Locali in Crete

A modern rakadiko where locals actually eat

Modern Mediterranean in a flower-filled courtyard

Cocktails in the secret garden of an Ottoman mansion

Contemporary Greek tasting cooking in a sculpted old-town room

All-day Greek bistro blending Hellenic and Levantine flavours

Clay-pot-over-coals taverna under the plane tree in Gavalochori

Contemporary Greek folk-art ceramics workshop

Mansion-style Cretan cuisine a block from Peskesi

Creative Cretan dining in a Venetian courtyard

Ten antique-filled suites in Venetian dwellings

Grocer-meze-room on the restored square of Archanes

13th-century Venetian basilica turned the city's municipal art gallery

Chania's oldest bougatsa shop, fourth-generation, since 1924

Vineyard estate and tasting hall near Knossos at Skalani

Owner-made jewellery and ceramics in a tiny Topanas atelier

Family-run 17th-century Venetian mansion hotel with a pebbled courtyard

Contemporary suites in a 17th-century town house

Stone-and-greenery room in the old-town lanes

In-house coffee roaster and microbrewery in the Korai grid

Award-winning historic hotel above the Venetian harbour

Wood-fire farm taverna cooking only over fire from its own land

Serious specialty coffee on the Koum Kapi waterfront since 2012

Fireplace-warm Cretan taverna for a local clientele

All-day cafe and wine bar on the edge of Splantzia square

Tiny market-driven kitchen, the chef's daily haul is the menu

The world's foremost collection of Minoan art

Craft cocktails in a 16th-century stone building

The locals' seafood ouzeri by the Venetian port

Mezze and raki on the painted-alley square of Lakkos

Forgotten Cretan recipes reworked for the modern table

Brothers who brought third-wave coffee to Chania, now roasting in-house

Renovated city hotel above the Venetian port and Koules

Cretan cooking under a canopy of lemon trees

Estate that rescued Crete's near-extinct grapes, near Alagni

Art-deco brasserie and ceramic studio with its own winery on the Koum Kapi seafront

All-day room for specialty coffee, light Mediterranean plates and wine

Rhône varieties on Cretan soil, with a serious tasting room

Crete's seafaring history inside the Venetian Firkas Fortress

Gourmet-awarded Cretan home cooking in a century-old house

The locals' all-day coffee house anchoring the Koum Kapi promenade

Waterfront coffee-to-cocktails in bohemian Tabakaria

Intimate wine bistro on Theotokopoulou with one of Chania's best lists

Greek-wine bar with a romantic terrace near Eleftherias Square

Coffee cut into the cliffs of the tanneries

Art-and-music bar-restaurant in a 1950s ice factory

A 15th-century Venetian palace below the Fortezza

Antikristo over open fire in a 200-year-old stone building near Vamos

Cretan cooking on hot bricks in a 1900 old-town house

Chef Saridakis's modern Cretan ode to fish

Heraklion's farm-to-table temple of authentic Cretan cuisine

Century-old Smyrna-rooted bougatsa house on Lions Square

Parisian patisserie in a 1930s Chania foundry

Two historic estates in the Venetian quarter

Sommelier-owned Cretan room with a world-class wine cellar

Organic family estate of indigenous reds at Siva

Fire, Cretan produce and a zero-waste kitchen on Splantzia square

Stone-oven Cretan institution in the centre of Vamos

Hilltop boutique organic cellar above Kounavoi

Industrial-chic cocktail bar anchoring Korai Square

Cliffside Cretan plates beneath the Fortezza

Prohibition-style speakeasy in the gallery behind Lions Square

All-day bagel and coffee counter from the team behind Five

Four ex-tannery shells turned a Design Hotels stay

Chef Maniadakis's gastrobistro by the Venetian fortifications

Greek-Levantine cooking down a Splantzia alley with a steam-bath well

Crete's pioneering third-wave espresso and wine bar with a roof terrace

Cretan cooking inside Venetian-Ottoman ruins, open to the sky

The Splantzia seafood mezedopoleio locals queue for

Cretan cooking around a 16th-century well

Suites in a Venetian-Ottoman old-town mansion

Creative Cretan inside a 15th-century monastery

Inventive cocktails in the courtyard of a restored 1900s house on Korai