Ekiben Kitchen South.

After four years on a narrow street behind Syntagma, Ekiben Kitchen opened a second chapter in Glyfada in December 2025 — a 205-square-metre space designed by Flux Office that reads less like a restaurant fit-out and more like a piece of urban scenography. By day, the glass-brick façade filters sunlight into the room. After dark, it inverts: the building itself becomes a lit volume, amber and red pushing out onto the corner, visible from down the street. The architects call it a lantern. They are not exaggerating.

The project comes from the team behind Birdman, the Michelin Guide-recommended Japanese grill that has anchored downtown Athens for years. Ekiben began as a side project within Birdman — bento-box cooking built around the same precision and care the Japanese apply to a train-station meal — and grew into its own identity. Glyfada was the natural next step: a coastline with an appetite for considered, international concepts, and, until now, no Japanese kitchen built to this standard.

Inside, the room is organised around counter-islands rather than a conventional floor plan: a bar, a DJ console, a pass that looks directly into the open kitchen, and a long counter that pierces straight through the glass-brick façade, putting diners simultaneously inside the room and out on the street. Light design by Evina Diamantara shifts the mood by the hour — bright and unguarded at lunch, dense and amber after sunset. A take-away window is built into the façade itself, framed by the restaurant's signage, for anyone not ready to commit to the full sit-down experience.

The food keeps faith with Ekiben's original instincts — fast, generous, comfort-driven — while picking up notes specific to the south. The Smash Sando, double beef patty with cheddar and a house sauce, remains a signature. The Udon Carbonara folds guanciale, a marinated egg yolk, and bacon furikake into thick udon noodles, a cross-cultural dish that somehow never feels like a stunt. The Toban Ribeye, new to the Glyfada menu, arrives sizzling in traditional heat-retaining Japanese ceramic, layered with shiitake, wasabi, and soy, rice served alongside.

Outdoor seating extends onto Laodikis and behaves the way Glyfada behaves: a sunlit lunch that has no fixed end point, conversation that runs long, service that stays warm without performing for the table. Reservations are recommended — the room fills on weeknights, not only weekends — but the take-away window remains the fastest route in for anyone passing through.