Discover Athens' New Culinary Gems

The brand-new and very elegant “Opera Quarta” (4, Kriezotou Str., Center) has an Italian character. It opens from the morning for the first espresso of the day and continues with carpaccios, pizzas, pasta, risottos, and main courses focused on seafood or meat to pair with wines from Italy. “Frankie” (40, Skoufa Str., Kolonaki) is housed in a stunning building of the 1930s in Kolonaki and is a pleasant all-day trattoria that emphasizes handmade pasta (spaghetti alla chitarra, tagliatelle, penne, gnocchi) and pizza, all made with certified organic flour, while it offers several options for those who avoid gluten as well as several vegetarian dishes. After two years in Glyfada, the “Bella Vespa” (30, Spefsipou Str., Kolonaki) comes to the center of Athens, retaining all those features that have established it as a young-feeling, busy bar-restaurant. In addition to pizzas and pasta, you can also try the Tomahawk steak with glazed vegetables and smoked fleur de sel; the ossobuco with fresh truffle, mushrooms, and mashed potatoes, as well as the shi drum with mashed celeriac, asparagus and lime sauce. The very popular sushi restaurant “Gaku” (2, Apollonos Str., Syntagma) came down to the city center from the northern suburbs, in the place where “Furin Kazan” used to be housed for many years; it serves a wide variety of rolls and specialties of the Japanese izakayas. Finally, the “Abbot” (3, Vasileos Georgiou, Chalandri) is a bar-restaurant that stands out thanks to its close contact with nature, as it avoids synthetic materials, preferring wood and stone. Its specialties include “comfort” dishes such as the oven-roasted lamb with potatoes in lemon sauce, or the slow-cooked pork shoulder, as well as modern ideas such as the shrimp tempura with seaweed and herbs aioli.