TasteAtlas: The best salad in the world is Greek

The famous gastronomic guide TasteAtlas is publishing its round-up for the year 2025/2026. Each year, the international platform records, rates, and recommends to the global public the top culinary experiences worldwide.

In the list of the world’s best cuisines, Greece secured second place. TasteAtlas is now continuing to announce its category “winners.” For example, in the category of best cheeses, Naxos Graviera deservedly took first place—an award that honors both Greek cheesemaking and the culinary tradition of the Cycladic island.
Greek is also the best salad in the world for 2025/2026 – Here’s which one

Greece also claimed first place in the salads category.

Specifically, the traditional Cretan salad, Dakos, was named the No. 1 Best Salad in the World 2025/26 by TasteAtlas. The beloved Cretan salad achieved the highest average rating, 4.335, based on 590,228 valid user reviews for 16,357 recorded dishes, calculated only from users who have actually tried the dish. The ranking is based on algorithms that strictly filter out bots and nationalist voting groups, ensuring completely “democratic” mathematics.

Dakos: Characteristics of the Cretan salad

“Dakos” (or ntakos) is a traditional Cretan dish consisting of a dry barley rusk, topped with crumbled myzithra cheese, finely chopped (or grated) ripe tomatoes, whole olives, capers, fresh oregano, and a generous drizzle of high-quality olive oil.

Recommended olive varieties include Koroneiki, Lianes, or Tsounates. Traditionally, myzithra is used rather than feta, which is found mainly in tourist restaurants. The rusk is often lightly rubbed with a small clove of garlic and sprinkled with a bit of sea salt.

When available, kritamo (sea fennel) is also added. The dish is usually served as a meze, a salad, or a light meal.