Un-intended Excursion to Nea Peramos

One Sunday, we decided to go to Pachi to eat seafood at the seafront.

But we got off at a wrong exit of highway and ended up in Nea Peramos.

Fortunately for us, there was a seafront also at Nea Peramos and there are seafood restaurants of course.

I tried to take a picture of the sea, not the kid, but the mother looked worried as if I were a pedophile. ha ha ha



I wanted to try one of the restaurants which was service rather interesting dishes, but Hubby insisted that we should have a table in front of the sea. That was why I ate at this restaurant. I think it was called Scorpios, but am not sure; it does not really matter.

At all the restaurants on Nea Peramos there was a lot of people. A LOT. All the restaurants were bustling. Some of the dishes we tried to order were already sold out (and it was around 2 o'clock MP). So we ordered what there were (avoiding over-priced fish of course).

Bread, Tyrokafteri, and Lettuce Salad came first.



I love lettuce, dill and spring onion salad.



And stuffed pepper.



Feta cheese inside. Nice combination of sweetness and saltiness. Visual effect of red/white combination also is fine.



Then there was a LONG hiatus. More than half an hour. We questioned waiters twice, but it did not seem to change the situation. It was evident that the kitchen and service were struggling.

Whatever the reason, 1 hour to fry kalamari and potatoes are unacceptable.



In general, the food was OK, but the slowness of the service is unacceptable. We needed to go to the cashier to pay the bill and even there we needed to wait for changes.

We went went home looking the shipyard of Elefsina.



The choice of restaurants was unfortunate, but it was a nice escape from Athens.

Lunch @ Agrotera

Today was probably the first summer day of 2011; it was really hot and sunny. As it has been pretty chilly until now - unusually for May -, the summery temperature was reassuring.

I had to go to the office this morning, but in the afternoon met up with Hubby for a walk and lunch in central Athens.

Here is National Garden (Ethnikos Kypos).



We headed for the place we had visited once and wanted to go back since: Agrotera.



It faces the running/athletic ground. I wish I could say that it is a nice view, but the truth is that looking at sweaty people while eating is not really pleasant... at least to me. Fortunately, today there was no one in running truck, maybe because it was too hot and sunny for running.



The menu consists in refined version of traditional Greek + sandwich and pasta. Some of the items contains the toponym "Karditsa"; the chef should be from this area.

We ordered 1 salad, 1 appetizer and 1 main to share. The restaurants in Greece usually don't mind dish-sharing and it is good, because for us the portion is usually so large and it is difficult to finish one plate each.

Olives and tsikoudia were on the house.



Marinated salad with cheese saganaki. I don't remember the details of menu description. The salad leaves, sun-dried tomato and grilled flat mushroom were tossed with sweet & sour dressing.

The yellow cheese was fried with sesami crust and served with warm pita bread. It was milky and sweet cheese.



I liked it quite a bit. It would have been a perfect lunch for me.



Hubby wanted to eat Country style sausage with potatoes from Starter (Orektika) section. I think it was good, but I am not a fun of Greek sausage and cannot say I liked it. Potatoes were nice.



For the main, Veal in tomato sauce with twisted pasta. It was served with grated yellow hard cheese (graviera, if I remember well).



The pasta was very similar to "trofie" pasta of Liguria. I have never eaten it in Greece, although have seen it in supermarket. Not the sort of thing I want to eat everyday, but it was a nice variation.

The meat was soft & sweet but not meltingly soft. Good quality.

With a bottle of beer (4.50 Euro - which, however, should have been 3.50 Euro according to the menu catalogue), the bill was about 35 Euro. For the quality of the food, the price looked very good.

I definitely want to go back to try other dishes.

Only thing I did not like was that it was very hot inside and somewhat smokey because of the cigarettes. They should have opented the window or have used air-conditioning.

AGROTERA
6 Vassilissis Olgas Avenue
117 45 Athens
Tel: +30 210 922 0208

Lunch at Fasoli near Syntagma

I had to go to work one Saturday morning, and afterwards I met up Hubby for a lunch in central Athens.

First we tried mezedopoleio Filema, but all the tables outside were already taken. Hubby, as a good Greek, insisted that we should have lunch al fresco and that is why we went to Fasoli, where we had dinner once and liked it. (The previous visit to Fasoli).



When we arrived there were some tables, but they all got taken soon afterward and some people were waiting for tables (still, there were tables inside the restaurant, but the Greeks must eat open air).

This modern style taverna has a regular menu and dishes of the day. The last time, all the dishes of the day were already sold and we could not try. The dishes of the day are stored in the show case and you can see and choose.

We had one of these and one pasta from the regular menu.

Bread basket contains a mixture of white and black bread.



If you order only dishes of the day, I think they can serve immediately as everything is ready, just as in traditional style Greek tavernes. However, as we ordered a pasta, it took some time for the dishes to arrive.

Here is spaghetti with vegetables and mozzarella cheese. The portion was not big enough to be a stand alone dish, in my opinion. It was very cheesy and nice, anyway.



The dish of the day we had was chicken bifteki served with grilled veggie (we could choose an accompaniment from fried potatoes, oven potatoes, rice and veggie).



Chicken bifteki (burger) was pretty good, although I found the sauce too sweet. The veggie was crunchy and the dusted mint made it a bit "special". However, as it was a pre-cooked dish, the burger was lukewarm. If you want to have hot, cooked to order dish, you'd fare better order from the regular menu.

With a coca cola, the bill was a bit short of 20 Euro.

I like this place, because it serves dishes which are Greek but not regular usual suspects for an affordable price. The food is not gourmet, but it is a very valid alternative to Greek standard tavernes or to cafeteria food. I'd happy to go back.


HOWEVER, the seat Hubby took was a bit shaky and the toilet was broken at the time. He said we should change places for the coffee.

Zaza.



Hubby again insisted that we should be seated outside, but later found out that the inside was nice and told me that next time we should have coffee inside. Whatever...



I ordered a millefeuilles and it materialized in this form. It is virtually a cup of patisserie cream with some flakes of pie on top. Tasted OK, but it was not what I expected.



Although it was already a week after the Easter, there was an Easter supplement on the bill. This was the first time we saw Easter supplement in cafeterias/restaurants this year. In this period of crisis, most shops gave up the supplement fearing that it would be a negative effect. Evidently this cafeteria could defy such a fear.

Souvlaki @ Karababas

First time in Karababas.

Karababas is a famous souvlaki place in Piraeus. I am not sure why it is famous, but well known among the Greeks of Athens and Piraeus.



It is much more elegant than average souvlaki grill restaurants; very clean and no trace of grease.

There are about 10 tables in the shop and it does also delivery. Take-out is also possible.



There are only 2 main dishes at Karababas: pork morcels on skewer that they call "meat (kreas)" and sis kebab. You can order tzatziki and fried potatoes, but not salad as they don't sell it.

Even if you order a souvlaki plate, fried potatoes and tzatziki do not come on the plate. You have to order as side dish. we ordered only fried potatoes.



Just average frozen fried potatoes.

And souvlakia.



On a very small dish, there are a deep-fried pita bread, 3 good-sized pork souvlakia, raw onion salad and grilled tomato. That is it.



As you can probably tell from the photo, the meat is of good quality, no fat or sinew at all. Different from normal Greek souvlaki pork, the meat is marinated and that is why it is reddish.

The meat was tasty, but that was it. I did not like deep fried pita and the quality of tomato was not up to the standard (was mushy). If it were about 7 Euro, it might have been OK, but for 9.80 Euro?

Looking around us, the other Greeks were eating fried pita and grilled tomato as appetizer. Then they would eat more fried pita and grilled tomato with meat.

If you thought "WOW", maybe this is the place for you. We appreciated the experience, but won't go back for the pleasure of eating.

25.60 Euro for 2 souvlaki plates, 1 portion of fried potatoes, 1 beer, 1 coca cola.

Karababas
Ag. Dimitriou 15-17
Piraeus
Tel. 210-461 2068

Avra @ Porto Germeno

Easter Monday was a very fine day; sunny and warm. As the Easter period in general was not so fine, we took advantage of the day to go to see some green.

We headed for Porto Germeno/ Aigosthena. It was our second visit.

After walking around the ruins of Aigosthena, we had a lunch in one of the fish restaurants. Last time were came here, I think we enter the first restaurant coming from the centre. There was a restaurant looked like that one, but the name was different from what I recall. All the places looked similar (except for one specialized in meat), so we went into the one with more people. It was called Avra and at the end of the main street.

This is the view from our table.



They bought us a menu. But later discovered that most of the fish dishes were not available, including the fried small fish dishes I wanted.

First dishes to come were fried potatoes, king prawn saganaki and romaine lettuce salad. I ordered prawn saganaki made from frozen prawn, because the choice was between frozen prawn and frozen squids (or overpriced larger fish - sheer waste of money to eat in Greek restaurants in my opinion).



It turned out to be a disaster, because they did not clean the back vein (=guts) at all. Consequently the prawns were full of sands. I tried to clean them at the table not really successfully.



Tzatziki. My position is that we should not order tzatziki at fish restaurants, but Hubby keeps on doing it. Fortunately this one was all right.



Hubby had a grilled pork chop, which turned out to be the best of the dishes.



Halvas with orange zest was on the house. It was pretty good.



The inedible prawn saganaki was overpriced, but the rest was OK. Next time I will order meat as well.


Tzatziki 3 Euro
Saganaki Prawns 16 Euro
Pork Chop 7 Euro
Lettuce Salad 4 Euro
Fried Potatoes 3 Euro
Coca Cola 1.50 Euro
Bread 0.50 Euro
---------------------------
35 Euro

Avra
Porto Germeno (Vilia)
Tel. 22630-41230

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