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Melbourne's top 10 Greek food spots 2015

Anastasia Safioleas

There's so much more to Greek cuisine than overstuffed takeaway souvas eaten at the end of a long, boozy night. Melbourne, rich with Greek restaurants, delis, cake shops and, yes, souvlaki joints, is perhaps the best city in the world outside of Athens to explore everything the cuisine has to offer. Here are The Age Good Food Guide 2016 team's favourite Greek restaurants and cheap eats, as well as the best places to buy Greek cheese, smallgoods and sweets.

Big Vic Deli

A Dairy Hall fixture for 45 years, and held by the same Greek family for the entire time, Big Vic Deli is renowned for its sheep's milk kefalograviera cheese, loukaniko sausages (red wine, orange zest or leek), plump house-marinated kalamata olives and cumin-spiced pastourma, the Ottoman-inspired air-dried beef available thinly sliced or as a village-style sausage.

Shop 25-28, Dairy Hall, Queen Victoria Market, corner Victoria and Elizabeth streets, Melbourne, 03 9328 1633

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Cretan flavours abound at elegant Elyros: resolutely traditional dishes such as wild weed pie, creamy manouri cheese, platters featuring horta (wild greens) and vegetables and bougatsa pastry parcels filled with cinnamon-flecked semolina custard. A shot of fiery raki is mandatory.

871 Burke Road, Camberwell, 03 9882 8877, elyros.com.au

Gazi

Sleek and sexy Gazi has elevated the humble souvlaki. Fluffy pita swaddles fillings such as soft-shell crab with mint and honey or duck with pear and mustard mayo. Wood-grilled fish and slow-braised lamb shoulder with kalamata olives and salty nuggets of feta are standouts.

2 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, 03 9207 7444, gazirestaurant.com.au

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Hellenic Republic

Hellenic Republic's sharing plates run from traditional smoked pork and leek loukaniko sausages cooked over an ironbark grill to wagyu flatiron steak served with feta butter and chocolate baklava that will probably leave yia-yia slightly bemused as she digs in. There's a Williamstown outpost on the way.

434 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, 03 9381 1222; 26 Cotham Road, Kew, 03 9207 7477; hellenicrepublic.com.au

Jim's Greek Tavern

You don't come to Jim's for the decor or the service. It's for pita rounds perfect for mopping up tangy tzatziki, salty black olives and char-grilled seafood chased down with a tumbler of strong retsina. It's loud, crowded and there are no menus. But the rollicking party atmosphere makes up for it in spades.

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32 Johnston Street, Collingwood, 03 9419 3827

Nikos Oakleigh Quality Cakes

This Oakleigh institution has been serving cake and biscuits for 30 years, and arguably spearheaded the Greek migration from Lonsdale Street to the south-east. Display cabinets overflow with biscuits, syrupy baklava in countless shapes and sizes, and sugar-dusted shortbread, to mention but a few. Gigantic cheese and spinach pies, and trays of pastitsio, moussaka and yemista also vie for your attention.

25–27 Portman Street, Oakleigh, 03 9569 6338, oakleighqualitycakes.com.au

Philhellene

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Unpretentious Philhellene is a bastion of Greek home cooking. Ricotta-filled pastry parcels, vine-leaf dolmades, a pistachio-studded lentil salad from Smyrni and lemony roasted lamb leg are all cooked with love. The honey-drenched loukoumades are legendary.

551–553 Mount Alexander Road, Moonee Ponds, 03 9370 3303, philhellene.com.au

Pireaus Blues

It's the tried and tested taverna-style dishes that draw customers back to Pireaus Blues. There's excellent tarama made with fresh white-fish roe, dense house-baked bread and the ever-popular mixed grill featuring lamb cutlets, souvlaki and fall-apart lamb.

310 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, 03 9417 0222, pireausblues.com.au

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The Press Club

Dazzling Press Club, with its bespoke service and boundary-pushing menu, takes Greek food and reinvents it, George Calombaris-style. Here, tradition collides with playful kitchen experimentation – black taramasalata, saganaki martini and a "plate" that can be smashed and eaten for dessert.

72 Flinders Street, Melbourne, 03 9677 9677, thepressclub.com.au

Kathy Tsaples peddles delicious take-home meals and sweets at her Prahran Market stall. You'll find dainty cherry macaroons, syrup-drenched walnut cake (pictured), ravani (a dense semolina cake bought over with the Ottomans), rustic cabbage rolls, as well as an assortment of cheese, olives, dips and imported grocery items.

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Shop 702, Prahran Market, 163 Commercial Road, South Yarra, 03 9826 0608, sweetgreek.com.au

Vanilla Upstairs

There's coffee and cake downstairs, and crowd-pleasing food upstairs. Vanilla even boasts its own magazine, should you be so inclined. But people mostly come here for the generously portioned dishes that might include traditional Greek (charry octopus salad, whole baby snapper) as well as some crossover dishes (mac and cheese, anyone?)

17–21 Eaton Mall, Oakleigh, 03 9568 3358, vanillalounge.com.au

The Age Good Food Guide 2016 will be available for $10 with The Saturday Age on Saturday, September 26 from participating newsagents, 7-Elevens and supermarkets while stocks last.

Anastasia's partner owns Griffiths Brothers and Oasis Greek Coffee. The day after disembarking the Australis after sailing from Athens to Port Melbourne in 1967, Anastasia's mother began work at the Big Vic Deli.

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