Here are some notes on Athens restaurants, resulting from a recent trip there. These restaurants are all in central Athens, and in each case I give the neighborhood or district where the restaurant is located (most maps of Athens will indicate where these districts are.) Except where otherwise noted, all the restaurants mentioned are moderately priced. Most are open only for dinner unless otherwise noted. Many Athens restaurants are closed Sundays, so if you want to try one on that day you should check by phone (your hotel can usually help you do this.) I've visited all of these places within the last two months. Almost all visitors to Athens find themselves spending some time in Plaka, the old neighborhood at the foot of the Acropolis. Plaka is filled with restaurants, most of them serving bad, overpriced food to crowds of tourists. There are some worthwhile establishments, though. One of them is Zeus (in Modern Greek pronounced 'Zefs,') a pleasant small restaurant high on the slope of the Acropolis which despite the fact that it caters very much to tourists serves excellent, simple Greek food at reasonable prices. Tables are all outdoors, and the place usually isn't very crowded, probably because it's something of a climb to get to it, and you have to pass a number of other eateries on the way whose touts tend to rope in most tourists before they get to this one. There are nice views from some of the tables. Try their gigantes (giant beans,) a traditional Greek appetizer which is better here than anywhere else I've had it. Open for lunch, and I assume dinner too, though I've never been there at night. To get there from Plaka, find Mnesikleous Street and follow it uphill until you can't go any farther. Another touristy but good place, which is at Hadrian and Kydathinaion streets right in the middle of Plaka, is Costi's, which serves traditional, somewhat elaborate taverna food. Most tables are outdoors, and it's open for lunch and dinner. Sigalas, at 2 Monastiraki Square on the edge of Plaka, serves authentic taverna food of the simpler kind in a colorful, bustling atmosphere at lunch and dinner. They have good barrel retsina. Karavitis, at Pafsaniou and Arktinou in the Pangrati district, remains one of the best traditional tavernas. Open nightly including Sunday. The following restaurants are all in the Kolonaki area: Demokritos, at number 23 on the street of the same name, is an altogether excellent taverna with particularly good barrel retsina. Rodhia, at 44 Aristippou near the base of the Lykavettos funicular, is an upscale taverna with a limited menu -- almost everyone orders the appetizers and the lamb with oregano -- and a very good red barrel wine. Try to get a table in the garden. Somewhat expensive, but worth it. A long-time popular Kolonaki restaurant, Rouga, has closed. Someone in the neighborhood told us they thought it would be closed permanently. Another old Kolonaki place, Jimmy's Cooking, has turned itself into a sort of snack bar; I didn't try it, but it doesn't look very promising any more. Okio, on Haritos Street, remains the best restaurant I have been to in Greece. It's expensive, not much English is spoken, and shorts or other very informal attire will not be in place.
Athens, Greece