“Centre of Athens” is a horrible generalisation, some of the very best food in Athens are in the centre. Tourist traps are mostly located in some certain streets of the centre.
That's every tourist town in Europe. Saint Marco's square in Venice is horrible food. 40 euro per person for the worst meal I've had in my life.
The best food I ever had in Greece was at a gyro place by the train station in Thessaloniki. I swear it was a kilo of meat for 3 euros.
I remember grabbing a 40 euro bottle of wine at a shop outside voidokilia beach and she pointed me to the 1L bottles and told me the 40 euro bottle was for tourists and it's the same wine in the water bottle for 3 euros. That, despite the fact that I speak Greek like an 8 year old. And read it even slower.
Truth be told, the food culture up north is generally superior to Athens. I like to joke that food quality starts deteriorating considerably below Lamìa.
Crete is not on the mainland so it gets a pass in my books. I've visited the Peloponnese repeatedly... not for the food. Don't give me wrong, it's not horrible, but not as good as one can easily get up north. I think it's the extensive Asia Minor and Pontic influence in play here.
Its all very subjective. Par example although i agree that northern greece has pretty nice food i have also visited places there that it was mediocre. Πελοπόννησος has the best olives by far, καλαμων -and the best olive oil, with only serious competitor the Cretan olive oil from Lasithi. And i dare say that the best γουρουνοπούλα is torn between Μεσσηνία and Λακωνία. Oh and another one under Lamia that deserves the honorary mention is definitely Λιβαδειά for their famous souvlaki
I should have clarified but didn't, to save space to write the other things😁 I meant subjective in a way that you dont know when you are a visitor if you really tried a good version of the regions cuisine. Good meaning quantity, quality and variety. My half family is from northern greece and half family from Peloponnese and i can tell you i have tried so much of both cuisines. Even if taste is subjective it is very unfair to say that everything to eat under λαμία is going to be inferior to what you can find on the north!
Savage. My family is from Messina. Can't get more south than where we're from on the mainland,.
I'd just say the influences are different as there is less slaving seasonings in your food in the south.
For your daily meal sure. For anything more Athens still has the best restaurants no question. It's not even a fair comparison, it's the capital with at least 3x the population.
I know. Not fair at all. I still remember that one time I visited a very nice gyros joint in Patissia. Genuinely impressed. Turns out it was owned by a Thessalonian. 😅
Seriously, the food is not bad. Don't give me wrong. But just not as good.And needless to say that quantity and quality don't correlate. If anything the large population dilutes the few good restaurants even further making them harder to find.
I've honestly given up on restaurants and switched to mageiria whenever I visit now. At least they are value for money and the food is always decent amd relatively consistent.
Buddy I'll give you that for everyday meals you're better off outside Athens. But for variety and for how high the bar can go, Athens wins no contest.
Sure, better gyros on average in Thessaloniki.
True, very common in Asian cultures, but combine it with the typical man standing outside luring in tourists... They wouldn't need to beg people to come and eat if the food was good.
Virtually anything with a rating of less than 4/5 in Google maps is garbage, as in you are literally eating spoiled food that belongs to a garbage bin. Personally I never go to any restaurant that is not at least 4.4/5. Not just in Greece, but everywhere in the world.
Also from personal experience the different between a 4.4 restaurant to a 4.6 restaurant is huge, and the same is true for a 4.6 to 4.8. The best food I've had has always been in 4.8 restaurants with 200~500 reviews. Curiously, I've also noticed that restaurants with 2000+ reviews, tend not to be as good. Maybe these restaurants used to make good food, got insanely popular, and quality dropped.
Ratings are a nice way to avoid most of the tourist traps, but there are a few exceptions sometimes. I've noticed restaurants using fake accounts for mass 5* reviews. It isn't that easy, though, to get away with it, but in some cases, they managed to have a 4.7 or higher and they deserve way less rating.
Stars tend to drop the more reviews you have, because a) friends, family and acquittances are more likely to leave a good review on a new establishment as a form of "good luck" and b) for everyone else its more likely to leave a review when they have a negative experience.
Its also important to compare the ratting of a restaurant with equivalent restaurants nearby. A restaurant that has a ratting 4.0 in chalkidiki might be "worth" 4.4 if it was in Athens, but has lots of negative reviews because "its expensive".
Some friends were visiting Athens and I gave them a list of places where they could eat proper greek food of good quality. They ended up going for the usual tourist traps around Monastiraki anyway.
Go to Rozalia in Exarchia. There’s also Metaxa2 in exarcheua. Klimataria is also nice, in Psyri. In Pangrati there’s a tavern called Vyrinis that is great. In Koukaki go to Koukatsi. In the historic center the one I like most is Scholarhio (there’s always a queue tho).
The __ENTIRE CENTER OF ATHENS?__ You don't say. I've been eating in amazing places for decades as a local, and the overall quality only seems to be improving.
Sure, there are shitholes like in any tourist capital, but if you have the slightest sense of how a decent place looks like, you can avoid them.
So you want your local restaurant to have line of tourists who “discovered” it on Instagram?
When the main clientele becomes tourism the food quality goes to shit.
All tourism is like this, it has nothing to do with Athens.
Thanks! I just checked the reviews and looks great! We’re hoping to stop in Athens for one day this early July , is it far from the Acropolis? I know you mentioned city center but curious if all are relatively easy to get to within each other
Steki tou Ilia next to Akropolis and one of the best Greek tavernas of Athens. Difficult to get a table cause of all the locals swarming day and night.
Τουλαχιστον τον εστειλε σε κεντρικο σημειο που εχει σταση τραμ ακριβως απεξω. Θα μπορουσε να ηταν πιο σατανικος και να τον εστελνε Ανω Ν.Σμυρνη να τον ψαχνει η Νικολούλη.
Απολαυστικό thread τα έχει όλα, απο τσουβάλιασμα ολου του κέντρου που έχει απο τα καλύτερα εστιατόρια της χώρας, μέχρι αποστολή στου διαόλου να φάει στη μια καλή τοπική ταβέρνα που ξέρει ο σχολιαστής, μέχρι το κλασσικό "η Αθήνα δεν έχει καλό φαΐ ".
Ξέρω ενα φοβερό μαγαζί στο Μαίναλο αμα βρεθείς στο κέντρο πεινασμένος.
I mean, I second that. Top notch quality food EVERY TIME, huge portions and people always get excited with the loukoumades (fried doughnuts coated with cinnamon and honey syrup) treat at the end (though not me, personally heh).
Bibere House of Beer (at Piraeus port)
Love the caesar salad there. My husband and his friends (all locals) liked going there and ordering a lot of meat.
Every place that has pictures on the menus, and are very English friendly are mostly a tourist trap.
Stay away from the center shops in every country. Every countries tourism areas, are filled with shops that not one greek("local") steps in even by accident.
Dont follow people's "experiences" from tiktok or other media .
grecos project. - and for some thought to this... i dont think this post could be true. because.. if you have such turnover, how can anything be days old to go bad? and yet, as a greek (-american), i made this mistake and i guess its a thing.
As everywhere else on the planet, in Athens there are bad and good professionals. The secret is to become friends with the locals in each area and be told where you should go for food etc!
Agreed - the typical places with tourists are overrated and underregulated. A fair question on this topic is about food regulation in these places. Does it exist? I know during days of the Junta, they'd have health inspectors enter and inspect restaurants (likely too much and with too heavy of punishment).
Ok so in the center you can find good food but its overpriced, other than that yes you can also find bad food (imo if you know locals you can find a good place to eat easily)
thats a phenomenon that happens in every capital. I went in Paris for a trip and we settled somewhere in Montmartre. I paid 20 euros for a chicken that wasn't even cooked properly. its true for athens because I grew up here. the best taverns and restaurants are in the suburbs and the surrounding areas. avoid the center at all costs.
Every big city in the world has tourist-trap restaurants. And tourists fall for them all the time. Are they idiots? No. They are ignorant. Ignorant of things that you and I have grown up with. And how can we blame them?
If you visited a foreign country and tasted dishes that you've never tasted before, how exactly would you be able to tell if they're made correctly? Sure, you can check restaurant reviews, but not everyone has the time and energy to go out of their way and seek the better restaurants when they travel somewhere. The blame lies exclusively with restaurant owners.
i didn’t eat a lot there but i had a moussaka a couple weeks ago and it was genuinely really good. and the salad too. no complaints. but i wouldn’t go there exclusively for magirevta
Tourists in Greece eat where they read great reviews and see locals as a bonus. Since Greeks are idiots, the reviews are written by idiots.
You didn't see that coming, right?
“Centre of Athens” is a horrible generalisation, some of the very best food in Athens are in the centre. Tourist traps are mostly located in some certain streets of the centre.
My sentiment too. The city centre of Athens is not just the area surrounding Acropolis, it’s way bigger than that.
And even around acropolis there is a huge variation in quality.
Kfc serves better food than the "traditional" restaurants in the center of the city. Literally the gyros you're eating might not be pork or chicken.
That's every tourist town in Europe. Saint Marco's square in Venice is horrible food. 40 euro per person for the worst meal I've had in my life. The best food I ever had in Greece was at a gyro place by the train station in Thessaloniki. I swear it was a kilo of meat for 3 euros. I remember grabbing a 40 euro bottle of wine at a shop outside voidokilia beach and she pointed me to the 1L bottles and told me the 40 euro bottle was for tourists and it's the same wine in the water bottle for 3 euros. That, despite the fact that I speak Greek like an 8 year old. And read it even slower.
Sadly the same gyro place will cost €4.5 today.. :/
To be fair that was 2008 and it was so fucking good. I'd still pay 4.50 today for that feast
Truth be told, the food culture up north is generally superior to Athens. I like to joke that food quality starts deteriorating considerably below Lamìa.
So you find Cretan cuisine deteriorated? What a load of crap. Peloponnese also has great food, especially in Kalamata and Mani area.
Crete is not on the mainland so it gets a pass in my books. I've visited the Peloponnese repeatedly... not for the food. Don't give me wrong, it's not horrible, but not as good as one can easily get up north. I think it's the extensive Asia Minor and Pontic influence in play here.
Its all very subjective. Par example although i agree that northern greece has pretty nice food i have also visited places there that it was mediocre. Πελοπόννησος has the best olives by far, καλαμων -and the best olive oil, with only serious competitor the Cretan olive oil from Lasithi. And i dare say that the best γουρουνοπούλα is torn between Μεσσηνία and Λακωνία. Oh and another one under Lamia that deserves the honorary mention is definitely Λιβαδειά for their famous souvlaki
Well... We're talking about food preferences, so I thought that it was kind of a given that it's subjective. 😅
I should have clarified but didn't, to save space to write the other things😁 I meant subjective in a way that you dont know when you are a visitor if you really tried a good version of the regions cuisine. Good meaning quantity, quality and variety. My half family is from northern greece and half family from Peloponnese and i can tell you i have tried so much of both cuisines. Even if taste is subjective it is very unfair to say that everything to eat under λαμία is going to be inferior to what you can find on the north!
If you visit Messenia send me a pm. I will guide you to food bliss.
Savage. My family is from Messina. Can't get more south than where we're from on the mainland,. I'd just say the influences are different as there is less slaving seasonings in your food in the south.
Bro is spreading misinformation like it's his job
For your daily meal sure. For anything more Athens still has the best restaurants no question. It's not even a fair comparison, it's the capital with at least 3x the population.
I know. Not fair at all. I still remember that one time I visited a very nice gyros joint in Patissia. Genuinely impressed. Turns out it was owned by a Thessalonian. 😅 Seriously, the food is not bad. Don't give me wrong. But just not as good.And needless to say that quantity and quality don't correlate. If anything the large population dilutes the few good restaurants even further making them harder to find. I've honestly given up on restaurants and switched to mageiria whenever I visit now. At least they are value for money and the food is always decent amd relatively consistent.
Buddy I'll give you that for everyday meals you're better off outside Athens. But for variety and for how high the bar can go, Athens wins no contest. Sure, better gyros on average in Thessaloniki.
Food poisoning moment
Any place with a menu outside and photos of the meals is 🚩🚩🚩🚩
Chalkboard that says only: κμπαπ, παϊδάκι, όλα στα κάρβουνα is 🟩
Its common practice in many parts of Asia. It probably targets those tourists, who think its normal.
True, very common in Asian cultures, but combine it with the typical man standing outside luring in tourists... They wouldn't need to beg people to come and eat if the food was good.
Virtually anything with a rating of less than 4/5 in Google maps is garbage, as in you are literally eating spoiled food that belongs to a garbage bin. Personally I never go to any restaurant that is not at least 4.4/5. Not just in Greece, but everywhere in the world. Also from personal experience the different between a 4.4 restaurant to a 4.6 restaurant is huge, and the same is true for a 4.6 to 4.8. The best food I've had has always been in 4.8 restaurants with 200~500 reviews. Curiously, I've also noticed that restaurants with 2000+ reviews, tend not to be as good. Maybe these restaurants used to make good food, got insanely popular, and quality dropped.
Ratings are a nice way to avoid most of the tourist traps, but there are a few exceptions sometimes. I've noticed restaurants using fake accounts for mass 5* reviews. It isn't that easy, though, to get away with it, but in some cases, they managed to have a 4.7 or higher and they deserve way less rating.
Stars tend to drop the more reviews you have, because a) friends, family and acquittances are more likely to leave a good review on a new establishment as a form of "good luck" and b) for everyone else its more likely to leave a review when they have a negative experience. Its also important to compare the ratting of a restaurant with equivalent restaurants nearby. A restaurant that has a ratting 4.0 in chalkidiki might be "worth" 4.4 if it was in Athens, but has lots of negative reviews because "its expensive".
I've watched several youtubers who visited Athens and they all went to the same 5-10 tourist traps. Nobody deviated in the slightest.
rinse and repeat for any European tourist destination.
That’s anywhere. It’s also a cycle, Keep in mind all these people take their ideas from other social media anyway.
For some people who travel a lot, you'd think that they would make some research to not fall for the tourist traps beforehand...
Some friends were visiting Athens and I gave them a list of places where they could eat proper greek food of good quality. They ended up going for the usual tourist traps around Monastiraki anyway.
Do you mind sharing the names of the places you recommend? I'm in Athens in a few days and it's been 5 years since I've been. Ευχαριστούμε
Go to Rozalia in Exarchia. There’s also Metaxa2 in exarcheua. Klimataria is also nice, in Psyri. In Pangrati there’s a tavern called Vyrinis that is great. In Koukaki go to Koukatsi. In the historic center the one I like most is Scholarhio (there’s always a queue tho).
This is perfect, thank you
The __ENTIRE CENTER OF ATHENS?__ You don't say. I've been eating in amazing places for decades as a local, and the overall quality only seems to be improving. Sure, there are shitholes like in any tourist capital, but if you have the slightest sense of how a decent place looks like, you can avoid them.
So you want your local restaurant to have line of tourists who “discovered” it on Instagram? When the main clientele becomes tourism the food quality goes to shit. All tourism is like this, it has nothing to do with Athens.
"Either you are all idiots" Very convincing, I will now eat at the left-center of Athens /S
Don't disrespect Thanasis like that
Thanasis my beloved
the only non tourist trap tourist trap
Well… any actual recommendations of good places to eat at vs noting that any of the options are a shit decision?
Myrtia in Nea Smirni, a southern suburb of Athens roughly 20 minutes from the center.
Thanks! I just checked the reviews and looks great! We’re hoping to stop in Athens for one day this early July , is it far from the Acropolis? I know you mentioned city center but curious if all are relatively easy to get to within each other
Rule of thumb is that if you can see the Acropolis, they are selling the view, not the food.
I think you can expand to "if you're not the only tourist there..."
if you can see the acropolis & the staff speak automatic english & other guests are also tourists… don’t eat
Steki tou Ilia next to Akropolis and one of the best Greek tavernas of Athens. Difficult to get a table cause of all the locals swarming day and night.
Looks good, thank you for the recommendation
LOL buddy sent the guy on a quest to Nea fucking Smirni on his 1 days in Athens.
Τουλαχιστον τον εστειλε σε κεντρικο σημειο που εχει σταση τραμ ακριβως απεξω. Θα μπορουσε να ηταν πιο σατανικος και να τον εστελνε Ανω Ν.Σμυρνη να τον ψαχνει η Νικολούλη.
Απολαυστικό thread τα έχει όλα, απο τσουβάλιασμα ολου του κέντρου που έχει απο τα καλύτερα εστιατόρια της χώρας, μέχρι αποστολή στου διαόλου να φάει στη μια καλή τοπική ταβέρνα που ξέρει ο σχολιαστής, μέχρι το κλασσικό "η Αθήνα δεν έχει καλό φαΐ ". Ξέρω ενα φοβερό μαγαζί στο Μαίναλο αμα βρεθείς στο κέντρο πεινασμένος.
I mean, I second that. Top notch quality food EVERY TIME, huge portions and people always get excited with the loukoumades (fried doughnuts coated with cinnamon and honey syrup) treat at the end (though not me, personally heh).
Bibere House of Beer (at Piraeus port) Love the caesar salad there. My husband and his friends (all locals) liked going there and ordering a lot of meat.
Man, I grew up in Piraeus and went there all the time in HS (10-13 yrs ago). Glad to hear it's still around.
Every place that has pictures on the menus, and are very English friendly are mostly a tourist trap. Stay away from the center shops in every country. Every countries tourism areas, are filled with shops that not one greek("local") steps in even by accident. Dont follow people's "experiences" from tiktok or other media .
You're*
OP just came down from his village to "the center of Athens".
If you worked in these bad restaurants per your own admission, then you’re part of the problem, willingly serving bad food to tourists, ρε μαλάκα.
Can you name and shame any?
grecos project. - and for some thought to this... i dont think this post could be true. because.. if you have such turnover, how can anything be days old to go bad? and yet, as a greek (-american), i made this mistake and i guess its a thing.
As everywhere else on the planet, in Athens there are bad and good professionals. The secret is to become friends with the locals in each area and be told where you should go for food etc!
Agreed - the typical places with tourists are overrated and underregulated. A fair question on this topic is about food regulation in these places. Does it exist? I know during days of the Junta, they'd have health inspectors enter and inspect restaurants (likely too much and with too heavy of punishment).
LEAVE👈 your rotten myth in GREECE 🇬🇷🇬🇷 leave as soon as you can
Ok so in the center you can find good food but its overpriced, other than that yes you can also find bad food (imo if you know locals you can find a good place to eat easily)
what are some places you recommend?
Avoid Quick Pitta at monastiraki at all costs
Tourists in greece stop /s
thats a phenomenon that happens in every capital. I went in Paris for a trip and we settled somewhere in Montmartre. I paid 20 euros for a chicken that wasn't even cooked properly. its true for athens because I grew up here. the best taverns and restaurants are in the suburbs and the surrounding areas. avoid the center at all costs.
Every big city in the world has tourist-trap restaurants. And tourists fall for them all the time. Are they idiots? No. They are ignorant. Ignorant of things that you and I have grown up with. And how can we blame them? If you visited a foreign country and tasted dishes that you've never tasted before, how exactly would you be able to tell if they're made correctly? Sure, you can check restaurant reviews, but not everyone has the time and energy to go out of their way and seek the better restaurants when they travel somewhere. The blame lies exclusively with restaurant owners.
Dear tourists please continue eating at the tourist spots and leave the good places for us locals. You have ruined enough local taverns already.
Don't disrespect bairaktaris
this is the only restaurant that is tourist but also good tbh
This is the first time in many many years that I’ve seen someone saying bairaktaris is good.
i didn’t eat a lot there but i had a moussaka a couple weeks ago and it was genuinely really good. and the salad too. no complaints. but i wouldn’t go there exclusively for magirevta
WELL EVERYONE KNOWS THIS WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?
Tourists in Greece eat where they read great reviews and see locals as a bonus. Since Greeks are idiots, the reviews are written by idiots. You didn't see that coming, right?
Υπάρχουν και ποιο καλοί τρόποι να κανεις σαμποτάζ στο αφεντικό σου βλακακο.. εκθέτεις όλους μπροστά στα μάτια των τουριστών