Where Athens Eats.
Restaurants and cafés where the city's culinary discipline meets its architectural sensibility.
Plyta
RawBata
Chef Chronis Damalas's first solo restaurant, on Lakonias Square in Ambelokipi since June 2024. Two decades of pan-Asian pedigree — Nobu New York, Cavo Tagoo, Izakaya — turned toward Greek ingredients bought each morning at the market outside, finished on a robata charcoal grill. A family operation: his wife and child in the room, his mother cleaning herbs at a back table. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
Taverna Oikonomou
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Ta Kanaria
Ta Kanaria has been running in Moschato since 1950, in an old single-family house with a courtyard on Kanari Street. Four generations on, the kitchen still does shrimps, fried fish, and seasonal seafood from the Saronic — honest cooking that hasn’t moved with the trends because it doesn’t need to.
Meat the Greek
A souvlaki counter on Fokionos, two minutes off Monastiraki Square, run on a single principle since 2019: one thing, done properly. Pork off the spit (gone by early afternoon most days), handmade meatballs, a roasted aubergine and red pepper dip made fresh, and the kitchen's own pitopsomo — part bread roll, part pita. The owner works the floor most nights. Monday through Saturday, noon to midnight.
Sleep Well.
Hotels chosen for their architecture, their quiet, and their position.
Papaioannou Restaurant
TOPA
Topa sits on the pedestrian street Fokionos Negri in Kypseli — a high-end kafenio by the Oinoscent team: co-founders Danis Agapitos and Aris Sklavenitis, with chef and co-owner Giannis Tsikoudakis, born in Chania. The name means 'cheers' in Basque. The menu places Cretan meze and Basque tapas side by side without forcing a fusion. Wine and vermouth curated by Sklavenitis. Walk-in only; no reservations.
Dourabeis
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Ex Machina
Ex Machina opened in 2023 on Empedokleous in Pangrati under chef Adam, serving sharing plates built on Greek produce — dayboat seafood, Ibérico pig from Ancient Olympia, eggs from Messinia — fused with Asian and Middle Eastern technique. Spices sourced directly from Cairo's Khan el-Khalili market. Open Monday to Saturday from 18:30.
Ama Lachei
Ama Lachei sits in a converted neoclassical building on Kallidromiou, the main pedestrian street cutting through Exarchia. The menu is traditional — oven-roasted chickpeas, taramosalata, seasonal grills — and the crowd is local. Open from lunch until the neighbourhood winds down.
Drinks After.
Where the evening goes after the last plate is cleared.
Taverna ton Filon
Ekiben Kitchen South
Ekiben's second Athens chapter, on Laodikis in Glyfada. The same bento-driven kitchen that built a loyal following near Syntagma, housed now in a 205-square-metre Flux Office design built around a glass-brick façade that filters daylight and glows amber after dark. Open kitchen, counter seating that runs straight through the façade onto the street, a take-away window for anyone in a hurry. Daily, 13:00 to midnight.
Iodio
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Taverna Ermou
Ergon's first fish-led taverna, opened September 2025 on the ground floor of Ergon House Ermou — the group's hotel, still under construction above. Culinary director Panagiotis Xanthis builds the menu on classic Athenian seafood references, served from an open kitchen with a small stone courtyard and a soundtrack of old Greek songs. Heavy on retsina and Greek vineyard wine, including a house white made with the Manolesakis estate. Daily, 10:00 to midnight.
Mani Mani
Mani Mani has been cooking from the Laconian peninsula's playbook since the late 2000s — slow-braised meats, loukoumades, fig tart, and the dense olive oils of the Mani. The kitchen occupies a two-floor neoclassical on Falirou in Koukaki. The NYT noticed. Reservations strongly advised.
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