The best take-away restaurants Crete

On the main square, this delicatessen offers a pretty terrace where you can sample refined, light Cretan specialties, such as vine leaves with yoghurt and fresh mint (made with bulgur, not rice). Various local and regional products are also on sale, including Cretan wine. The idea is to cook creatively with ingredients from neighboring farms, often organic: recipes are kindly provided on request. If you feel like it, you can even take a cooking class.

An associative place, a sort of cooperative, offers a few tables inside and on the terrace. You can drink a very good coffee and enjoy some good, classic dishes. The menu is not very big but it will be enough to calm the small cravings after visiting the fortress of Réthymnon, just a few meters higher. In addition to being in a nice street and offering a pleasant and quiet setting, we like even more the idea that we are running a humane place and engaged in social struggles. Smiling and available staff.

Don't necessarily rely on the slightly classic appearance of this establishment from the street, as there is a beautiful terrace at the back, with a view of the sea during the day. Here you can enjoy a hearty breakfast before going to the beach, which is just behind. Also on the menu is a range of snacks and small pleasant dishes for a short lunch break. The desserts are just as good. A good address, practical at any time of the day. Free wireless internet and 4 large TV screens to watch the games.

At this address, the delicious and traditional puff pastries filled with fromage frais, sprinkled or not with sugar are a reference. Since 1924, Iordanis has been revamped. No more formica tables, the room is now ultramodern and very comfortable with its bay window overlooking the street. The recipe for the classic bougatsa is always the same, mixing the crispness of the dough and the melting of the cheese, the salty and the sweet. Unless you prefer the cream version. Their reputation has been established for two or three generations!

Not necessarily refined, that's why you're advised to go for a quick snack, share mezzedes for example, or take a gyros. It is especially the setting that is very pleasant, even if in a pedestrian street. The shady terrace allows you to enjoy a pleasant break. Service and proper atmosphere. A little tourist machine but the courtyard and tables on the street offer a profitable framework.

Translate the name of the restaurant as "cooking with love". In this tiny place of only a few tables, we choose our dishes in a showcase before they are brought to the table. Sofia, the owner, welcomes us in her restaurant as if we were at home. Traditional family cooking, copious and really delicious. If the place is a bit difficult to find, it is well worth the detour. Don't give up and make the small effort to find it.

Located at the same address for more than 50 years, just a few steps from the city's central market, Oasis is the street food spot in Hania. A must-visit establishment, it still keeps the secret of the seasoning and marinade that makes the meats so juicy and tasty. Wrapped in a grilled pitta or in the form of a sandwich (the bread used, the other key to success!), the gyros are accompanied by a yoghurt sauce, finely chopped tomatoes, onion, all sprinkled with sweet paprika... A must-taste!