things up, but see below for some options of where you can purchase gluten free crackers, bread, or other “I need this to scoop up my delicious eggplant dip” and other mezedes items.
  3. If you’re not vegetarian, opting for grilled meat and vegetables with rice is often a safe bet Concerns with this option including if the meat was marinaded in anything with wheat—in my experience, it was not as lemon juice, yoghurt, and herbs were used often—and if the rice has any bouillon / soup base that isn’t safe to flavour. Generally grilled seafood or meat with veggie sides was an option anywhere I visited in Greece.
  4. Salads ahoy! If you have a grilled main you set your eyes on but there’s no sides you enjoy, greek salads are a delicious option to fill you up and make you wish you could stay there forever.
  5. GF on a menu isn’t a guarantee, but GF on a label is. Being part of the European Union, Greece is required to follow gluten allergen laws for the EU as a whole, which means that products marked with the “crossed grain” gluten free symbol have met the standard of the Association of European Coeliac Societies (AOECS).

Celiac disease in Greece

Per the Greek celiac disease association, called the Hellenic Celiac Society, the first diagnoses of children with celiac disease began in 1977, at the Agia Sophia Children’s Hospital, by a pediatrician-gastroenterologist Dr. Eleftheria Roma. Dr. Roma advocated for more awareness and support, and finally in 1987 the Hellenic Celiac Society was founded.

The Greek celiac association has worked since 2011 to cooperate with shops that had already started producing gluten-free products, informing and training apprentice cooks and pastry chefs about the needs and specifics of gluten-free preparation, and has consulted with neighbouring celiac associations in Europe to help raise awareness in Greece.

In Greece, as in many countries, knowledge of celiac disease is limited and under-diagnosis of the disease remains a significant issue. Not including the underdiagnosed, the European Parliament estimates between 1% and 1.5% of the population of Europe (7 million Europeans) suffer from celiac disease.

A detailed Greek gluten free restaurant card

In the case of my Greek dessert, this was not the chef or owner’s fault. Yes, I was sick because of a mistranslation, but there was no point in getting upset at him as he was merely trying to help and to ensure I tried all of the foods that I could in his beloved city. I did explain that pastry dough was made with wheat flour, in the event another celiac came through. But more importantly, I wanted to provide a better gluten free card, with specific translations and a longer list of items that we, as celiacs, could eat.

To build this detailed card, I availed myself of a contact with Helen from Discover Greece, a private sector-led tourism organisation. She happily connected me with several people who made the rest of my Athens trip wheat-free, including the lovely Despina from Culinary Backstreets.

Despina was kind enough to not only sit down and talk about my attempts to eat gluten free in Greece, but also offered to have me test out an Athens food tour tailored to celiacs, which included buckwheat bread (see below for bakery info), perfect for mopping up fava and feta.

greek gluten free translation card for travel, by legal nomads
Click to head over to the purchase page.

An English translation of the card will be emailed to you after your purchase. .

Note: The card is available for purchase via trustworthy 3rd party site that uses https, so you know your information is safe.

Why is this translation card different?

For starters, this detailed gluten free restaurant card will help communicate your eating restrictions, and allow you to understand what is safe and unsafe from the menu.

Note: The card is available for purchase via Gumroad, a trustworthy 3rd party site that uses https, so you know your information is safe.

I used several different translation cards on my travels, and as you read—I still got sick.

This card is different because:
✅  Immediate download, sized specifically for mobile. You can save it to your phone and have it with you as you travel, or you can print it out and laminate it to take along.
✅ It uses ingredients and lists of what you can/cannot eat help you eat safely, not just “I can’t eat gluten”.
✅ Unlike less-detailed cards, this card explains that contaminated surfaces or oils are also unsafe.
✅ It is researched by a celiac and goes through two sets of translations to ensure accuracy.

Eating gluten free in Greece: naturally GF dishes, desserts, and snacks

During my food walk, Despina chatted about the influence of both Asia Minor and Turkey on the current state of Greek food, reaching back into her own family’s history and further still to Greek mythology.

From the basic staples in Greece – olive oil, pulses, wine, grains — to newer starches like potatoes, which were introduced by the government in the 1830s, she gave a great overview of diet in different parts of Greece. “Food is a form of joy and love,” she said. I can’t disagree.

For the most part, the following suggestions include restaurants that are not specifically gluten free, but rather include menus or dishes that are safe to try. As with other celiac guides on this site, I have included dishes that have wheat or covert breadcrumbs/wheat, because this country likes to use them thicken unexpected things.

Like parsley dip.

Also, note that in my months in Greece, I found that fries are usually fried in separate oil, meaning that they were uncontaminated and delicious. Celiacs, be warned: if you love fries as much as I do, you might need to factor in some workouts to your visit to Greece. I asked at every place I went to that served French fries, and each one was appalled that I would even suggest they fry their fries with other food—they was all safe to eat, but do please keep asking just in case!

Fresh and roasted vegetables: always a good bet

celiac guide to greece: naturally gluten free dishes include fresh vegetables
Fresh boiled vegetables in Athens

Even when not on the menu, most restaurants will have a simple dish of steamed vegetables served with lemon. In the event you cannot find a side dish that works for your stomach, the chef will almost always oblige. Type of vegetables will vary wildly depending on the season.

There is also briam, a beautiful all-veggie dish with zucchini, eggplant, potatoes, and a tomato sauce with oregano. No flour is used in the recipe traditionally. Garlic and onions, coated with olive oil, are added for extra flavour. It’s very tasty!

Grilled chicken or meat: beware of marinades— but they were few and far between.

Wander around near a subway station or market and you will inevitably find (and smell) a rotisserie or souvlaki joint offering gyros, or grilled chicken, or the classic souvlaki. The platters of meat or chicken are often the most expensive as they are still served with bread, but with double the portions of meat.

I found that asking for a regular gyro but without the bread resulted in confusion but also exactly what I needed—a small portion of meat with some vegetables. I ordered the platter when I was sharing with friends.

Please do show your celiac card at the same time, as the reasons for your pickiness are medical, not finicky. It goes a long way toward getting you a plate but doing so respectfully. For those with bigger appetites, the platters will be great—just be sure to keep asking for no pita because inevitably the platter has two thick, warm slices throw atop the meat and salad when served.

For the marinades: some countries on my travels used marinades that have hidden wheat via soy sauce or wheat-based vinegars. In Greece, most of the meat was marinated in a combo of white wine vinegar, oregano, yoghurt, lemon juice, onions and garlic. Sometimes the occasional bell pepper. But never (in all the times I asked) was it marinated in an unsafe ingredient for me.

For souvlaki, I also loved the cheap food and really fun outdoor ambience at Gyristroula, located at 9 Agion Asomaton Square, corner of Adrianou street, across from the Thissio subway station.

Fetastic! Eggplant with feta or meat with feta

(Note, this is not moussaka—moussaka does have flour in it; this is a much more simple eggplant, tomato and feta dish.)

gluten free dishes include this eggplant with meat or feta dish, topped with tomato sauce
Eggplant, feta, and tomatoes – one of my favourites.


Eggplant was in season during my Greece visit, and Greeks know precisely how to use it in their food. Baked with pillows of feta and chunks of lamb, or roasted like an open-faced sandwich, toppings piled high, or tucked into tomato sauce and topped with fresh herbs. You name it, and it tasted delicious.

With the exception of moussaka or fried eggplant dishes, I had great success with any baked eggplant on the menu.

Where: I ate the first dish pictured above at a place called Gougoumeze, conveniently located close to the gyro place above at 10 Sina Street, also in Kolonaki.

Feta

is feta gluten free? yes! Enjoy it.
Fresh feta in barrels near Athens’ central market

“For the Greeks, cheese is not a food supplement, it is food.”

—The Trade and Environment Database’s Case Study on Feta.

Growing up in North America, I associated feta with any white cheese that was in brick form and could be placed on a salad.

This was a mistake.

Feta is, much like other products of specific origin, the subject of considerable controversy.

Cornell has a long piece on ‘the Feta wars‘, but essentially Feta was affording a status of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), meaning that a cheese cannot be called “Feta” without it satisfying certain conditions. Namely, (a) the cheese must be produced and matured in a specific geographical region, (b) the use of chemical substances for the maturing and colouring of the cheese is prohibited, (c) the milk must not contain any antibiotics, and (d) it must be produced in the traditional manner.

Since a 2005 judgement from the European Court of Justice, white soft cheeses that resemble feta but not fulfilling the requirements above must be labelled differently.

In any event, the Feta I tried in Greece was like no other. Some more briny than versions I have tried in Canada, some soft, some merely crumbling under the weight of my fork. I would urge anyone travelling to Athens to go to Athens’ big central market, and try as many as you can.

Greek salads and grape leaves

After months in Southeast Asia, I was craving salad like nobody’s business, and nothing prepared me for just how glorious these salads could be in Greece. From chunks of feta over a simple cucumber, olive oil, tomato, and onion salad (I removed the olives, of course), to tomatoes, mint, and Feta, the herbs fresh from the garden.

When I did not see salad on the menu I merely asked for what was available. Without fail, I received a bowl of fresh and flavourful vegetables and fruit for the eating.

For those with celiac disease, these salads are a lifesaver if you are at a quick restaurant with little non-wheat options.

Also an option: dolmades (dolmathes), or stuffed grape leaves. This dish is made with grape leaves (sometimes cabbage leaves), which are stuffed with herbed rice and then steamed until the leaves are tender. Variations include a meat-based version, where lamb or beef minced meat is included in the rice, or a bigger stuffed cabbage leaf dish called lahanodolmades. Note that this cabbage dish has a creamy egg-based sauce as a topper, which is usually made with cornstarch but it’s important to confirm Bechamel was not used, which has flour.

Grilled fish or squid

gluten free eating in greece includes plenty of grilled fish.
Fish heads at the market in Athens
griled squid, among the many gluten free dishes I found in athens
Grilled squid with lemon and herbs. SO GOOD.

A simple safe meal, I often opted for grilled fish or meat prepared with herbs and served with a generous half or quarter of a lemon.

Again, for those times where fried fish in batter was on the menu, it was an easy request after proffering my GF card to see if a special grilled version could be made on my behalf. Restaurants were happy to oblige with a batter-free protein option, and the grilling meant that I was not worried about cross-contamination with oil used for breaded dishes.

Fava dip and tzatziki

Fava dip, often made with yellow split peas (λαθούρι) is a purée seasoned with onions, olive oil, and fresh parsley. It is ordered as a meze, eaten at room temperature or slightly warmed, scooped up with huge chunks of bread. I was able to pick up my own bread in Athens made from 100% buckwheat from Pnyka, thanks to a call ahead to order it ahead of time.

You will see fava dip on the menu just about everywhere if visiting in the spring/summer. I have tried many versions of split peas, fava bean hummus, and other bean dishes but I still find myself craving the creamy yellow dip from Athens, especially soaked in fresh lemon juice.

safe for celiacs: fava dip in greece
Fava dip in Athens: safe for celiacs!

Tzatziki is a dish many of us are familiar with, a yoghurt dip with cucumber and often some fresh mint. None of the restaurants I frequented used flour or any other thickener in their tzatziki, and were tremendously offended that I even thought that they would dare to do so.

Apaki: a smoked pork dish from Crete

The photo below is from a more artisanal version of apaki, a Cretan smoked pork dish where the pork is sliced in strips and then marinated in vinegar and spices for days, then seasoned further and smoked under a slow heat.

The point, whether it is a beautifully presented version or otherwise, is that it is delicious—and gluten free. As with other meat, the liquid in the marinade used has no wheat (it’s either red wine or red wine vinegar), and the blend of spices and sauces do not have flour in them traditionally. I always ask to confirm, but the recipes do not call for any wheat-based ingredients in the marinade. Some use molasses as well, for extra flavour.

This dish’s marinade include bay leaves, thyme, oregano (of course!), white wine vinegar and cumin, as well as salt and pepper. If you wanted to try this at home, I have used this recipe, with red wine vinegar.

greek islands gluten free food includes apaki, a Cretan smoked pork dish
Apaki, a delicious dish of marinated pork from Crete

Yoghurt-based desserts

Even if the dessert menu tended to specialize in cakes, it was often possible to mentionc celiac disease and then receive a yoghurt and honey plate (or, if I was lucky, yoghurt and cherry compote) instead.

gluten free desserts greece include yoghurt topped with walnuts and local honey.
A safe dessert for celiacs: Greek yoghurt with walnuts and honey

If you want to try it in its best environment, you can eat at Stani, a dairy in downtown Athens where the house yoghurt is made out of sheep’s milk from dairy farms just outside Athens.

Address and review from Culinary Backstreets here.

Packaging for products in Greece are subject to EU labeling laws

As mentioned in the “tips” section, the European Union follows a strict standard for gluten free goods, and only foods that contain less than 20ppm (parts per million) can be labelled as gluten free / use the “crossed wheat” symbol, a version of the symbol below.

Further, any packaged foods in the UK and the EU are covered by labelling laws that require allergen information to be disclosed on the label. So if an item contains gluten, it must say so by law.

(In European countries, including Greece, products with a gluten level of between 21 and 100 ppm are labeled as “very low gluten”. Of course, celiacs must avoid these.)

Gluten free restaurants in Greece

Prior celiac guides were written with my own restaurant recommendations, tested from travels as a celiac. In 2017, my life took a big turn when a botched lumbar puncture left me with a chronic spinal CSF leak, and disabled. As a result, the restaurant and shop recommendations in this guide are put together via community crowdsourcing, and have not been personally tested. While I have been to Greece, my recommendations are outdated, and I have turned to fellow celiacs to help fill that gap and keep you as safe as possible.

ATHENS:

  • Arcadia: higher-end greek food with traditional dishes and beautiful presentation. Knowledgeable about celiac disease, but no separate GF menu. 
  • Greek Stories: the Gluten Free Project offers traditional Greek food, wholly gluten free. This spot opened after I visited Athens, and I wish It was there when I was in town! The menu of dips, appetizers, main dishes, and more all look amazing.
  • Nudie Foodie Psiri: Dedicated gluten free cafe with a focus on vegetarian food. Serves quite a variety of foods, including pancakes (and keto pancakes!), waffles, salads, GF pizza, and sweets. 
  • Anthema: now with two locations in Athens, this vegan, dairy free, and gluten and sugar free cafe has a surprisingly large menu of smoothies, salads, savoury meals, and snacks, as well as a shop with GF products available for purchase.
  • Avocado: pasta, rice bowls, appetizers and side dishes: this healthy vegan spot offers gluten free options and a knowledgeable staff about celiac disease. Confirm with gluten free bread substitutions that any toasting is done without CC.
  • Yi: A gluten free facility that opened in 2014, this restaurant markets itself as a plant-based haven. Chef Anna Hohlaki focuses on creative vegan and raw vegan dishes, with no preservatives or other additives, no sugar and no wheat flour. With main courses, salads, cheesecakes, and other sweets, they have a lot to choose from for celiacs who don’t mind avoiding meat for a delicious meal.
  • Le Greche Ice Cream Shop: artisanal gelato with unique flavours, this shop is aware of celiac disease and will use separate tubs to ensure no CC for people who need it. Great spot for homemade, rich treats.

NAXOS:

  • Pizzadelia: offers gluten free pasta and pizza, with a knowledgeable staff and confirmation that food is prepared in a separate area so it is safe for celiacs.
  • Meze Meze/Meze2: dedicated fryer, delicious traditional greek food, and though they don’t have a separate GF menu, much of it is naturally gluten free. Rave reviews, and a staff knowledgeable about celiac disease as well.
  • Naxian Capriccio: menu fully labeled for GF options, knowledgeable about celiac disease, and great grilled seafood and meat.

MYKONOS:

Pepper Souvlaki & More: most of us are used to just trying souvlaki without the pita, once we’re assured that they do not wipe the pita on the meat skewers. In this case, Pepper has gluten free pita available—so you can try it the traditional way, messy and delicious. As with many restaurants, a dedicated fryer (though in reality, it’s more a “separate potato fryer because why would we mix our potatoes with anything else” spot), so the fries are safe too.

Food that ISN’T gluten free in Greece

Saganaki Cheese – named after the pan in which it is made, cheese cooked saganaki style is pan-friend and coated in flour, served piping hot.

Parsley Dip  (Maintonasalata – mαϊντανοσαλάτα) – this delicious parsley dip unfortunately includes bread crumbs, something I only realized late in the game. For those who are not gluten free, a recipe is here. It’s delicious.

Moussaka (mousaká – μουσακά) – I mentioned this earlier, to differentiated it from baked eggplant, because moussaka includes a creamy Bechamel sauce that is thickened with wheat flour. It is possible to make it safe for celiacs, but most recipes will use wheat flour instead of a substitute.

Papoutsakia (Melitzanes papoutsakiaπαπουτσάκια) – this is a stuffed eggplant dish where the eggplants are first seasoned, baked, and then stuffed with a tomato-based meat sauce and then topped with Bechamel sauce before being put back in the oven until crispy. They are sometimes topped with bread crumbs. Clearly a no go!

Fish roe Dip (Taramasalata – ταραμοσαλάτα) – this dip is made from tarama, the salted and cured roe of cod fish, or carp. The roe is mixed with olive oil, lemon juice, and—here’s where we get into the weeds—some thickener, often bread or flour.

Pastitsio – Pastitsio (or pastichio or pasticcio or pastizio) is Greece’s answer to lasagna. It’s a baked pasta dish with (WAIT FOR IT) Bechamel sauce, meat, and uses penne or smaller tubular pasta traditionally, instead of the long lasagna pasta you find in Italy. It’s a fun dish, and the word pastitsio means “hodgepodge”—but sadly it is off limits for us.

Meat Balls (Keftedes) – Perfectly fried balls of meat, with bread crumbs included at no extra cost. Sigh.

Also off limits are tomatokeftedes, a dish of tomato fritters found on Santorini that use diced tomatoes, onions, mint, and feta cheese, as well as flour to thicken before they are cooked. And, kolokithokeftedes, a fried zucchini fritter from Crete that is also thickened with flour before it is cooked.

Meze like meatballs are not gluten free and are usually thickened with flour
Meatball meze in Athens

Patsitsio – a beef and pasta dish, which also has (yet again!) flour Bechamel sauce on top.

Vegetable stews – important to ask about these at restaurants, since many are thickened with flour. In addition, there is giouvetsi, a beef stew that uses orzo pasta in the recipe, a wheat-based pasta.

Spanokopita – a cheese and spinach pie.

Tiropita – a cheese pie.

Tirokroketes – fried cheese balls that use graviera, feta, and gouda cheeses, all or a combination thereof, which are mixed with bread crumbs and fried.

Bougatsa and other phyllo desserts – bougatsa is a breakfast dessert, with a base of phyllo (a thin dough used in pastries and the item that got me sick in the introduction to this piece) and a custard made from semolina (wheat) custard, or cheese.

I spent most of my time in Greece on the island of Syros, and have a guide to sights and food on that island, also.

Further reading for gluten free dining in Greece

* * *

Happy and safe eating!

For the rest of my free celiac guides, see here.

-Jodi

gluten free athens and greece
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