Ioannina's cuisine is Epirote — heavier on dairy, pies, and meat than the Aegean style. Look for tyropita and kotopita (cheese and chicken pies in flaky pastry), gyros, lamb on the spit, and the unusual house version of pasties stuffed with leeks. Trout, carp, eels and batrachopodara (frog legs) come from Lake Pamvotis itself.
The best fish restaurants are on Ioannina Island — Pamvotis and Sotiris both serve fresh-caught freshwater fish at lakeside tables. In the new town, Stoa Louli is the smarter end of Epirote cooking. For something cheaper, head to the Mavili promenade where a string of cafés and grill-houses face the lake. Local cheeses (feta and the harder galotyri of Epirus) and tsipouro (the Greek pomace brandy of choice in the north) are everywhere.