Greek Dining and Touring Athens

Unfortunately, the value of the Euro shot through the roof just prior to our Athens visit, but we still managed to nab a great deal on a four star hotel, the Art Hotel. In total, our room and breakfast cost around £60 a night (less than $100).

To get the downside of the Art Hotel out of the way, it is located in the rather dodgy part of the city, Omonia. Although Athens isn’t as rough as many large cities, there were still enough dodgy looking characters to ensure I kept my eyes down, and looked as though I knew where I was going. It is not a place to wander through unawares, but not completely unsafe. Returning to our hotel late at night meant passing some ladies of the night, and again, considering we were not after their business, we didn’t receive any hassle. I just considered it added a little colour to our trip!

On the brighter side, the hotel is just a 10 minute walk from the main Omonia tube station, which meant it was quite easy to get around. Likewise, the district of a thousand bars and restaurants, Plaka, and the main tourist attractions are reachable on foot from the hotel, so it isn’t in a terrible location.

Inside the Art Hotel, the staff and hotel couldn’t be nicer. On arrival, we received a free welcome drink, some great advice about the ferries to Ageina (and the receptionist even rang the ferry port to confirm boat times without being prompted). On our last day as our room wasn’t being used, she allowed us to keep our luggage in there, and to use the washroom until we needed to catch our flight. The staff couldn’t have been more helpful and accommodating.

The rooms are a little variable, and for our first leg of our stay, our room although clean, modern and pleasant enough was plain and quite small. For our second stay, we had a balcony, and a large and pleasant room with some original art on the walls. The beds are large and comfortable, and we found plenty of clothes hanging space and space to spread out and relax. The bathrooms let down the hotel just a little, and the Greek way of having no shower curtains or a hook for your shower spray was just a little annoying and inconvenient.

The public areas have plenty of nice paintings on display, so it makes for a pleasant ambience. The hotel has a particularly nice reception area, where you can sit on an arty sofa and puruse one of the books on art.

Breakfast was included in our bill, and again like the hotel overall, we found it very pleasant, good quality and generous. Most of the usual breakfast type items were available including, hot sausage, egg, bacon and potatoes.

Overall, we found the Art Hotel suited our needs perfectly, and as long as you aren’t too nervous about running the gauntlet of the rough streets outside, I can completely recommend it, assuming you can get a reasonable deal.

Unfortunately, with the strength of the Euro, dining in Athens can prove to be a considerable expense. Although most of the restaurants in Athens are traditional Greek restaurants, there can be a wide variation in prices, and it is worth checking out the menu before you walk in and sit down. It goes without saying that those places a little off the beaten track have to offer better food and keener prices to stay in business.

Fortunately, for those on a budget, there are many bakers in Athens, all selling delicious and cheap savoury snacks. We decided to grab a snack from one of these places for one of our meals each day, and enjoyed the cheese pastry made with feta, the sausage roll, made from traditional spicy kebab meat, the spinach and feta tart, and small pizza breads. It’s not difficult to enjoy your snack on the hoof, and it saves a fortune over a few days.

When you do go for the splurge and eat at a restaurant, it’s important to factor in paying a couple of Euro extra for the bowl of crusty bread and water served at each table as standard. On the plus side, tipping isn’t necessarily expected in Athens, and so you do not need to go overboard with leaving the obligatory 10% tip.

As you have a considerable amount of bread, you can get by with ordering something like a simple Greek Salad, or a plate of calamari for a filling meal. If you do order a main course, it is worth checking what the meal comes with; some restaurants provide chips, rice or salad (or a combination) with the main course, others will just serve a meal of meat and sauce. Of course, in those situations, that bread can come in handy, so don’t eat it all while you are waiting for your meal to arrive.

If you are anything like me, alcohol can prove to be a considerable portion of your vacation meal costs. Look out for places that serve house wine by the half litre or litre. These are wines purchased direct from a local farmer, and stored in a large barrel rather than a separate bottle. The wines are of variable quality, and it’s a very bad sign when your red wine arrives chilled! However, even the best Greek wine isn’t particularly special, so is it worth paying out extra for what can only ever be an average wine?

Beer is expensive in Athens, and we were seeing some prices north of 4.50 Euros for a small bottle in the nicer bars. Obviously, the local beer tends to be cheaper – there is the slightly strong tasting Mythos and the softer and subtler Alpha generally to chose from. Look for restaurants serving large 500 cl size bottles, as these are better value.

If you like Ouzo, this can be a good choice. Many restaurants serve Ouzo in 20cl bottles, which equates to approximately nine units of alcohol – a handy amount for 2 or 3 diners. This will work out cheaper than a couple of beers will. Your Ouzo will arrive with a bowl of ice cubes and water. Pop the ice cubes into your glass, pour over the Ouzo and watch the clear liquid become cloudy. Add water to get your preferred strength. Ouzo has a strong aniseed taste, so most Greeks dilute their drink quite heavily.

While on the subject of Greek restaurants, it’s worth spending a little time discussing the bathroom, as it’s always quite an adventure!

Fortunately, bathroom standards are much higher in Athens these days, and it is quite difficult to find a dirty or unusable bathroom. However, the underground sewerage system is as poor as ever. This means that even items such as toilet tissue cannot simply be flushed away. As a result, Athens bathrooms in hotels, restaurants or anywhere else will always have a discreetly placed bin for you to put your used paper. While it can be disconcerting not to flush away the paper, many visitors soon get into the swing, and it is not as unpleasant as you might imagine.

Many restaurants are energy conscious and you may find the bathroom dark and unlit. Look out for the light switch, which are normally on the outside of the bathroom.

Another bit of fun comes with the hunt the toilet flush device. A bewildering array of methods await, be it a traditional flush attached to the water tank, a pull button attached just under a high mounted water closet, an automatic "motion" sensor (sorry!) or a foot pedal to flush. Getting water from a tap can be as equally daunting.

After a couple of days exploring the cheaper Greek island of Aegina, the restaurant prices of some of the more tourist-orientated restaurants in Athens came as a bit of a shock. It didn’t help that we had our credit cards pick pocketed on our way out to Aegina, which meant that our spending was limited to the cash we had in hand.

We were wandering around Monastiraki near the ruins of Hadrian’s Library, and although the area is touristy, we suddenly spotted the 5 Brothers Taverna, which looked far more basic than other restaurants in the area did. We decided upon a punt that it would offer good old-fashioned Greek food at a reasonable price.

The inside of the 5 Brothers Taverna is interesting, but rather tired. I liked the corner devoted to bookkeeping; files and papers were stored everywhere, and one of the five brothers was sitting at a desk, simultaneously ploughing through paperwork and issuing bills.

The kitchen of the Taverna is open for diners to peer in, and the surfaces of the place looked clean and orderly. The cigarettes the wait staff were smoking in the kitchen area, and the ashtray near the cutlery proved less attractive or promising. The washrooms although clean and tidy, were again rather old and unattractive.

We decided upon a couple of the specials in the fairly extensive Greek menu, a chicken stew, and a similar lamb dish. At 10 and 12 Euro respectively, it hardly broke the bank, but seemed no cheaper than nicer (and cleaner) looking places down the street. It certainly cost me more than I might expect for a similar meal in a similar restaurant in the UK. Once again, we were served with the standard slices of crusty bread while we waited for our order.

The food was OK, if not exceptional. My beloved is a fussy meat eater, but found the chicken to be reasonable quality, with few bones or gristle. Her meal, like mine, had been cooked in a sauce with potatoes and carrots. In fact, the Mediterranean sauce of the two dishes was very similar. I think I would have added wine to the sauce for interest, if I were chef.

My lamb was obviously a cheaper cut that tasted somewhat of kidneys, but again it was nicely cooked and tender. I was anticipating that as this appeared a traditional kind of place, our meal might arrive "luke warm" as the Greeks tend to prefer their food not so hot, but it had just come from the oven and was piping hot.

I was grateful for the bread to soak up the sauce, as the portion wasn’t particularly generous (but adequate). We also had a beer with our meal, and found the price of the beer to be average.

There are a few tables outside, and as the 5 Brothers Taverna occupies a quiet spot it is a nice spot to linger, although they don’t appear to have anything but candle light outside at night. As it was fairly cold, we dined inside.

The waiter was efficient (despite his returning to the kitchen for a smoke at every opportunity), although he was not particularly friendly or welcoming. A couple of other Greek families were using the restaurant while we were there.

I was hoping that the 5 Brothers Taverna might have offered particularly good cooking or value to make up for the rather faded interior, but on this experience, I suggest they offer standard food at slightly inflated prices.

Although we enjoyed our meal, given there are a whole host of alternative better-healed choices elsewhere in the area, I would not recommend this restaurant.

One just cannot travel to Athens without sampling a traditional kebab at least once. We chose to indulge our illicit passion for grilled meat at the Koouikor Grill House in the centre of Plaka, the main bar area of the city. Fortunately, we chose well.

The Koouikor Grill House is on Adrianou, a busy pedestrianized area of shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, most of the restaurant owners in this area tended to give us the "hard sell" as we passed by. I usually immediately walk past such places, as nine times out of ten, the hard sell substitutes for good quality food or reasonable prices. Fortunately, the owner of the Koouikor allowed us to check out the menu and take a sneaky look at the food being eaten by the other diners.

Unfortunately, Plaka is something of a tourist rattrap and reasonably priced food and drink can be difficult to find. Although I have seen cheaper menus, the Koouikor seemed keenly priced in comparison to its neighbours. In addition to a number of grill choices, the Koouikor offers other traditional Greek dishes.

As we didn’t know what our kebab was going to be served with, we decided to order a Greek Salad to share for starters, just to make sure we obtained our full share of vegetable matter. As many will know, the tomatoes make or break a Greek Salad, and unfortunately, the tomatoes in this salad weren’t particularly tasty. Although the amount of feta was adequate, we have been served with portions that are more generous. We also found that this Greek Salad had more lettuce leaves than usual. However, at five Euros for the two of us, the starter didn’t exactly break the bank.

The Greek Kebab comes in 2 main forms; gyros which is rougher quality meat slivers melded together and cooked in one big kebab of meat, or Souvlaki, which is made from better quality meat cooked individually in a skewer. For the purpose of comparison, we chose a chicken kebab of both varieties.

My chicken Gyros came in a huge mound, on a bed of raw red onion, and served with pitta bread (in fact, a round flat bread rather than the oval pitta breads found at the supermarket), tzatziki (yoghurt, cucumber and garlic). I also used some of the bread always served with every Greek meal to accompany my meal. Overall, I was impressed with the meal, and was pleased that it didn’t taste greasy, or leave me with any unpleasant side effects. The side order of Greek Salad had also proved to be the right choice, as I’m not keen on meat heavy meals. My Gyros was a very reasonable deal for 7 Euros.

My beloved meanwhile, found the Chicken Souvlaki very tasty indeed, and thought the nine Euro price tag reasonable. She had about two large chicken breasts worth of meat, served on a bed of rice, chips (fries) and salad.

To accompany our meal, we paid six Euro for half a litre of house red wine, which although thin tasting (which is standard for Greek wine) didn’t have the unpleasant aftertaste of some house wines, and it didn’t need chilling before drinking. The owner is a friendly and efficient man, with good English. Our food was served promptly and effectively.

Greece is famous for its stray cats, which seem to linger at almost every restaurant. This area seemed to prefer docile sleeping dogs.

The restaurant is in a very smart looking building, and I particularly liked the look of the upstairs balcony. I enjoy looking out at the world from such vantage spots, but on this occasion, it was warm enough for us to eat outside, and watch the Police deal with a dog biting incident which had just occurred at the next bar. The basement washrooms have to quality for the smartest in Athens award, although as is usual in Greece, toilet paper has to go into the bin provided, rather than down the pan as I am more used to.

Overall, the Koouikor is a reasonable choice for this part of town, and certainly much better than some of the options in the area.

Surprisingly, one of the quietest spots in Athens can be found just under the Acropolis in the Anafiotika area. It seems that most visitors take their tour bus to the Acropolis, have a brief look around the (scaffold covered and fenced off) ruins, and disappear without taking time out for a stroll. As usual, they leave the best bits of the city to the traveller that takes a little more time to explore.

Anafiotika includes a small area of traditional houses, apparently constructed by builders hired from the Greek islands to work on the King’s palace following independence 180 years ago. The builders did a little moonlighting up here, and the resultant squat, whitewashed houses and narrow streets means they brought something of the relaxed island style to this part of the capital.

I’m sure it’s busier during the hotter summer months, but in November, there were just us and a myriad of cats, blinking in the weak November sunshine, amazed with this quiet little corner of Athens.

The Taverna Thespis lies just on the edge of this area at Thespidos 18. It is at the end of a maze of streets, but it’s much easier to find from Plaka.

Given as we wanted a quiet lunch without the bustle of passers by and traffic, it seemed like a good choice to stop. I was pleased that the restaurant owner didn’t rush out to accost us as we read the menu (an over-eager sales pitch is usually a sign the food is overpriced or poor). The Taverna Thespis is quite large, and has two outdoor dining areas, a nice inside eating area, and a rooftop terrace from which you can get a good view of the rear side of the Acropolis (from this side, it’s mainly of the huge defence wall that shores up the rock on which the Acropolis sits). From here, you can see a big crack in the rock.

The Taverna Thespis offers a good choice of Greek specialities including kebabs, seafood and stews. We decided upon the cheapest of the set menus. For 14 Euros, we shared a delicious Greek salad, laced with lashings of delicious olive oil, and a raw garlic strewn Tzatziki - I always enjoy that yoghurt and cucumber dish. I only felt a little sorry for my fellow plane passengers later that afternoon!

Although our starter filled us, I couldn’t resist the plate of fresh calamari and chips (fries), while my beloved enjoyed her huge mousaka, although I personally hate aubergine or the huge wedge of white cheese sauce they used in the mince dish.

Also in the deal was half a litre of homemade wine – the red was drinkable (for Greek wine) and didn’t need to be served chilled. Our meal at the Taverna Thespis was the best of our Greek meals, and I would certainly recommend it for a good quality, relaxed and quiet meal.

Other set menu choices included chicken kebab or a mixed grill for two people, at just a slightly higher charge, or you can simply go "free style" from the numerous choices on the menu. As is common for Greece, the Taverna is home to an extended family of friendly cats, all eager to help you out with your meal. As the restaurant was quiet with only three dining parties during the time we visited, we held almost the undivided attention of the cats, although the owner kept on shooing them away.

Also common for Greek restaurants, the Taverna Thespis serve (and charge) you crusty bread to go with your meal (no butter is served) and a large bottle of still mineral water. Don’t panic, they won’t fleece you for these extras (it’s only a couple of Euro).

The wait service was relaxed, and they were in no hurry for us to leave the restaurant. The owner, an elderly man, seemed very pleasant and happy. Although his English wasn’t great, we had no problems with our order or our food. Our bill for two people (which also included a naughty small bottle of Ouzo) came to a reasonable 35 Euro ($45).