(Heraklion, Crete, Greece)

Finding good local food is always a part of our travels. Fine dining – less so. But our dinner at Peskesi in Heraklion managed to tick both of those boxes without breaking the bank.

I had never heard of Peskesi before arriving in Heraklion. But when I was researching good local restaurants, its name came up again and again. And so did the recommendation to make a reservation well in advance. It turns out that Peskesi won the award for Best Organic Restaurant in Europe in 2025…so it is very much on the radar for “foodies.”

Although we arrived on a Friday afternoon, the next available table was early on the following Monday evening. As people tend to eat very late in Greece, and this being nowhere near the high season, that told me that the restaurant was not just popular with tourists. I grabbed the first available table for Monday evening,

While Peskesi won an organic food award, the restaurant is really all about eating local. Hyper-local, even. Their strict commitment to this approach was obvious: each item on the menu listed how many kilometres the ingredients travelled! Needless to say, everything was from Crete. And a substantial part was from their own farm just outside Heraklion.

Sensing that this going to be our only chance to eat at Peskesi, we did something we don’t normally do: we each ordered an appetizer and a main course (for sharing, of course). This may have been overkill, knowing that we were likely going to get a free dessert and raki afterwards, but we didn’t want to have any regrets.

Much of the food was unfamiliar. I had never heard of oxymelo (an aged balsamic vinegar with Cretan thyme honey), but there it was with local mushrooms and a sheep’s-milk cheese called antholago. That appetizer was probably our favourite dish. However, the other appetizer was also excellent: grilled Katsohiri cheese. It’s basically what we see in Greek restaurants as saganaki, but using the local Cretan cheese (similar to Gruyere) instead of a more common variety.

My favourite main course was the souhli. It was a large pastry stuffed with beef, tomato, and cheese. There wasn’t anything wrong with the kreokakavos (roast pork with honey and thyme), but I’m just not that much of a meat eater. I must say, however, that it was served on a dazzling plate!

As expected, a free dessert (and digestif) appeared here too. My wife asked for a non-alcoholic digestif, and had a very nice lemonade. I was pleased to see that the raki was much more refined here, with the addition of local rosewater. As with everything else, it had that elusive feeling of freshness.

As you can see from the photos, the setting was very nice indeed. But we were most impressed by the very helpful servers. They clearly loved what they were doing, and took the time to tell us all about the various unfamiliar foods. This made our meal especially memorable, and we wouldn’t hesitate to come back if we ever get back to Heraklion.

There’s still much more to come from Crete!