Taverna Ermou.

Taverna Ermou opened in September 2025 on the ground floor of a fully renovated building on Ermou 98, between Monastiraki and Psyrri — the future site of Ergon House Ermou, a hotel still under construction above. Stepping through the iron door, the room reads less like a restaurant launch and more like Ergon's own version of an older, warmer Athens: stone, wood, a small interior courtyard with cobblestones, the kind of detailing that takes time rather than budget to get right.

The menu is overseen by Panagiotis Xanthis, Ergon's culinary director across all its restaurants, and this one fills a gap the group hadn't covered before: fish. The kitchen leans into classic Athenian taverna references — grilled and pan-cooked seafood, small creative touches rather than reinvention — and runs an open kitchen on a simple, honest principle: what comes off the stove gets served.

Bread arrives oiled and oregano-dusted with two dips — a spicy smoked tirokafteri and an olive spread with sun-dried tomato — setting the tone before the main plates land. The wine list runs heavy on retsina, alongside Greek vineyard bottles and a house white made in partnership with the Manolesakis estate, fruity with a long finish, sold by the kilo for the table.

Old Greek songs play through the room at a volume that supports conversation rather than competing with it. The atmosphere is deliberately unhurried — a counterpoint to a stretch of Ermou that has historically offered little beyond souvlaki stands and tourist-trap tavernas. Taverna Ermou, alongside its Liystor neighbour, is part of a quiet attempt to give that corner of Monastiraki a different kind of evening.

Open daily, 10:00 to midnight, which makes it as workable for a midday plate as for a full dinner. The market upstairs — Ergon's original format, still running across town — remains worth the detour on its own.