Where to Eat in Athens and Piraeus
If you're wondering where to eat in Athens and Piraeus we have a few suggestions including some favorites around the Acropolis, Omonia Square, and Syntagma.
He Knows Where to Eat in Athens!
We've also included some highly-acclaimed places, ranging from Michelin-starred restaurants that we aspire to eat in one day, to cheap tavernas that we love and which simply ooze atmosphere.
Price Guide
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Expensive
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Moderate
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Inexpensive
Around the Acropolis
Spondi Restaurant in Athens
Spondi €€€ This neo-classical mansion has contemporary art works on the walls and has been voted the best restaurant not just in Athens but in the whole of Greece several years in a row. Pyrronos 5, Varnava Square, tel: 210 752 4021, spondi.gr.
To Kouti €€ One of the few reliable places on this busy Plaka street, most of the others catering for the fast tourist trade. Here the service is more leisurely, the menu's unusual and the setting with its Acropolis views will give you a romantic night to remember. Adrianou 23, tel: 210 321 3229, no website.
O Platanos Taverna in Athens
O Platanos € It sometimes seems like 'The Plane Tree' (like the plane tree it's named after) has been here forever, so well-established is it in its leafy square. Visitors love it as it is so typically Greek, but locals hang out here too, and though the food is nothing fancy, it is wonderfully cooked. Great atmosphere too, whether outside on warm summer evenings or dining cosily inside in winter. Diogenous 4, tel: 210 322 0666, O Platanos website.
Around Omonia Square
Athinaikon Taverna in Athens
Athinaikon € Wonderful venerable old place with its wooden interior still intact, and some of the waiters seemingly dating from the same era. They have one of the best meze menus in town, dozens of dishes made fresh every day so it's a chance to try lots of different things like grilled octopus, meatballs with mint, or deep-fried whitebait. Themistokleous 2, tel: 210 383 8485, athinaikon.gr.
Diporto in the Central Athens Market
Diporto € If you want a real Athens eating experience then head for this old place in a basement beneath the Central Market, where the market traders go for good, honest, fresh, hearty food, though you'll find local business people there too. If you're on a budget, it's ideal. It's at the corner of Theatrou and Sokratous, There's no phone or website so you just have to turn up and chance your luck, and you can read more about it here: culinarybackstreets.com.
Our Pick of the Athens Guides
Around Syntagma Square
Aegli Restaurant in Athens
Aegli Café and Restaurant €€€ Fabulous setting in the National Gardens by the Zappeion, but don't assume it's just another café as the bistro-style menu is very inventive, as is the more extensive (and expensive) French-influenced evening menu. They make nice cocktails too. Zappeion, tel: 210 336 9363, aeglizappiou.gr.
Balthazar Restaurant in Athens
Balthazar €€€ This has long been one of the most stylish places to eat in Athens, housed in a wonderful 19th-century mansion on the north-east edge of Kolonaki. They do vegan and vegetarian dishes as well, have a separate sushi menu, and if you're on a budget and want to sample their amazing food without breaking the bank they have a Finger Food menu as well. Vournazou/Tsocha 27, tel: 210 644 1215, balthazar.gr.
Ratka €€-€€€ International menu ranges from sushi to pasta in this chic place which has been a fashionable meeting and eating spot in Kolonaki for decades. Haritos 32, tel: 210 729 0746, no website but you can read its glowing reviews on TripAdvisor here.
Ouzadiko €€ This contemporary take on a traditional Greek ouzerie shows off the new Greek-style cooking at its best with a long list of meze, the Greek version of tapas, to choose from, and the chance to find out that not all ouzos taste the same. Karneadou 25-29 (in the shopping mall), tel: 210 729 5484, no website.
Benaki Museum Café € Great place for a spot of lunch on this attractive second-floor terrace, with a very popular buffet on their Thursday late-night opening, for which you would be advised to book. Koumbari 1/Vasilissis Sofias, tel: 210 367 1000, benaki.gr.
Dexameni € Well-loved and long-established café-restaurant, with mainly light meals but a great people-watching place in a lovely little Kolonaki square. Platia Dexameni, tel: 210 723 2834, no website but you can read more here: culinarybackstreets.com.
Jimmy's Fish Restaurant in Piraeus
Jimmy's Fish €€-€€€ Ask an Athenian to recommend one Piraeus fish restaurant and chances are it would be this one, not just for the fresh fish and its speciality seafood pasta dishes but also its lovely setting on the harbour at Mikrolimano. Don't turn up late on a sunny Sunday lunchtime and expect to find an empty seat. Akti Koumoundourou 46, tel: 210 412 4417, jimmysfish.gr.
Dourabeis Restaurant in Piraeus
Dourabeis €€ If a seafood restaurant has been in business for over sixty years then it must be doing something right, and the secret here is: keep it simple. The freshest of fish, the lightest of grillings and dinner is perfect. Not cheap but then fish never is. Akti Dilaveri 27-29, tel: 210 412 2092, Dourabeis Facebook page.
Other Athens pages
Greece Travel Secrets lists the ten best museums in Athens, with the top two being the National Archaeological Museum and the Acropolis Museum.
The Changing of the Guard in Athens takes place outside the Parliament building at the top of Syntagma Square and is a must-see for visitors.
Athens is a top vacation destination. The Greece Travel Secrets Athens guide has information on hotels, museums, Athens airport and all the best things to do.
Athens International Airport is east of Athens city centre with its own Metro train station, buses to Athens and Piraeus, taxis and car rental offices.
Around Monastiraki is the flea market, Athens cathedral, Kerameikos Cemetery, the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art and the Psirri and Gazi nightlife districts.
Athens' Benaki Museum is one of the city’s top museums with an outstanding collection, especially of Greek and Egyptian artefacts, in a beautiful mansion.
Greek alcoholic drinks include distinctly Greek drinks such as ouzo, Metaxa, retsina, raki, tsikoudia and tsipouro, but also Greek wines and Greek beers.
The Greece Travel Secrets website looks at the Athens weather, the chance of rain, the climate in summer and winter and the best time to visit Athens.
Greekality is a Greek company offering food tours in Athens including street food tours, wine and nightlife tours, vegan tours and cooking classes.
The beach resorts of Athens are easily reached from the city and also close are Cape Sounion with the Temple of Poseidon, ancient Marathon and Rafina's port.
What is a Greek Salad – a Greek Salad is made up of tomatoes, cucumber, onions, green pepper, olives, and feta cheese.
In My Athens on Greece Travel Secrets travel writer Mike Gerrard describes what he loves about Athens including the Acropolis and eating!
Greece Travel Secrets visits Crete and learns about making rakomelo from Jorgos Kourmoulis in Agouseliana.
Information for travelers on Corfu Food and Drink including restaurants and tavernas, Corfiot specialties, desserts, wine and other Greek drinks like ouzo.
Greece Travel Secrets reveals the history of the classic Greek dish, moussaka, as well as providing a recipe for you to make your own.
Greece Travel Secrets picks the best time to visit Athens with a month-by-month account of the weather, hotel prices and any special events that are happening.
This drive around Attica offers visitors high hills, beach resorts, small villages and classical sites like Marathon and the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion.
The National Archaeological Museum is one of the best things to see in Athens, and the best museum in the world for seeing Greece's archaeological treasures.
For a Crete olive oil tour Greece Travel Secrets visits Biolea, one of the few olive oil factories on Crete that you can visit.
Greece Travel Secrets gives its choice of the best hotels in Athens from budget and moderate options through to 5-star luxury choices.
Easter in Athens is, like everywhere in Greece, the biggest religious celebration of the year and this page tells you what to expect over the Easter weekend.
Mount Lykabettos is the highest hill in Athens and provides some of the best views of the city, with a funicular cable car the easiest way to get to the top.
Two of the best cocktail bars in Athens, MoMix Kerameikos and The Clumsies, are making creative cocktails using that most Greek of Greek spirits, Metaxa.
Ten Fun Things to Do in Athens include eating in the Central Market, watching the sun set over the Acropolis and seeing one of the world's oldest theatres.
Greek ouzo is an aniseed-based aperitif made all over the country but especially on Lesbos, tasting like a Greek pastis or arak and usually drunk with water.
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