An Odyssey Through the Region’s Best Greek Restaurants

Pictured: Inside House of Stefas in Millbrook

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey opened last Friday, and it’s got us hungering for all things Greek! In the film, based on Homer’s epic poem, Matt Damon's Odysseus spends the better part of three hours getting hurled around the Mediterranean by vengeful gods, Cyclops, and sorceresses, all while Anne Hathaway's Penelope holds down the fort in Ithaca and Tom Holland's Telemachus grows up without a dad. Ten years at sea, all for the promise of getting home to family and a good meal at his own table.

Here in the RI region, you don’t need a decade of wandering, or a single act of divine intervention, to eat excellent Greek food. We’ve got a great roster of Greek cooking, from postcard-perfect tavernas to a sprawling, multi-generational restaurant dynasty.

Aegean Breeze

327 Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington, MA

Chef-owner George Cami has been running this Route 7 mainstay since 2002, and it remains a dependable address for whole grilled fish and a proper raw bar. The menu ranges from grilled octopus ($18) and fried or char-grilled calamari ($16) to whole fish flown in fresh and often filleted tableside, plus a real Greek taverna atmosphere: an indoor fireplace in winter and a bistro-style patio in summer.

Come for the fish, but don't skip the classics: moussaka ($18.95), spanakopita ($16.95), and a traditional lamb gyro ($12.95) with tzatziki. The Greek salad, tossed in house made dressing, comes family style for $18 and can be topped with grilled salmon, chicken, calamari, or gyro meat for a few dollars more.

YiaYia's Greek Kitchen

1057 East Main Street, Torrington, CT

Owners Yanni and Kaitlyn Gogo met while working together at an event space in Astoria, and were saving up to open their own restaurant when Yanni's mother—YiaYia, Greek for grandmother—was diagnosed with cancer. Their restaurant fund went to chemo and radiation instead. She recovered, and when the couple settled in Torrington, they built a small Greek taverna around her recipes and named it in her honor.

White walls, turquoise trim, and bougainvillea decor make the room a quaint stand-in for a Santorini side street. The Yia Yia's Chips—fried zucchini and eggplant with tzatziki—run $15, a three-dip platter is $20, kasseri saganaki is flambéed tableside for $13, and a lamb gyro platter is $25. It's been named Best Greek Restaurant in Litchfield County by Connecticut magazine's Readers' Choice Awards.

House of Stefas

3299 Franklin Avenue, Millbrook, NY

House of Stefas, in the heart of Millbrook, is run by brothers John and Paul Stefanopoulos, the next generation of the Four Brothers regional restaurant dynasty. Their restaurant, opened last year,is what they call "freestyle Greek.” Envision an Aegean raw bar, a record player behind a mirror-tiled bar, animal statues, velvet, and a menu that runs from ceviche ($21) and Greek-yogurt-and-dill scallops ($24) to family-style feasts like salt-crusted whole fish ($180) and braised lamb shoulder ($225). There’s also a $220 caviar service with loukoumades. It is, by design, nothing like the roadside pizza joint their family built its name on.

For a lower-key entry point, pork souvlaki ($44) and the shared-plate menu at the Tiger Bar make for an easier night than committing to the full omakase-style Aegean Odyssey tasting menu. While at the bar try The Oracle ($22), a cocktail made with olive-oil-washed vodka and feta brine.

Four Brothers Pizza Inn & Restaurant

4957 Route 22, Amenia, NY

The Four Brothers in Amenia is the Stefanopoulos family's flagship, founded in 1976—four years after four Greek immigrant brothers opened their first pizzeria in Connecticut in 1972. Nearly fifty years later, Four Brothers has grown to nine locations. Alongside Amenia, you'll find outposts in Dover Plains, Hillsdale, Millerton, Pleasant Valley, Rhinebeck, Valatie, Great Barrington, MA, and one down in Mahopac in Putnam County.

All of them turn out the Greek-style pizza and bottled Greek dressing the chain has become known for, alongside solid souvlaki, gyros ($11.75), and a spanakopita served with Greek salad ($11.95). The family's Four Brothers Drive-In sits right behind the Amenia restaurant, complete with camping, an arcade, and double features.

Athena Gyro

1167 Route 55, LaGrangeville, NY

Established in 2016 and still run day-to-day by its owner, George, Athena Gyro has turned a pitspot right off the Taconic into a destination. The Greek sign out front translates roughly to "don't argue with your stomach," a point made in service of a classic menu of moussaka, youvetsi, gyro, and souvlaki. Reviewers particularly single out the swordfish platter and the baklava. If you're closer to Poughkeepsie, the same team runs Athena2Go, a quick-service takeout counter at Eastdale Village.

Mazi Greek Kitchen Bar

7588 North Broadway, Red Hook, NY

Owner Taso Giannoulis is a Red Hook native who's owned Enzo's Ristorante & Pizza in nearby Kingston for more than twenty years, but had long wanted to bring his mother's Greek cooking to his hometown. He opened Mazi (Greek for "together") in March 2023, building the menu around his Greek-born mother's family recipes and grilled dishes that recall weekend cookouts with his father—even the grilled octopus ($20) has a story, named for the dish he and his partner bonded over when they started dating. Spanakopita and tiropita are $15, baby lamb chops are $23, and the bar stocks Greek beers from Santorini alongside wines from his father's home village.

The room is modern and polished, with a raw bar presence, but the menu still leans into comfort—gyros and souvlaki with fries and salad, alongside octopus, lamb, and salmon.