Kitromilo @ Panormou & Ampelokipoi

On a Friday evening, we were ended up in Panormou and wanted to eat. I searched some interesting place using a mobile internet program and found out Kitromilo was in the short walk distance.

The restaurant occupy an old residential building of 3 storeys. I quite liked the indoor space, but as it was a very hot evening (and it was not air-conditionned), we opted to go to the roof top terrace, as everyone else.

When we were seated at 8 o'clock, there were only 2 patrons, but later on we were joined 3 more couples.

The menu was printed on the table paper. There were about 15 starters, about 7 salads (incl. Greek 'salata' like tzatziki), 3 grilled main dishes, and about 7 'pre-cooked' main dishes, with most of well-known Cypriot specialities.

We avoided fresh vegetable salads, as they cost about 7-8 Euro and chose the followings.

Lountza (smoked pork ham), tzatziki and the obligatory order of pita bread. The ham was ... ham, but good quality one, which is difficult to find in Athens (the Greeks do not seem to have tradition to make pork ham).

I did not like particularly the tzatziki, as the cucumber was not cruntchy enough, but as you see, it came in a generous portion.



This is a starter dish called "folia (nest)". White cheese wrapped in kataifi pastry, then baked in oven. Served with cheesy white sauce and rose pepper.



It had a nive buttery flavour, which went well with dry-ish white cheese. We enjoyed it very much.

From the main dish, we chose seftalia from grilled dish section.



The meat balls contained generous amount of chopped herb. Hubby seemed to like it very much, while it was just OK for me, but generally speaking, I do not like so much 'biftekia' sort of food, so I am not very credible to those who like 'biftekia'.

With a bottle of water and a bottle of beer, the bill came to 33.40Euro, which we thought was OK.

We were happy to have tried some new dishes without paying a fortune and would be happy to come back. I would like, however, one or two vegetable salad below 6 Euro.

Bill breakdown:
Bottle of water 2.20 Euro
Pita 0.70 Euro x 2
Lountza 4.90 Euro
Folia 6.30 Euro
Tzatziki 3.70 Euro
Seftalia 10.90 Euro
Beer 4.00 Euro
-----------------------------
Total 33.40 Euro

(After having finished this post, I found their menu of January 2011 on their website (http://kitromilo.gr/) which is about 10% more expensive than it is now. If we had paid as much as in this old menu, we must have feld differently about the value of money. So, if you had already been there and liked the food, but felt it was too expensive, you might want to go back now).

Kitromilo
34 Alexi Pavli & 16 Mikromanis
Ampelokipi
Tel. 210 6910 590
Fax. 210 6856 201

Κιτρόμηλο
Άλέξη Παυλή 34 & Μικρομάνης 16
Αμπελόκηποι

Beach & Unhappy Meal

It is very hot in Athens these days and we have been ended up on the beach every Sunday.

This is a beach near Porto Germeno a few weekends ago.



There were MANY people and cars, but as the beach so long it was not difficult to find room to put up our beach parasol. The problem was rather that the wind was blowing so hard that we had to hold our parasol all the time.

Although it was a very popular beach, number of cafeterias and restaurants was very limited and I could not help but thinking what the people were doing, when they wanted to go to the toilets. Hubby did not seem to mind even though he thought that people do it in the sea. Strange.

After the bathing, we headed for late lunch.



At the first restaurant we entered and sat down, the waiters were trying not to notice us, so we moved to a restaurant next door.

We perused the menu and decided on some items, but when the owner came to take our order, he said the menu was useless as most of the items were simply not served in summer. Disappointing. So why they gave us the menu to begin with? He dictated us boring dishes they had at the moment and we, uninspired, ordered a few dishes with difficulty.



Here are fried potatoes, cucumber & tomato salad, and melitzanosalata. The food was fine up to this point.

The yaourtlou kebabs were half baked. It was not like "pink in the centre", but totally raw and cold inside.



I called the owner to complain. He was not convinced when I showed it (it was not so evident apparently), but, having examined it with the cook, he returned to our table and apologized. It took 15 min to do it. He offered to prepare another dish a new, but we politely turned down, as by that time we waited so long and had finished all the other dishes.

Clearly they were overstretching the kitchen to cater for the increased number of customers during the summer. It was a pity, as it seemed to be a good taverna. We should be revisit when the summer finishes.

One Day Trip to Tolo

In June we went to a one day trip to Tolo.

We have been to there some years ago and we liked the beach and that is why we decided to return. It is a very long sandy beach. Water is warm and calm.



Beach parasol and 2 sun beds cost 8 Euro, which I think is too much. We will bring our own equipments next time.

After having spent the afternoon at the beach, we went back to a restaurant we went, when we came here for the first time. This restaurant has tables on the quey and you feel like having dinner on the water.



But this time, the food was so and so. It was better a few years ago. Or maybe we made a wrong choice.

Off the coast of Tolo, there is this islet. There was a red moon over it in that evening.



Then we return to our hotel. The pool was lighten up. Hubby had a bacardi & coke by the pool side.



We found this hotel on booking.com.
http://www.meraki-tolo.gr/
A double bed room with kitchen was 50 Euro including breakfast. The beach is less than 10 min walk away. Not bad value.

The hotel owner let us used the room until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, so we went to a beach 10km away from Tolo.

It was pebbly beach with 3 cafeterias and without residential buildings.



When we arrived at 11, it was only half-full, but when we was leaving at 2, the beach was so full that there were several people walking around desperately to look for available sun beds.

We went back to the hotel to have a shower and then left for Nafplio.



Bourgainvillas were beautiful.

For lunch, we had among other things this Veal with Prunes served with home made mashed potato.


After the meal was a ritual espresso at a roadside cafeteria.



Hubby wanted a cafeteria looking toward Bourtzi, but seeing an espresso costing 3.50, he accepted to go somewhere else. In this cafeteria, we paid less than 3 Euro for an espreso.

In two days, we spent about 180 euro including the fuel. Good value entertainment for 2 days.

GATE TO GREECE
TOLO
NAFPLIO

Summer Vacation!

Not yet, but we decided where to go.

Before, we were planning to go to Vatika and Kythira Island, However, as we have been to Peloponnese several times in the past months, in the end we said we should go somewhere else.

Ferry tickets being so expensive*, we looked for somewhere we can go by car and eventually we decided on Pelion (Pilio). They say we can enjoy both sea and mountain there.

Then yesterday we went to a wedding and at a banquet table we found sitting next to us a men who went to Pelion last summer and another man whose mother was from Pelion! They both said that there were splendid beaches and gave us some indications.

Looking forward to it!

(*) Several days ago, I heard that the price of ferry tickets should go down by 15% because the tax was lowered. Do you know what happened to this decision? I work for a tourist agency and everyday check the rate of ferry tickets. I don't see any difference of rate since they. Is it happening some time later, or again we were duped?

ManiMani @ Makrygianni-Acropolis

Visited yesterday ManiMani restaurant near the Acropolis Museum. I think it is well known (or better known) to the foreigners than to the Greeks, because it is well publicized in foreign-language guidebooks.



When we entered the restaurant at 8 o'clock there was only a couple of foreigners was eating. Lighting of half of the restaurant was turned off and it was evident that they were not expecting many guests, even though it was Friday evening. The truth is that the Greeks eat outdoor during the summer and these places which do not have tables outdoor have difficult time. It is no wonder that many restaurants in Athens close the door full 2 months during the summer. The kitchen/hall staff can anyway find summer work (with higher pay, I suppose) in beach side resorts, so it is not a problem even for employees.



Bread with olive oil.



Green salad with chopped dried figs and Katziki Domokou cheese. Katziki Domokou was like something between yogurt and feta in paste form. I ate it with bread, but Hubby did not like it (he does not eat Yogurt generally, if it is not tzatziki).



These are meat filled ravioli deep-fried and served with yogurt. In this photo, it looks to be a big portion, but it isn't. Anyway, these were quite oily and I would not eat more than this much. The meat ravioli reminded us of Chinese dumplings.



Square shaped small pasta (xyropites) with chicken and vegetables and cheese. Hubby liked it, but I did not. It was probably because I don't like this pasta.



With a bottle of beer and a bottle of water, the bill was 37 Euro. Not too expensive, neither cheap. The food was not to my taste and personally I won't go back, while Hubby liked it better. But as a Nouvelle Grecque cuisine restaurant, it is probably not bad. Try once to see if you like it.

Manimani
Falirou 10, Makrygianni-Acropolis Area
Tel. 210-921 8180
http://www.manimani.com.gr/

**********

I passed in front of the new Indian restaurant in Syntagma Area: Indian Kitchen.



It occupies the premises that used to be the buffet restaurant Dion. A curry and a bowl of rice or naan is about 15 Euro.

Indian Kitchen
Apollonos St. 6, Syntagma
Tel. 210 323 7720