Culture
Greece Is Having a Moment in London. The Chefs Behind It Are Not All Greek..
In the span of six months, London opened more serious Greek restaurants than in the previous decade combined. The interesting question isn’t why. It’s who is doing it, and what they think Greek food actually means.
London has always had Greek restaurants. What it mostly had, for a long time, were the ones that didn’t ask you to think too hard — blue painted wood, the same taramasalata, a Mythos on ice, nostalgia as a service. A reliable category. Not a living one.
The Mayfair Line
Maza (@mazamayfair) opened in March 2026 on Bruton Place in Mayfair, from Christina Mouratoglou and Adrien Carré — the duo behind Mazi and Suzi Tros in Notting Hill. The concept was precise: the atmosphere and communal dining traditions of a 1980s Athenian taverna, in a 90-cover room designed by Archer Humphryes Architects, with the world’s largest exclusively Greek wine list at over 150 labels. Upstairs, a vinyl listening bar plays 70s and 80s Greek records. The tsipouro ritual — a shot served with mezze at the start of the meal — opens every evening.
For the Greek food press, the verdict was clear: Maza was the first Greek restaurant in London to successfully mirror the wave of neotavernas, gastrokafeneia, and gastrotavernes that have reshaped Athenian dining over the past decade. Not a stylised approximation. The actual thing.
“We open a new Greek restaurant when we feel we have a new story to tell.” — Christina Mouratoglou
The Marylebone Counter
Clio (@clio.london) opened on Chiltern Street with executive chef Glen Ballis and head chef Louis Korovilas, whose CV includes Locanda Locatelli, Pied à Terre, Phil Howard, and Bancone. Neither chef is Greek. The room — terracotta tones, olive-green banquettes, greenery — plays R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People straight through during service: serious without announcing itself. The taramasalata is properly salty, properly savoury, and disappears at alarming speed. The pedigree of the kitchen is visible from the first plate.
The Covent Garden Anchor
Zylia (@zylia_taverna) opened in May 2026 in Covent Garden, with its own street entrance on Bedford Street. It was founded by Nick Molyviatis — Athens-born, ex-head chef at Kiln, co-owner of Singburi — and Barry Karacostas, who brings Cypriot heritage and two decades of hospitality experience. The menu draws on family recipes from both cultures: charcoal grill, mezze, kleftiko, sheftalia, whole grilled fish, kaimaki ice cream with sour cherries. Fifty covers. Wicker chairs, Cypriot tiles, stainless steel counters. It has the feel of a family taverna that has been open for decades.
“For me, it’s about capturing the energy of the tavernas I knew in Athens.” — Nick Molyviatis
What They Are Not Doing
None of these restaurants are particularly interested in what Greek food has looked like in London before. The holiday-postcard version barely registers as a reference point. What they share is a closer relationship to what is actually happening in Athens: the lightweight approach to vegetables, the obsessive sourcing of fish, the willingness to serve the cuisine’s simplest preparations at the same standard as its more elaborate ones. London hasn’t been short of high-profile Greek openings this year — Maza, Zylia, Clio, Fenix, Ermou, all in the same short window. The chefs betting on the category as structural rather than seasonal have serious enough pedigrees that the restaurants will outlast the trend either way.
