Dining at Vegera
Greece Travel Secrets eats at Vegera in Zaros and finds a cheap but
wonderful feast of meat, fish and vegetarian dishes cooked daily with fresh
local food.
The Vegera Restaurant in Zaros
We were staying in Zaros on Crete at the lovely Keramos
Studios, where they only serve breakfast, so we walked a minute round the
corner and found the Vegera Restaurant. It had been recommended to us by our
Cretan guide, Isi from Go Crete, who we knew by now could be relied on to find
the best eating places around.
Vegera is run by the vivacious Vee-Vee, who is part of the family that also runs the Keramos Studios. Not only is vee-Vee quite a character, we were soon to discover that she is also quite a cook.
Part of our Feast at Vegera
Dining at Vegera –
the Menus
Vee-Vee doesn’t have a regular menu, but three basic set-price menus and you choose one of these: Full Menu with Fish, Full Menu with Meat, or Full Vegetarian Menu.
When the restaurant opened in 2011 they decided they would only serve food cooked fresh that day. Zaros doesn’t get many visitors so it’s difficult to have a big menu and make everything fresh. They didn’t want to serve people yesterday’s moussaka but instead cook like you would cook at home.
We ordered some red and white wine and told Vee-Vee we would eat anything, so she offered us a mix of all menus. She then disappeared into the kitchen, where somehow she managed to conjure up a feast for each of the several tables that were full.
The Feast at Vegera
Lentil Soup
Stuffed Tomato, Stuffed Zucchini, and Moussaka
Vee-Vee Makes Great Pies Too!
Stuffed Cabbage and Stuffed Vine Leaves
We started with a dish of lentil soup, which smelled and
tasted fantastic. Then some cheese pies arrived, followed by spinach pies, a
plate of wild greens, some cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, some stuffed vine
leaves, a green salad, stuffed zucchini, stuffed tomatoes, stuffed peppers, several
mini moussakas, and finally a main
course which was a bigger dish of
beef, onion and rice.
Beef Stew
We thought that was it, but no. Finally came a whole trout,
which the town is noted for as there's a trout farm here. It’s one of only two
places on Crete where they farm trout. To round off the meal, Vee-Vee produced
a bottle of raki, and a piece of chocolate cake. When we came to pay I think
Vee-Vee simply made up a figure. As it was a remarkably small figure for such a
feast, we didn’t worry.
Local Trout
Dining at Vegera
Vee-Vee is very enterprising and also gives cookery courses,
organises cooking and wine-tasting holidays, and can arrange for people to eat
with the locals. Find out more on the website for the Vegera Restaurant
in Zaros.
And Finally (Really) Chocolate Cake!
Our Pick of the Crete Guides
Other Crete pages
This Lasithi Plateau drive on Crete starts in Neapoli and ends in Malia, covering a distance of 80 km (50 miles) and taking two to three hours.
Greece Travel Secrets recommends where to stay in Central Crete including hotels in Matala, Ayia Galini, and Zaros.
Greece Travel Secrets visits Visual Arts Crete who offer accommodation and run art courses at their home and studio in the village of Kastellos near Rethymnon.
The area east from Paleohora along the south-west coast of Crete includes resorts like Agia Galini, gorges like the Imbros Gorge and quieter towns like Sfakia.
Crete festivals and events include Carnival Easter, Whitsun, Christmas, many other religious feast days and public holidays.
Lonely Planet Crete is an excellent and thorough guide of almost 300 pages to the largest of the Greek islands.
The largest of the Greek islands, Crete has four ENUESCO sites, which are Sitia, Psiloritis, Asterousia, and the Gorge of Samaria.
Crete’s wildlife and landscape are two of the island’s attractions, including gorges for hiking, rare raptors like the lammergeier, wildcats and ancient trees.
The best things to do on Crete and top things to see include the Samaria Gorge, the Minoan Palaces at Knossos and Phaistos, the towns of Chania and Rethymnon.
We visit and tour the Manousakis Winery on Crete with a wine-tasting and a chance to buy their tsikoudia, sea salt, olive oil and other goodies.
For a Crete olive oil tour Greece Travel Secrets visits Biolea, one of the few olive oil factories on Crete that you can visit.
The Diktean or Diktaean Cave, also known as the Psychro Cave, near the village of Psychro in eastern Crete, is said to be the birthplace of Zeus.
What was daily life as a Minoan like on Crete, living in palaces like the ones at Knossos, Malia, Phaistos, and Zakros, and what were their religious beliefs?
Greece Travel Secrets visits the Zacharioudakis Winery near Ancient Gortina in southern Crete, and does a vineyard tour arranged by our guide from Go Crete.
Ancient Gortina is an archaeological site in southern Crete famous for the church of Ayios Titos and for the Law Code inscribed here, the first in Europe.
This drive along the west coast of Crete and inland from there will take a whole day and starts and ends in Kastélli Kissámou, west of Chania.
Icon painting is a centuries-old tradition in Crete and the rest of Greece, and Greece Travel Secrets meets a modern-day icon painter in Elounda on Crete.
The Dalabelos Estate offers luxury eco-tourism accommodation on Crete in the hills near Rethymnon with its own farm, vineyard and olive groves.
Greece Travel Secrets tours the Lyrarakis Winery on Crete and learns about Crete grape varieties such as plyto, dafni, vidiano, vilana, mandilari and kotsifali.
This olive grove walk from Limnes to Vrises on Crete also takes you through orchards and gives close-up views of some of the island’s windmills.
Greece Travel Secrets recommends where to stay in Irakleio, the capital of Crete, including nearby beach resort hotels and accommodation in the city centre.
The travel tale Our Hire Car in Crete describes what it’s like when you go driving in Greece and get off the beaten track, resulting in kindnesses.
Keramos Studios in Zaros on Crete is an inexpensive two-star hotel/guesthouse with one of the best breakfasts on the island using food from the family’s farm.
Greece Travel Secrets suggests where to stay in Eastern Crete with our favourite hotels in Zakros, Elounds, Sitia, Agios Nikolaos, Istron Bay, Myrtos, Neapolis.
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