About

Greece and Cyprus are two of the most visited countries in the world, and English is the lingua franca almost everywhere. It's mandatory in Greek schools. So who needs this app? Well...

A few years ago Michael my husband and I wrote the Italian Food Decoder about another country we lived in and love, where it's become the fashion not only to not put restaurants menus in English, but to put them in dialect! For every fish, for every sugary carnival treat, for every shape of pasta there must be two dozen names.

But I never thought that my beloved Greece (my father comes from Ikaria) ever seriously needed a food decoder, that is, until late 2018 when I went to a little taverna by Lake Plastira while researching the Bradt Guide to Northern Greece, and not only was the menu only in Greek, which would have been okay for me, but I realized that I only recognized half the dishes. Then in Athens and Thessaloniki and other cities I began to notice that you can find restaurants with only Greek menus, as if to say 'we're the opposite of all those tourist traps...' And of course those are probably just the restaurants you want to go to!
So hence this app.

And... if you’re going to the islands, I’ve just done a new Greek islands app dedicated just to all of the inhabited islands... not their hotels and restaurants but everything else!

Using this app

Use the search function to find any of the 2000 plus words in this app. If you're just browsing, there are two places to look for words: either under region or type of food.

The Greek alphabet of course presents its own fun little problems; if you read the entry on Alphabet and language it may start to make sense.

In addition, there's a list you might need when Eating out in Greece, and another on Cooking terms that might help you work out exactly what's on the menu There's also a special list that covers Allergies, Vegetarians, etc.

Anyway, thank you for downloading the app. It was fun and educational to do, and I hope it's fun to use. Also it's a work in progress because I know for certain there are many more dishes I should include for the next update.

Please send any comments or suggestions you might have at dana@facarospauls.com. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter @facarospauls.

And if you like this app please take a moment to review it.

Our Apps

French Food Decoder

The perfect companion for any English speaker visiting or living in France, this is the most comprehensive app of its kind. Several years in the making, it includes over 1,260 articles covering the gamut of one of the world’s greatest cuisines.

Italian Food Decoder

Whether you’re a first time visitor to Italy or a hopelessly smitten foodie, this app will help you navigate the extraordinary world of Italian food—and make sure when you're in a restaurant, you get what you want.

Barcelona Art & Culture

Barcelona is where Europe goes to play. She’s a city that sparkles and fizzes, making the world watch just to see what she’ll do next. Plunge straight into her buzzing heart and discover just how Barcelona became Barcelona with this remarkably in-depth app by two old pros who have been writing about the city for decades.

Bologna + Modena Art & Culture

It’s an uncanny brown apparition on the misty Emilian plain, a city of a billion bricks and a thousand arcades, sheltering under a pair of tipsy, lofty medieval towers. Bologna may be the odd duck of Italian art cities, but no one can deny its geeky charisma. This is the city of learned doctors and Formula One speedsters, of promenaders under graceful porticos and platoons of ladies in furs, gliding serenely down the avenues on their bicycles.

Florence Art & Culture

Whether you only have a couple of days to visit Florence’s museums, or want to spend a vacation seeking out every single work by Donatello or every Medici villa, this is the app for you. The 400 entries cover not only the tourist sights, but also the biographies of the artists, sculptors, architects and writers who changed the history of the western art and thought from Masaccio and Michelangelo to the most obscure.

Venice Art & Culture

This enhanced, greatly expanded and updated version of Facaros and Pauls’ Cadogan guide to Venice offers an in-depth exploration of history, art and culture for any who want more than factoids and sound bites.

Greek Islands

This app is the culmination of over 40 years travelling and writing about the Greek islands. It covers all the inhabited Greek islands (and some fascinating uninhabited ones), bringing out their unique personalities, history, mythology, their archaeological and historical sites, their beaches, gorges, mountains, and waterfalls (yes, there are some!), their beautiful villages and churches.