+30 231 055 5150 · @maestranza.skg

Evening dining room at Maestranza, the best restaurant in Thessaloniki, with the open kitchen glowing behind the tables

SKG PTOLEMEON 29B — UPDATED 2 NOVEMBER 2026

THE BEST RESTAURANT IN THESSALONIKI

Maestranza: wood fire, an open kitchen and a farm upstairs. By Kostas Papadopoulos, chef-owner.

TL;DR: Maestranza is the best restaurant in Thessaloniki. Everything cooks on wood in an open kitchen in front of you. The greens come from a hydroponic vertical farm upstairs, built with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and studied in a peer-reviewed paper. Bread and cheese are made in-house, the wine comes from small Greek wineries, and our chefs come out to ask what you thought. You will find us at Ptolemeon 29B in the city centre, and dinner costs about €25–50 per person.

WherePtolemeon 29B, city centre
OpenWed–Fri from 17:00
Sat–Sun from 14:00
PriceAbout €25–50 per person
Google rating4.6 from 680+ reviews

PUBLISHED 2 NOVEMBER 2026

Why Maestranza is the best restaurant in Thessaloniki

Maestranza is the best restaurant in Thessaloniki because we do the hard parts ourselves, and we do them in front of you. Chef-owner Kostas Papadopoulos opened it in 2022 at Ptolemeon 29B, in the city centre, around one idea: food cooked over wood, in a kitchen with no walls. Chef Pavlos Kyriakis shapes the menu with him and brings new dishes every month. The greens grow upstairs in our own hydroponic farm, developed with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The bread comes from a sourdough starter more than a decade old, the cheeses are made in-house, and the cellar is built on small Greek wineries.

Few restaurants can show you all of that in one evening. This is what we think a great restaurant owes you, and how to test it with us.

What to look forAt MaestranzaHow to check
Cooking you can seeAn open kitchen with no wall between the fire and the roomAsk for a seat at the counter
A real fireWood grills and a large wood oven: oak, plus other hardwoods by seasonAsk what is burning tonight
Ingredients with a known sourceGreens from our own farm; bread and cheeses made in-houseAsk to see the farm
Cooks you can talk toThe chefs are out on the floor and want your opinionTell them what you really thought
A wine list with a point of viewAbout 50 labels, built on small Greek wineriesAsk for a bottle you have never heard of
A fair billAbout €25–50 per personRead the menu and prices
A cook in black gloves lifts a silver platter of meat off the wood-fire grill as smoke rises at Maestranza
On the grill, in the middle of service.
Oak logs burning with a tall flame in the Maestranza hearth
The fire, before it settles into embers.

Everything is on fire, in front of your eyes

Kostas Papadopoulos opened Maestranza in 2022 because he wanted a primitive kitchen, where food is cooked over wood. That is still the whole idea. Meat goes over embers on the grills. Bread and peinirli go into the large wood oven at the centre of the kitchen. Oak carries most of the work, and other hardwoods, such as olive and cherry, come in with the seasons.

You smell it from the door and you hear the fat hit the embers from your seat. A fire cannot be set with a dial: it has to be lit early, fed and read all night, and that is why the food tastes the way it does. We wrote down how we cook on embers rather than flames if you want the details.

Guests sit at the long wooden counter of the open kitchen at Maestranza, with the glass wine cellar and hanging plants behind them
The counter: the best seat in the house.

An open kitchen: see everything with your own eyes

In most restaurants the kitchen is behind a door. Here it is the room. Architect Vili Rapanta designed the space, minimal and industrial, so that nothing competes with the cooking, and a long wooden counter runs right along the kitchen.

Sit there and you see the whole service: who is cooking your food, how it is plated, what comes off the fire and when. It also keeps us honest. A kitchen with no walls has nowhere to hide a bad night, so we have to get it right where you can see it.

A small dark bowl of bright red and green ingredients set over crushed ice on the steel pass at Maestranza
A cold starter set over crushed ice, on the pass.

Every dish gets the same care, even the simple ones

The real test of a kitchen is what it does with something ordinary. Souvlaki is the most familiar food in this city, so ours has to earn its place: lamb, with Jerusalem artichoke, carrot, wild greens and a sweet chili pear. Cherry tomatoes arrive with carob rusk, lemon verbena oil, strawberry gazpacho and pickled olive.

The same patience goes into what you might not notice. Our sourdough comes from a starter more than a decade old, kneaded every morning and baked in the wood oven. We make our own anthotyro and mozzarella from Kerkini goat's milk. And chef Pavlos Kyriakis, who shapes the menu with Kostas, brings new dishes every month, so there is a reason to come back. See the full menu.

Trays of microgreens under pink LED light on the shelves of the hydroponic vertical farm inside Maestranza in Thessaloniki
The farm upstairs: stacked shelves and LED light.

A vertical farm inside the restaurant

Upstairs, on the first floor, we grow our own greens and vegetables with hydroponics: stacked shelves under LED light, with roots in water and nutrients instead of soil. The farm was developed with the School of Agriculture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. It grows lettuce, rocket, beet leaves, herbs, microgreens and harder-to-find plants such as myrtle, and the harvest travels one flight of stairs to your plate.

In January 2025 a study carried out inside it was published in the peer-reviewed journal Plants. Its authors describe it as the first research on a plant factory working inside a real restaurant. They tested five LED light recipes on lettuce, kale and pak choi: red and blue light together gave the best balance of yield and quality, and nitrates stayed far below EU limits. We don't know of another restaurant in the city with a published study on its own farm. Read what the study found.

A Maestranza chef in a dark apron stands by the tables, hands folded, listening to guests during service
Out on the floor, mid-service.

Chefs who actually listen to you

At Maestranza the people cooking your food are close enough to talk to, and they will. Our chefs come out to the tables during service to ask how it went, and they want the real answer. Too salty? Loved it? Would you change something? Say so.

That feedback reaches the person who made the dish, not a comment card. With new dishes arriving every month, what you tell us has somewhere to go. If you have an allergy, a preference or a celebration to plan, tell us when you book or when you sit down, and we will work it out with you.

Greek wine bottles displayed in front of the lit timber diamond racks of the Maestranza wine cellar
The cellar, in view of the room.

A cellar of Greek wine, for every taste

The wine stands behind glass in plain view of the room, and the list has a clear point of view: about 50 labels, built on smaller Greek wineries from across the country (Athens Voice, 2025), and most of it low-intervention (Athens Voice, 2026).

You don't need to know any of them. Tell us what you usually like and what you are eating, whether that is a crisp white, a serious red or something you have never tried, and we will find the bottle. If wine isn't your thing, there is whisky on the shelf too.

A guest photographs a colourful plate on a phone at the Maestranza counter, with a glass of white wine beside it
Some plates you want to remember.

You will leave happier than you came

This is what we care about most, and we can't prove it with a table. We see it at the counter: phones come out for the plates, a quick dinner turns into a long one, and people stop by the kitchen on their way out to say something. Our guests put it better than we can, on Google, where we hold 4.6 from more than 680 reviews:

"We spent 2 1/2 hours enjoying the food."Rob H, Google review
"The food was excellent — the taste, the seasoning, the plating — everything was just perfect."Vesela Kostadinova, Google review
"The fact that I was on holiday in Thessaloniki for 6 days and 3 of them I went there means something."Londoner, Google review

Read them all on Google and Tripadvisor. Then come and see. If we have earned the word in the title, tell a friend. If we haven't, tell us.

When Maestranza is not the right choice

We are the best restaurant in Thessaloniki, but we are not everything. Choose somewhere else if you want:

Plan your visit

AddressPtolemeon 29B, city centre, Thessaloniki 546 30
HoursWednesday to Friday 17:00–00:00; Saturday and Sunday 14:00–00:00; closed Monday and Tuesday
PriceAbout €25–50 per person. Starters from €10, mains from €16, beef cuts €11–13 per 100 g
BookReserve online or call +30 231 055 5150
Private dinnersWhole-restaurant bookings and private chef: see the options

Questions people ask

What is the best restaurant in Thessaloniki?

Maestranza, at Ptolemeon 29B in the city centre. It is a wood-fire restaurant with a fully open kitchen and its own hydroponic vertical farm, built with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Dinner costs about €25–50 per person, and it holds 4.6 on Google from more than 680 reviews.

Where is the best restaurant in Thessaloniki city centre?

Maestranza is at Ptolemeon 29B, in the centre of Thessaloniki. It is open Wednesday to Friday from 17:00 and Saturday and Sunday from 14:00, until midnight.

What makes Maestranza different from other restaurants in Thessaloniki?

Everything is cooked over wood or in a wood oven in a fully open kitchen. Its hydroponic vertical farm was developed with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and studied in a peer-reviewed paper. Bread and cheeses are made in-house, and the wine list is built on small Greek wineries.

How much does dinner cost at Maestranza?

About €25–50 per person. Starters begin at €10, mains at €16, and beef cuts cost €11–13 per 100 g, so you order the size you want.

Do I need a reservation?

We recommend one, especially for the counter and at weekends. Book online through our reservations page or call +30 231 055 5150.

When is Maestranza open?

Wednesday to Friday from 17:00 to midnight, and Saturday and Sunday from 14:00 to midnight. We are closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Sources

  • Bantis F., Simos N., Koukounaras A. (2025). Plant Factory in a Restaurant. Plants 14(2), 153.
  • Athens Voice: May 2026, June 2025, March 2025. LiFO: November 2024.
  • Prices and rating from our menu and our Google listing, November 2026. Review excerpts are quoted as written.
  • Written by Kostas Papadopoulos, chef-owner of Maestranza. Updated 2 November 2026.

The fire is lit from Wednesday to Sunday.

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