<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><strong>Nea Folia</strong> is another classic local gem with a charming, welcoming environment and an inspired menu. Highlights include the cuttlefish with spinach, orange and fennel seeds, marinated anchovies, steamed mussels, pickled eggplant, mackerel with olives, capers and ouzo and spicy baked feta.</span></p>

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<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">In the city center is the cute, modern and simple <strong>Massalia</strong>, which has an open kitchen and a very creative menu. The meat and seafood dishes here are equally good, but standouts include the pancetta with honey and eggplant purée, grilled sausage with oregano served with hummus, grilled octopus with lentils and the seasonal salads. Go for lunch or dinner.</span></p>

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<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Atmospheric Ano Poli (Upper Town) sits north of the city center in the old town district, which was saved from the Great Fire of 1917 and in the 1980s declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The most traditional part of the city, it still features small stone-paved alleys and old Greek and Ottoman architecture. <strong>Tsinari,</strong> named after the neighborhood where it is located, is one of the oldest <em>mezedopoleia</em> in town; it’s been in the same beautiful little building since 1885. The draw is ouzo and simple mezes, most notably the <em>sutzukakia</em>, minced beef patties with red wine, garlic and cumin in tomato sauce.</span></p>

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<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">For seafood lovers, there is <strong>Mourga</strong>, run by the chef-owner of some of Greece’s most successful eateries. Located on a quiet street in the center of the city, this small, simple eatery looks like just another neighborhood <em>kafeneio</em> and could easily go unnoticed. The menu here changes often and according to the season. Standouts include the fresh shrimp sautéed in truffle butter, smoked octopus carpaccio, fried squid with lemon and thyme, orzo with fresh mussels and, for dessert, simple yet perfect aged <em>anthotyro</em> cheese from the island of Naxos with blueberry preserves.</span></p>

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<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Any list of <em>mezedopolia</em> of Thessaloniki would be incomplete without <strong>Sebriko.</strong> This long-time favorite is located down a quiet alley near <strong>Ladadika</strong>, the former market area near the port, where tables in the summer months are set up with a view of the Byzantine walls. Dishes might include sardines wrapped in grape leaves, smoked eggplant salad with tahini, yogurt and mint, and <em>kaltsounia</em> small hand pies filled with wild greens. There’s also smoked mackerel with red lentils, grilled octopus with<em> taramosalata,</em> a creamy fish roe spread, and pancetta with prickly pear jam or the ribeye with truffle butter and grape must. There is excellent house wine, organic <em>tsipouro</em>, a grape-based spirit similar to grappa, and a strong selection of domestic microbrews.</span></p>

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<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Tucked into the small alley of Agapinos opposite Kamara, <strong>Lolas </strong>has the feel of a Cycladic island ouzeri stuck right in the heart of Thessaloniki: white sails on the ceiling, pistachio-painted furniture, and an atmosphere that has been drawing doctors, professors and actors through its doors for over three decades. It was founded by Kavaliotis Yannis Ginis and is now run by his children, Lola and Antonis, who have expanded the menu considerably while keeping the spirit of their father's original intact. The sun-dried octopus from Kavala is the signature, although the Antonio pie, filled with vegetables and cheese and wrapped in phyllo, is a close second. The menu also features small plates like smoked cod, fresh crab salad, grilled sardines and monkfish tails, with a list of 25 spirits to keep things moving along.</span></p>

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<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><strong>Stou Mitsou</strong> opened in 2014 and has been a first stop for anyone who knows Thessaloniki ever since. Owner Dimitris Pantzartzidis cooks whatever he finds fresh and interesting at the surrounding stalls each morning, using olive oil and olives from his family's grove in Ilia, and serves bread fermented with chickpea yeast, dry-baked in a wood-fired oven he rescued from closure when he took over the space. He doesn't brag about any of this; he considers it simply the way things should be done. The proof is in the, ahem, meze: fried red mullet with skin that bursts on the tooth, mushrooms barely moved from the greengrocer's counter and dressed with vinegar and oil, marinated anchovies with the backbone fried rather than discarded, slow-cooked chickpeas from the night before. The plates, many of them handmade ceramic from a pottery workshop a short walk away in Fragomahalas, feel as considered as everything else.</span></p>

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