Popularity, taverns, modernity and cocktails: Avi Efrati's recommendations for Athens
After two particularly greedy visits to Athens, Avi Efrati returned with a list of must-see recommendations for visitors to the Greek capital - popular, modern restaurants and excellent cocktail bars.
As someone who digests the unbearable price threshold in restaurants in Israel, you are going to rub your eyes every time you receive the bill
Avi Efrati
09/06/2022
Thursday, 09 June 2022, 08:10 Updated: 08:18
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Athens (Photo: Official Website, Costas zissis)
A stranger to the streets of Athens last Passover would have been tempted to believe that the dominant language in the Greek capital is Hebrew at all.
The Israelis were there, everywhere.
Undoubtedly, Athens is one of the most sympathetic destinations for us, the Israelis.
It is close, pleasant, friendly, compact and also very cheap.
It was painful to realize the extreme price differences and it was amazing to eat well at such a cheap price.
Well, the picture is a little more complex.
Earn much less there and what is cheap for us, very expensive for the locals.
Still, as an easy, endearing, unchallenging and delicious holiday destination, Athens is great.
Neither Paris nor London;
The modern food in it tends to be classic and not creative;
But it has a lot of options to eat well and no less important - to drink excellently.
In the following list I have compiled a wealth of food and drink recommendations based in Athens of two particularly gluttonous visits to the Greek capital.
It is divided into categories.
In the popular category you will find recommendations for basic and simple meals but good for two, with two large meat dishes a few starters, water and beer for less than forty euros (about 140 shekels).
In the contemporary food category, there are several completely different restaurants - some classic, some creative and even a truly wonderful wine bar.
Alcohol lovers will fly over Athens.
The local beer, ouzo and bird - for pennies.
Whoever enters the depths of Greek wine will discover an emerging, fascinating industry, with many great wineries priced like in Greece and not like in France.
Athens is full of excellent cocktail bars and this list brings out the best in them: The Golden Triangle of cocktails in Athens includes three bars from the list of "One Hundred Best Bars in the World" each of which is excellent in its own way.
All this goodness takes place on a very small geographical space.
The area really relevant to a tourist in Athens is about a quarter of the area of Tel Aviv.
Everything can be done with no more than a 15-20 minute walk to each side.
Except places really need to take a taxi.
As someone who digests the unbearable price threshold in restaurants in Israel, you will rub your eyes every time you open a menu or receive the bill.
It has always been cheaper in Greece but at the moment these are inconceivable, quite painful gaps.
Short Hiking Trails in Athens
The following are the recommended places:
Last week
Recommendation for Thai food lovers: Run here
To the full article
popular
Klimataria, a traditional tavern (Photo: official website, Facebook)
Klimataria: A traditional tavern
A traditional tavern, not far from Omonia Square where weekends also feature traditional Greek music.
The food is simple and basic, not bad at all, ridiculously priced and the alcohol is very cheap.
On evenings when a performance takes place, a small minimum amount must be booked in Israeli terms.
When we sat there we did not see the locals breaking plates but they certainly drank and danced.
The house composition plays a refined traditional Greek, with a slightly jazzy orientation.
It is mandatory to order by phone.
To the restaurant's website
Bairaktaris, the well-known Greek folk repertoire (Photo: Official Website, Official Website)
Bairaktaris: A popular tavern
A popular tavern, close to Monstirki Square.
The familiar Greek folk repertoire, in generous doses.
We ate there a lot, with a surplus of forty euros and it was great.
We also peeked at neighboring restaurants and were pretty convinced that there too it is no less good and priced exactly the same.
No advance booking required.
To the restaurant's website
Athinaikon, go for the fish (Photo: Official Website, Instagram Restaurant)
Athinaikon: A popular restaurant with a contemporary design
A popular restaurant in a contemporary design, in the center of the local pavilion.
The specialty here is of fish.
They do it excellently.
We ate there twice.
In a second we were tempted to meat, which was less successful.
If in a classic traditional restaurant you get more than forty euros per couple, here it will be priced at 50/55 euros, including everything.
To the restaurant's website
Rotary of The Traditional Restaurant (Photo: Official Website, Facebook)
The Traditional: A popular meat restaurant
A popular meat restaurant on the cool Kolokotornil Street.
Despite the proximity to the bustling Armo pedestrian street, here you will not find tourists.
The meat grill runs from noon until the wee hours and there is also a local, charcoal-based rotisserie, from which we ordered two huge dishes - one based on lamb and the other from chicken.
The meats came with a great smoking touch, alongside huge toppings.
Including a Greek salad, a huge pubic dish and mineral water, we left 27 euros, and quite a bit of food on the plate.
To the restaurant Facebook
Epirus (Photo: Official Website, Facebook Restaurant)
Epirus: A tavern in the meat market
Athens' urban food market is not for the faint of heart, certainly not for vegetarians and vegans.
Its strongest emphasis is on pieces of meat in various configuration modes.
The cleanliness is brilliant and enviable.
Also the prices.
The old Taverna Epirus sits in the heart of the market and you can eat a variety of dishes, most of which are very tasty.
Its name came out due to the goat-based soup.
Vegetarians and vegans have fewer options here but they, as mentioned, are strongly advised not to enter the market at all.
Filopimenos 4 - The meat market, for the restaurant Facebook
Contemporary
Nolan (Photo: Official Website, Official Website)
Nolan: A small and excellent food bar
A small and excellent food bar, with tables inside and out.
Modern cuisine with an emphasis on creativity, with lots of contemporary variations on traditional Greek food combined with sophisticated techniques.
Evokes associations to the local doc.
Most of the dishes are medium sized and the food is really excellent.
A 5-6 course meal and dessert will not far exceed the 60/65 Euro threshold.
A very successful wine menu that is also moderately priced.
Even if you drink quite a bit, you will get quite a bit of a surplus of one hundred euros.
You should book a place.
To the restaurant's website
Aleria (Photo: Official Website, Facebook Restaurant)
Aleria: A modern luxury restaurant
Modern luxury restaurant, with a tasting menu.
The meal we ate reflected an adaptation of classic French cuisine from traditional Greek dishes.
She was especially kind and generous.
A 5-course meal cost 55 euros per person.
Matching wines, with a little over half a glass of wine for each dish, will be priced at 30 euros per person.
This is not the place for those looking for contemporary cuisine and a vibrant atmosphere.
Lovers of the classics will enjoy here very much.
To the restaurant's website
Vintage Wine Bar (Photo: Official Website, PR)
Vintage Wine Bar: An excellent wine bar
There is no doubt that the highlight of our visit to Athens was Vintage, the wine bar of Panos Kyriasis.
The decor is not classical Greek and according to its design vintage could have been located in any major city in the world.
The wine menu brings tears to the eyes of wine connoisseurs and the food there to serve the wine.
We visited Vintage twice and both won the Tour de Force of the Greek Wine Industry, with an emphasis on small boutique wineries that produce no less amazing wines, organic and natural wines.
The locals, who really understand wine in depth.
They admire the Corvain - a device that can pump wine from a bottle without damaging its cork, and therefore basically without opening it.
This is the way to sip expensive wines without leaving them to continue to age, closed.
The vintage wine tastings from the Corvine Vintage are based on half glasses and allow for a relatively broad acquaintance with great wines.
The food is based on small local producers and growers, holds a considerable amount of creativity and manages to be unconventional,
Incredibly delicious and leave the center of the stage in line.
A place you would be happy to find in Paris, London or New York.
Just let's not even start thinking how much it would cost you there, or here in the country.
To the site
Varoulko Seaside (Photo: Official Website, Official Website)
Varoulko Seaside: An upscale fish and seafood restaurant
An upscale fish and seafood restaurant, located on the beach in the marina of Piraeus and holding a Michelin star.
High and expensive classic sea kitchen, in the dining hall which is on the waterfront right.
For those looking for a bit of fine dining in the heart of the sublime and gyros discrimination.
To the restaurant's website
Ergon House.
Pretty cool atmosphere (Photo: Official Website, Official Website)
Ergon House: Restaurant, coffee shop and deli
Restaurant-bar-cafe-deli-grocery, on the entrance floor of the new boutique hotel Argon, in the heart of Plaka.
In the deli section you can buy prepared food as well as fish, sausages, preserves, fruits, vegetables, wines and alcohol.
In the restaurant wing you can stop for coffee and pastries from morning and noon onwards for drinks and food.
The kitchen combines traditional Greek classics with an international cuisine that includes, among other things, chunks of grilled meat and fish and pastas.
The food is generic but likable and made flawlessly.
The quality of the meat and fish is nice, the pricing is decent and the atmosphere is pretty cool.
To the restaurant's website
Barbounaki (Photo: Official Website, Instagram Restaurant)
Barbounaki: Modern fish and seafood cuisine
Barbecue restaurants (Barbonya in Greek) are scattered between Athens and the islands.
They all serve mostly modern fish and seafood cuisine, with some traditional Greek dishes requested.
Athens has two branches - one on Central Metropolis Street and the other in the bourgeois Colonkey neighborhood, for those coming to Lycabettus Hill overlooking the city or the Benaki Museum.
Fresh, high-quality, well-made fish and seafood, priced bourgeois in local terms but ridiculous for us (70-75 euros for a full meal, including two glasses of wine).
To the restaurant website
Alcohol - the golden triangle of cocktails
Athens is a city where people drink.
The local beer, ouzo and cilantro cost really pennies, go great with Mediterranean food and are fun to sip anywhere, with or without food.
As befits a city with a drinking culture, a particularly well-developed bar scene has also developed in Athens.
Our mission on the last trip was to sample the three local cocktail bars that entered the list of the 100 best bars in the world.
We stood in it with great pleasure.
Our warm recommendation: try to get there in the afternoon-evening. Then you can always find a place, the music at a reasonable volume and the whole business is relaxed. Designed for gourmets and connoisseurs.
They will be impressed by the creativity and will be willing to pay a lot in local terms (and very little in Israeli terms) for the qualities that exist there.
The Clumsies (Photo: Official Website, Instagram Place)
The Clumsies
The Clumsies, most privileged of all, ranks fourth on the list.
While lists of this kind always tend to be a kind of perforated and distorted cheese, a fourth place in it is definitely an honor.
No one at De Clamsis makes a big deal out of it and / or treats himself with all the seriousness that characterizes reputable cocktail bars.
It's a completely hipster place, full of murals and graffiti, with a sort of open patio wing, and a kitchen that prepares some food to soak up the drink.
Although the mixologists of the place create particularly sophisticated works, which those who are interested will be very impressed by, the drink menu is accessible, clear and inviting.
The emphasis revolves around mini take-offs on classics.
The workmanship is perfect and in pricing there is really no evidence of the worldly honor this place deserves.
The cocktails are priced at 10 euros each.
It may be a little expensive in local terms but those of us who know cocktail bars in the country understand how ridiculous it is in our terms.
locate
Baba au Rum (Photo: Official Website, Instagram)
Baba au Rum
A well-known bar, ranked 14th on the world list and holding a selection of some of the largest rum species in the world.
All drinks are rum based only and are made great.
You can sip inside or in the alley on the street.
On weekends there is an up-to-date DJ and prices range from 9 to 12 euros.
locate
Barro Negro (Photo: Official Website, Instagram Place)
Barro Negro
Barro Negro is "only" ranked 74th on the world list but for us it is the true vertex of the triangle.
A small place with a bar open to the street and up to several tables outside, which specializes in cocktails in the Mexican spirit, based on tequila and mezkel.
We drank really great and really brilliant cocktails there, we were sorry we lacked time slot to jump in there again, we are already waiting for our next visit to Athens to jump in there.
10-11 euros for a cocktail.
locate
Metropolis Roof (Photo: Official Website, Official Website)
Rooftop
Athens has been historically built so that wherever one can admire the Acropolis and the Parthenon that inhabits it - the cradle of civilization, democracy, culture and art.
When ascending to the Acropolis, a slot that every tourist in Athens owes to himself, the views are actually less impressive.
Do it less for the landscape and more for the experience of encountering history in its glory.
Athens is full of rooftops - of hotels and bars from which you can overlook the Acropolis at any hour of the day.
It is truly stunning, mesmerizing and instills a deep serenity and an atmosphere of ancient majesty and genius.
The Athens Roof Tops scene is bubbling.
It is impossible to suffice the whole, not even the small part.
We really enjoyed the rooftop of
the A for Athens Hotel
, in Monstirki Square, which is relatively close to the Acropolis.
There is also food, coffee and plenty of alcohol, including cocktails and a not bad wine menu at all.
The
Electra Metropolis Roof (Garden)
No less excellent and perhaps more.
It is located on the tenth floor of the hotel and has indoor and outdoor seating areas.
From all of them you can see the Acropolis excellently and you can sip alcohol or coffee in it, snack a little, and also eat.
The rest will be done by the mirrors.
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