Rethymno looks expensive for one very specific reason: the first thing a visitor sees is the small Venetian harbour, lined with white tablecloths, fish on ice and people holding menus. That corner genuinely is expensive, and it is about twenty metres long.
Behind it sits a town of forty thousand with a faculty of the University of Crete inside it. Ten thousand students do not pay harbour prices, and the kitchens that feed them are the same ones that will feed you if you walk three lanes inland.
What follows is where those lanes are, what they cost, and when to go.
Why does Rethymno cost less than it looks?
Rethymno is the smallest of northern Crete's three towns and the only one with a student population that large relative to its size. The result is a whole category of places — souvlaki counters, cook-houses, small mezedopoleia — that have to keep a meal under ten euros to have any customers in November.
The Cretan cooking is the same you would find in Chania or Heraklion: dakos, wild greens, kalitsounia, apaki, goat, raki at the end. The difference is not in the recipe but in who pays their bills for the other eight months of the year.
- Student prices: a full meal under ten euros in dozens of places.
- Out of season: from November to April the places that stay open are the ones working for locals.
- The raki and sweet at the end are not charged for, as everywhere in Crete.
Which part of the old town charges double?
The Venetian harbour is a small semicircular quay with some twenty restaurants in a row, all with tables at the water and nearly all with somebody outside speaking to you. Fish there is sold by the kilo at prices that start high, and a bill for two rarely closes under sixty euros.
The second expensive zone is the Rimondi Fountain and the tables around it, where you pay for the Venetian waterspouts. Neither is a swindle — both are high-rent, high-traffic positions — but neither is where anyone from Rethymno eats.
Where do you eat cheaply in Rethymno?
Mikrasiaton Square and the lanes around it are the heart of the cheap zone: mezedopoleia with tables in the street, handwritten menus and groups who sit for hours. Vernardou Street, climbing toward the museum, holds some of the oldest rooms in town.
For cheaper still, the souvlaki counters and bakeries around Arkadiou and Nikiforou Foka serve a pita with souvlaki at three to four and a half euros and kalitsounia at a euro and a half. A full student meal with water stays under eight euros.
- Mikrasiaton Square: mezedopoleia and rakadika, the town's best evening.
- Vernardou Street: old tavernas, short menus, Cretan cooked dishes.
- Arkadiou and Nikiforou Foka: souvlaki, bakeries, kalitsounia, food in the hand.
What should it cost, and when should you go?
Rethymno has two prices for the same food and a three-minute walk separates them. In the cheap zone a table of meze shared between four costs €10–15 a head with raki, while on the harbour the same plates start at €26.
The hour adds the second discount. Kitchens open at seven and fill after nine, so a first-sitting booking through an app like Filotimo takes half off the food — which puts a full Cretan table under ten euros. The table below gives the ranges.
| Area | What to expect | Per head |
|---|---|---|
| Venetian harbour | Fish by the kilo, tables at the water | €26–36 |
| Rimondi Fountain | A view of the Venetian spouts, many languages | €20–28 |
| Mikrasiaton Square | Mezedopoleia, raki, locals | €10–15 |
| Vernardou Street | Old tavernas, Cretan cooked dishes | €11–16 |
| Arkadiou and the bakeries | Souvlaki, kalitsounia, food in the hand | €4–8 |
| The beach strip east | Hotel zone, a menu in four languages | €18–26 |
Read nextOff-peak dining in Greece: the cheapest hours to eat
Rethymno is a cheap town with one expensive quay, and most visitors see only the quay. Walk three lanes inland, sit down before eight, and the same Cretan table will cost you a third.
How this guide is kept honest
Written in Athens by the team behind Filotimo, from the menus, prices and bookings we see across our partner restaurants. Prices move with the season and the street, so every figure here is a working range rather than a quote.