A charming and homely little Greek taverna off Camden’s main drag, Andy’s is a local classic with more than 50 years of service under its belt. The menu offers a whistle-stop tour of the Aegean at wallet-friendly prices, with a whole heap of mezédes preceding meaty stalwarts, ranging from pork afelia and sheftalia to grills, kebabs and steaks. During the week you can get a three-course lunch for under a tenner – just the ticket if you fancy catching some rays in Andy’s white-walled courtyard.
September 2019: We’ve added Meraki (a Greek outing from the guys behind Roka and Zuma), plus Pitta Bun (a fast-casual offshoot of Marylebone’s Opso) and the new White City restaurant from The Athenian street food chain. It’s also time to big-up some of London’s best-loved Hellenic evergreens, including Andy’s Taverna (a Camden fixture for more than 50 years), Aphrodite Taverna and Kalamaras in Bayswater, Retsina in Belsize Park and the Sappho Meze Bar – a dinky, cash-only favourite in Clapham.
While great Greek restaurants in London can still feel as hidden away as the the army inside a Trojan Horse, things have more than come on since The Real Greek’s Hellenic heyday. North London’s still a hotbed for Greek eateries, catering to settlements of cheerful Cypriot and Greek expatriates hungry for souvlaki, kleftiko and gigantes as good as they taste back home. But a new breed of restaurants doing modern Greek small plates, ace riffs on the classics and fab vegetarian dishes abounds across the city. Look below for our list of the capital’s ultimate Greek restaurants.