4 seaside city breaks for foodies

Athens has quietly reinvented itself amidst financial turmoil with a vibrant new scene of bars, cafés and restaurants led by a new wave of Greek chefs and food lovers. Despite a French name and Instagrammable interiors, Cherchez La Femme is all about satisfying Greek classics such as stuffed vine leaves, Greek salad and meatballs. These are all served as meze-style small plates, meaning you can try a good chunk of the menu in one visit. Dishes from £2.70.

Opened in 2014, Cookoovaya is already an Athens institution serving modern Greek food to a well-heeled crowd. A long open kitchen houses a wood oven from which the best dishes appear – flaky pies stuffed with feta, and charred roasted octopus with fava beans and vinegar glaze. Dishes from £13.50.

Set in a quiet, palm-shaded courtyard off Ermou, Athens’ main shopping street, Feedel really is a welcome escape from the crowds. Run by Leonidas Koutsopoulos, who was also a judge on the Greek version of MasterChef, Feedel is typical of Athens’ ‘neo-tavernas’ offering modern interpretations of classics such as the twisted cheese pie with seasonal vegetables and an excellent list of Greek wines. Dishes from £9.

One of the city’s standout fine-dining restaurants, Hytra has held a Michelin star since 2010. Chef Tasos Mantis took the reins in 2014 and creates beautiful modern Greek dishes largely focused around fish, plus herbs, flowers and vegetables grown in his countryside garden. Highlights from the 14-course tasting menu include oysters with nasturtium, elderberry capers, chives, and clams with pickled elderflower and fennel. Tasting menu £55.

Ergon bills itself as the ‘first foodie hotel in Athens’. Several floors of sleek modern bedrooms sit above a huge public marketplace where shelves are stocked with thousands of products from small artisanal Greek producers. It is Athens’ answer to Eataly, and its deli and café is the perfect lunchtime pit-stop to refuel on classics such as Greek salad, spicy ‘lakerda’ (pickled fish), and zucchini fritti. Dishes from £9.

How to do it: The Foundry is one of the city’s newest hotels, having opened in late 2018 on the edges of Psirri district. Rooms from £108. The New Hotel has a central location with modern rooms, a lively restaurant and rooftop bar. Rooms from £188.

Joel Porter

2) Dubrovnik

Best for... an affordable five-star foodie break on the Adriatic

With its plush hotels, perfectly preserved medieval walls and sparkling, yacht-filled bay, Dubrovnik is Croatia’s glitziest city. The city regularly tops polls for affordable holidays, and was one of the cheaper ones surveyed in Post Office Money’s City Costs Barometer recently. Travel in early summer or autumn to avoid the worst of the crowds and best appreciate Dubrovnik’s Roman, Byzantine and Venetian heritage.

Just south of central Stradun boulevard, explore the web of streets flanked by family-run grocery stores and visit the Old Town’s open-air market. This is where to stock up on such picnic fare as pungent olives and oil from the island of Brac, big wheels of local bread, vines of unevenly-shaped, flavour-packed tomatoes, and sharp, salty sheep’s cheese from the island of Pag. Bring an empty water bottle to fill up with affordable, locally made wine.

Take a harbour ferry and ride for 15 minutes (or hire a sea kayak) to Lokrum island. Swim just as the sun gets punishing and have a seafood feast at Lacroma. A shellfish platter for two costs £22.50, best paired with a local graševina white wine (around £3 per glass). Or kick back under the olive trees at Villa Ruza, a waterfront restaurant set in a 1930s mansion that serves artfully presented cocktails and Dalmatian seafood dishes, with veggies drawn from neighbouring kitchen gardens. Two courses from £20.

To learn all about Croatian wine – which includes some of the world’s oldest varieties – the Pelješac Peninsula’s vineyards and agritourism restaurants are about an hour away. In the Old Town, Dvino offers tastings from introductory flights to more expert sessions focusing on a specific Croatian grape (from £6.50).

For a light evening bite, Pink Shrimp, Villa Ruza’s casual street-food offshoot, serves shrimp-focused tapas (£3.50). The tempura prawn on shredded courgette is the standout. Or try shellfish maki and freshly farmed oysters from the local Mali Ston beds at Bota Oyster & Sushi Bar (dishes from £5). Azur serves a Med-Asian menu including Adriatic fish laksa and delicate meatballs in coconut broth (mains from £8)

How to do it: The recently renovated Hotel Excelsior is a worthwhile indulgence with a private beach and spa with Turkish-Roman baths. Doubles from £120, including breakfast.

Sarah Barrell

3) Malaga

Best for... a classy, seafood-focused break on the Costa del Sol

Since the opening of the Picasso and Pompidou galleries and an arty reworking of the industrial port, this undersung Spanish city is no longer just a gateway to the Costa. The city remains seductively Spanish and local cuisine, some of which has new international flair, remains affordable. Spain can spell trouble for veggies but brunch at Recyclo Bike Café has plant-focused options (from £2.60), with locally grown avocado, sunny juices and a fun, eco-hipster scene.

Mercado Central de Atarazanas (Calle Atarazanas, 10) still has a soaring 14th-century façade from its previous incarnation as a Moorish shipyard, plus fresh fish stalls, tapas stands, and seasonal fruit. Take home summer’s sweet brevas figs, and small, succulent pears, perfect with a local cabra malagueña goat’s cheese.

If you don’t lunch here, have a pre-prandial sherry or dark, herby vermouth with a plate of sweet pink shrimp at nearby Bar Antigua de la Guardia. Take a cab or rent a city bike, and follow the boardwalk east to the former fishing town of Pedregalejo. Order berenjenas con miel and espetos sardines (the ubiquitous dish which means that Malagueños are known as ‘sardine eaters’ across Spain). At El Caleño (Paseo Marítimo el Pedregal, 49), two courses and a glass of barbadillo white wine cost around £18.

Beat the heat in Malaga’s cultural caverns (the city has over 30 museums), or explore the shady, citrus-tree-scented Alcazaba Moorish gardens, terraced between the cliff-top Gibralfaro castle and Teatro Romano amphitheatre. Get views of this ancient cityscape and a sundowner at one of Malaga’s rooftop bars.

Next to the marina, neighbouring Soho’s Cruzcampo brewery’s flashy new La Fábrica is a sign of this graffiti-decked area’s increasing cool. A pint of IPA costs (a comparatively pricey) £3.50. Dinner at Lola y Ludwig successfully combines Andalusian and Irish (dishes £7-12). Try Araboka for an extensive local wine list (£2.50 per glass) and modern Iberian dishes, like langoustine salad with spinach and egg (£10.50).

How to do it: Beyond Airbnbs, a unique five-star is Gran Hotel Miramar in the beachy east of the town. Great-value standard rooms start from £157, which includes a generous Mediterranean breakfast.

Sarah Barrell

4) Genoa

Best for... traditional eats and a modern port setting

An ancient port town, Genoa has been spruced up over the past decade, while the city’s vast, imposing bank buildings have been revamped to become museums, its palazzi transformed into boutique hotels. Headed up by Roberto Panizza, founder of the Pesto World Championships, Il Genovese began in 1912 as a hole-in-the-wall for farinata (local unleavened chickpea flour bread). The wood oven’s still there, but today it’s a casual restaurant packed with locals enjoying traditional Ligurian dishes (around £9).

Start with a fritto misto of chickpea sticks, herby dough balls, fried creamy béchamel with pieces of vegetables, tripe, courgette flowers, and gattafin pasta filled with cheese and herbs. The artichokes and courgette flower work particularly well, fried in extra virgin olive oil. Follow with veal ravioli, the classic gnocchi di patate, or the standout polpette genovesi di Cabannina e fonduta di Cabannina.

Opposite, the buzzing Mercato Orientale covered market has fresh local fish, veggies, meat, pulses and spices piled high for local consumption, and is well worth a visit for the atmosphere and photos alone. Graze on Genoa’s street food (fried fish, farinata, fried courgettes and torte – open, thin-crust vegetable pies made to recipes that predate the Romans) from backstreet sciamadde and friggitorie take-out shops, most of which have been around for centuries. You’ll find plenty concentrated along Sottoripa, the medieval covered lane opposite the Old Port.

For a more refined seafood feast, try Soho, a restaurant and fancy ‘fish works’ decorated in sleek black, white and chrome, where you can sit and sample the best of the day’s catch (£10.50-16). Take the train 30 minutes south to reach some of Liguria’s blockbuster beaches. Camogli and neighbouring Rapallo come with rainbow displays of painted former-fisherman’s villas, neat stretches of sand, and epic, green-blue bays overhung with forest-clad cliffs.

For an afternoon excursion in town, tour the 19th-century home of Romeo Viganotti chocolatiers, where you can see signature sweets being made, such as boeri (chocolate-covered cherries), scorzetta (chocolate-covered orange peel), and croccantini (hazelnut nougats covered in dark chocolate), and buy selections to take home (pre-booked tours from £9).

How to do it: Palazzo Grillo – and sister hotel Le Nuvole – are tucked away in the tangle of medieval alleys near the Strada Nuova museum district. Rooms with friezes, frescos and ancient beams cost from £110, including a gourmet homemade breakfast best taken on the sunny roof terrace.

Rebecca Hughes and Sarah Barrell

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All recommendations have been reviewed and approved as of July 2019 and will be checked and updated annually. If you think there is any incorrect or out-of-date information in this guide, please email us at goodfoodwebsite@bbc.com.

Travellers are advised to read the FCO travel advice for the country they are travelling to.

Assistance for Genoa was provided by lamialiguria.it. Assistance for Athens was provided by the Greek National Tourism Organisation.

Photography credits: Stocksy, Getty Images, Carlos Padillo, Rebecca Hughes, Alamy, Photo Archive Regional Agency “In Liguria," Panos Papadopoulos, Loukianna Litti