Everyone has a favourite Greek restaurant in Sydney. Usually it is the one their parents took them to, or the one closest to their house, or the one where the owner knows their name. I respect that loyalty. But I have eaten at dozens of Greek places across this city over the past twenty years, and I have opinions.

This is not a definitive ranking. It is a personal guide from someone who grew up eating Greek food and knows what the real thing tastes like. I have left out places that charge thirty-five dollars for a plate of saganaki and places where the moussaka comes from a packet. What remains is a list of restaurants where I would happily eat any night of the week.

The Inner West: Still the Heartland

Marrickville remains the spiritual home of Greek food in Sydney. The community has been here since the 1950s, and while gentrification has changed the suburb, the Greek institutions endure.

The old-school tavernas along Marrickville Road are where you go for no-frills, generous, home-style cooking. You know the places: laminated menus, paper tablecloths, fluorescent lighting, and some of the best food in the city. The mixed grill plates are enormous. The dips are made in-house. The chips come with chicken salt whether you ask for it or not.

Earlwood and Canterbury have their own gems. There are a couple of spots on Homer Street in Earlwood that have been serving the same community for decades. The servings are vast, the prices are reasonable, and the grilled lamb cutlets are exceptional.

The CBD and Surrounds

The city has seen a wave of modern Greek restaurants over the past decade, and some of them are genuinely excellent. These are places that take traditional recipes seriously but present them in a more polished setting.

The better ones understand that modernising Greek food does not mean deconstructing it beyond recognition. A good modern Greek restaurant still serves a recognisable horiatiki, proper feta, and grilled meats over charcoal. What changes is the wine list, the ambiance, and perhaps some creative touches on the meze menu.

There are a couple of places in Surry Hills doing interesting things with Greek-inspired small plates. The kind of places where the octopus is grilled properly and the taramasalata is made with proper carp roe rather than the fluorescent pink stuff.

The Northern Beaches and North Shore

Greek food on the North Shore has historically been harder to find, but there are pockets of excellence. A few family-run places in places like Crows Nest and Lane Cove serve solid traditional food.

What I Look For

When I walk into a Greek restaurant, I check a few things immediately:

The bread. Is it fresh and warm? Is there olive oil for dipping? The bread tells you a lot about how seriously the kitchen takes its job.

The dips. Tzatziki, taramasalata, and melitzanosalata should all be made in-house. If the tzatziki is watery or the taramasalata is neon pink, these are red flags.

The grill. Greek food is fundamentally about the grill. Lamb, chicken, pork, and seafood cooked over charcoal or wood. If a restaurant does not have a proper grill, the food will lack that essential smoky character.

The olive oil. It should be Greek or at least good quality Australian. You can taste the difference between a kitchen that uses good olive oil and one that does not.

The wine list. A Greek restaurant should have Greek wines. Assyrtiko, Xinomavro, Moschofilero, Agiorgitiko. If the wine list is entirely Australian with no Greek options, the owners are missing the point.

A Note on Price

Some of the best Greek food in Sydney is also some of the most affordable. The old-school tavernas in Marrickville and Earlwood offer extraordinary value. A couple can eat extremely well for under sixty dollars including wine.

The modern Greek restaurants in the city and inner suburbs charge more, as you would expect, but they should also deliver more. Better wine, better service, a more refined experience. If a restaurant is charging premium prices for average food, it does not matter how nice the fit-out is.

My Advice

Do not chase trends. The Greek restaurant that has been on the same corner for thirty years, run by the same family, using the same recipes, is almost always better than the new place that just opened with a social media campaign and an influencer launch party.

Greek food is fundamentally honest food. It does not hide behind technique or presentation. When it is good, you know it immediately. When it is not, no amount of atmosphere can save it.

Find a place that feels like someone’s kitchen, where the food tastes like it was made by someone who cares, and keep going back. That is the Greek way.