tommy wrote:
Heading to Greece next week. I’ll be in Mykonos (most of my free time is already filled up there) and Athens. Anyone have any recos, especially in Athens. I think we are staying sorta near The Acropolis.
As of two years ago, Atlantikos in Psirri served simple, quality seafood at gentle prices. It's popular and very tourist-friendly but not exclusively touristy.
Volvi, outside Varvakeios Market on Evripidou, is a window for better-than-normal souvlaki and meatballs made w/(for once) good ingredients. The market itself is worth a look as well (the surrounding area is wonderful for herbs, spices, tea, beans, grains, and soap to take home), and the old-school famous lunch restaurant in there w/the tripe soup is also solid.
For a hell of a dinner and outstanding wine (w/an emphasis on natural and/or traditional producers), spend a little money and go to Materia Prima in Koukaki. Greek food w/international influences and an avant-garde edge w/o being corny or needlessly fancy.
You probably know that Greeks eat late, so dinner before 9pm looks a little odd outside of tourist joints.
Athens is big, gritty, smoggy, and a huge mix of Greek and immigrant cultures, so it's often more hectic and urban than one might expect. But I totally love the place. Classical monuments mixed in w/that stuff is very cool. Hike around the Anafiotika quarter, just behind the Acropolis, if you're an active sort, and admire the old houses. Exarchia is the historic bohemian neighborhood, although it looked a little spent a few years ago b/c of hard-drug spillover from adjacent areas and the closure of so many clubs, record stores, and shops. Might be a little livelier now w/the pandemic in the rearview, dunno? Do watch your pockets on the metro, especially coming from the airport.
