Mytilini eats well. The south harbour promenade (Kato Skala) is lined with tavernas and ouzeries — places where a carafe of local ouzo arrives with a succession of small dishes: fried whitebait, grilled octopus, stuffed courgette flowers, local cheese. The market quarter inland has simpler, cheaper options favoured by locals. Lesbos has its own culinary traditions: sardines (sardeles pastes) cured in salt, a distinctive sheep's milk cheese called ladotyri preserved in olive oil, and excellent olive oil used in everything. The ouzo here is the real thing — Lesbos produces around half of Greece's ouzo and several historic distilleries have been operating since the 19th century.