What is Zante's food known for?
Five products, by the island's own count: currants, wine, olive oil, ladotyri cheese and mandolato. That is the list the Municipality of Zakynthos gave for TASTE ZAKYNTHOS, a two-day food event that opened on 27 September 2025.
Visit Greece, the official site of the Greek National Tourism Organisation, sums up the island's table in one line of its own: local cheeses, premium olive oil and seafood.
In the fields, the olive comes first. NECCA, the state body that manages the island's protected areas, calls olive growing the main crop of Zakynthos, followed by vineyards and the black currant.
Which Zante products are protected in the EU?
Four Zakynthos names are in eAmbrosia, the European Union's official register of geographical indications: one PDO and three PGIs.
The labels mean different things. For a PDO food, every step of production happens in the area; a PGI food needs at least one step there, and a PGI wine at least 85% of its grapes from the area.
The currant is the old money of the island. The Municipality calls it the black gold that made Zakynthos rich in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and NECCA still lists it as the island's main farm export.
| Name in the register | What it is | EU label and file | Registered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stafida Zakynthou | Zante currants | PDO · PDO-GR-0493 | 31 May 2008 |
| Zakynthos | Olive oil | PGI · PGI-GR-0051 | 18 July 1998 |
| Verdea Zakyntou | White wine | PGI · PGI-GR-A1050 | 1 August 2009 |
| Zakynthos | Wine | PGI · PGI-GR-A0945 | 19 December 2011 |
Which dishes are typical of Zakynthos?
Garlic and olive oil run through all of them. The Municipality's own food page lists stifado made with garlic and spices instead of onion, and skordostoumbi, aubergines in a tomato and garlic sauce.
The same page names rabbit and stuffed chicken as local specialities, cooked in the island's virgin olive oil and served with Verdea white wine and, always, ladotyri cheese.
Its idea of a simple snack, the kolatsio, is wild greens, olives, wheat bread, anchovies and red wine. We don't list restaurants: these are the names the island itself uses, so they are the ones worth asking for.
What are mandolato, fitoura and pasteli?
They are the island's sweets. Mandolato is a nougat from the Venetian era that, the Municipality says, is still made with egg whites, honey and almonds.
Fitoura is a medieval sweet of fried semolina. Together with pasteli, it is the Zakynthians' favourite treat and a fixture of every village festival, the panigyri.
Mandolato is also one of the five products of the 2025 list, next to ladotyri, so it is the sweet with the strongest official backing.
When do you eat on a night out in Zante?
Between the afternoon party and the club door, going by the times the venues published. In 2026 the sunset parties on the Laganas strip ended at 21:00 or 22:00, and Club Barrage in Argasi opens at 23:00, with its 2026 nights starting at 00:00.
On the strip, Sizzle's front bar opens at 21:00 and its club room at 00:00. The evening in between is your dinner window.
If you spend the day at El Paradiso, its kitchen serves from 10:00 to 19:00, while the beach club stays open until 21:00. Eat before the kitchen closes, not after the party.
No official source sets a Greek dinner hour, so we don't give one. The night hour by hour is in the Laganas strip at night, and what to wear for each night in our Zante outfit guide.
What should you drink with dinner?
The island's own wine. Verdea is the Zakynthian white the Municipality pours with its dishes, and the name Verdea Zakyntou is an EU-protected PGI.
NECCA counts many wine varieties on the island and names Verdea and Avgoustiatis as the leading local ones. A second wine PGI, called simply Zakynthos, sits in the same register.
For a calmer night after dinner, our guide to Zante past thirty picks nights by format rather than by crowd.
