The Greek term for small dishes served as appetizers is meze.
Meze refers to a selection of small hot or cold dishes served in Greek and other Eastern Mediterranean cuisines. In Greece, meze may include olives, feta, grilled octopus, fried vegetables, dips, salads, savory pastries, and grilled cheese such as saganaki. The dishes are generally shared rather than ordered as separate individual courses.
Greek meze is often served with ouzo or tsipouro, making it part of a relaxed social meal as well as an appetizer course. Depending on the setting, a collection of meze can begin a larger dinner or become the meal itself. There is no single fixed list of dishes; ingredients vary by region, season, and restaurant.
The word entered Greek through Turkish meze, which derives from the Persian word mazze, meaning taste or relish. Tapas, antipasto, and hors d’oeuvre describe related small-plate traditions, but meze is the canonical Greek term. “Mezze” and “mezé” are also common variant spellings.