Greek Food For Picky Eaters

A Greece family holiday is one you won’t soon forget. Ancient temples, sparkling beaches and friendly tavernas make Greece one of the most kid-friendly destinations in Europe. Adults will fall in love with grilled seafood, olive-oil-kissed vegetables and platters of meze. But finding Greek food for picky eaters on your family vacation may feel a little daunting.

We’ve traveled with our kids to countries with “tricky” cuisine before and always found a way to keep them fed and happy. One of ours kids is an especially picky eater, so we know the feeling of scanning menus and quietly wondering: Will he eat this?

The good news is that Greece turned out to be one of the easiest places to travel with a picky eater. Between the plentiful bakeries, simple grilled meats, familiar pizza, pastas and incredible fruit, you’ll have plenty to keep your picky eater well fed.

Our Top 8 Tips for Feeding a Picky Eater in Greece

Here’s how we found kid-approved food in Greece during our 2-week family trip to Athens, Meteora and the Greek Islands:

1. Begin at Home with Kid-Friendly Greek Food

In the weeks leading up to our family trip to Greece, we started making simple, non-spicy Greek meals so the flavors felt familiar. We kept it basic: pita with tzatziki, chicken souvlaki on the BBQ, etc.

In addition, to make it more fun, we’d occasionally take them to Greek fast food places (like Opa! in Canada). They didn’t love everything, but that’s ok… the goal was to give them a gentle introduction to the flavors they’d experience in Greece.

2. Finding Kid-Friendly Breakfast Food in Greece

For families traveling to Greece with a picky eater, we highly recommend getting a hotel with breakfast included. Even though we typically love renting apartments for the space, laundry, etc., we find the breakfasts in Greek hotels are so good, that they are hard to pass up!

Breakfast buffets in Greece typically offer eggs, yogurt, fruit, toast, cereal and pastries; tons of healthy, filling choices for a picky eater to get a great start to the day by filling their tummies. We let our kids eat without limit at our hotel breakfasts, as we could never quite trust that they’d be willing eaters at lunch.

All throughout our family trip to Greece, we were able to find hotels with family-friendly room configurations, along with a free breakfast. For example, our family-friendly hotel in Athens had the best hotel breakfast of our entire trip. I provide all the details in my post on visiting Athens with kids.

3. Lunch in Greece for Picky Eaters

For lunch on the go, simple take-out restaurants and snack bars made things simple. Chicken or pork souvlaki (skewers) are everywhere and are easy to order plain.

We were especially successful getting our kids to eat pita wraps for lunch. With many visible French fries jutting out of the pita wrap, it’s easy to convince a kid that a pita wrap is a kid-friendly meal. Greeks love their onions though, so don’t forget to ask for it without the onions (and maybe the garlic sauce too).

4. Dinner in Greece for Picky Eaters

Our strategy for eating dinner in Greece with a picky eater was to encourage him to eat Greek food, but to keep it his choice. Each night, we’d try to find a well-reviewed restaurant which had familiar Greek food which he would eat.

His go-to Greek dinner was pork souvlaki, which always came with plenty of French fries. We wouldn’t force him to get it, but he probably ordered it about 1/3 of the time – I’d take that as a win!

For all the other nights during our family trip to Greece, we’d let him order familiar favorites from back home. Most Greek restaurants have a kids menu, and almost all of them offer American favorites such as chicken fingers, hamburgers, etc.

Another favorite dinnertime strategy of ours when we travel to international destinations with different foods is to go for pizza every 4 nights or so. We love going for pizza as we are guaranteed that our kids will stuff their faces to the point of bursting. Pizza can often act as a catch-up for missing calories if kids don’t eat as much as they should. As a huge bonus, Greek pizza is some of the best pizza in the world!!

5. Greek Desserts for Kids

One great thing about going out for family dinner in Greece every night is that most restaurants offer a complimentary sweet for dessert. We used this as an incentive for our kids to eat a good meal, so they could enjoy their after-dinner treats.

Of course, there are many opportunities to enjoy sweets throughout the day as well. Some of our favorites were loukoumades (honey doughnuts) and baklava. And, of course, gelato / ice cream is available just about everywhere you look – we’d often use this as a reward for a great outing – like when we enjoyed one of these family-friendly hikes on Crete.

6. Why Greek Bakeries Are Perfect for Picky-Eaters

We quickly discovered that Greek bakeries are the perfect last resort for situations where we couldn’t find suitable food for our picky eater. Greek bakeries are everywhere and are filled with tasty and filling goods to offer to a picky eater.

Hotel breakfasts were never a problem with our kids in Greece, but we’d often use bakeries to get something for lunch. There would never be a fight over lunch at a Greek bakery. Let your kids pick out baked goods which look appealing to them, but gently steer them towards more filling items like tiropita (cheese pie).

7. Stay Hydrated

Hot days around ruins and island beaches can crush appetites. We kept refillable water bottles with us and said yes to fresh juices or smoothies more than we do at home. Take it from our experience – dehydrated kids are cranky and uncooperative. On the flip side, well-hydrated kids are more co-operative about everything – including trying new foods!