Indian Masala @ Thissio

My first Indian restaurant in Greece!

GH, GH's cousin and I visited Indian Masala restaurant in Thissio one Sunday afternoon.

I used to go to Indian quite often when I used to live in UK, but this was my first try since I came to Athens. Not that I did not want to go, but until recently the Indian restaurants in Athens were either in "bad" areas of Athens where GH refuses to enter or were quite expensive. The openings of Indian Masala in Thissio and Indian Kitchen in Syntagma are very fortunate.

I tried to book a table, but was turned down, because it does not take reservation in principle. It is inconvenient, but understandable, as the space is limited and the price is moderate.



Lucky we found a table that could accommodate 4 pax.

The interior is cozy and warm. I heard that there is a courtyard, but it is not for winter period. While we were there, I saw some people either turned down or had to wait for some time to get a table. The waiting staff was quite relaxed and did not tried to urge the people to get out as soon as they finished. It is a good thing, if you have already a table, but it is not, if you don't.



GH ordered chicken pakora as starter to share. They are strips of chicken breast deep fried with spicy butter. Very good and nice snack while you wait for the main.



This is a lamb curry of GH. I don't remember which variety of the curries it was. I liked it.



This is chicken karahi ordered by the cousin. Very similar to what is called "balti" in Birmingham (where I used to live). I did not like the large morsels of tomatoes chopped in.



I wanted to order lamb chops, but were not available. So I ordered sis kebab that the cousin wanted to try. I was not quite sure of the quality of the meal (there were some hard bits here and there), but they tasted all right and the portion was plenty.



We ordered also a raita (Indian tzatziki!), two plain naans, one plain rice (1 portion of rice can feed 1.5 people I think) and one coca cola. The bill was about 45 Euros, 15 per a head, which we thought were bargain.

If you want something exotic while you are in Thissio or Monastiraki, it is a good place to go, as far as you can find a table.

INDIAN MASALA
Ermou 129, Thissio, Athens
210 3219412
Open also for lunch

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A couple of weeks ago, a new patisserie opened in the central Piraeus, in Iroon Polytechneio Street.



It is called Ilion and the first of their shops was established indeed in Ilion in suburban Athens.

The speciality is galaktoboureko. We bought one whole galaktoboureko, but gave it to mother in law, so I don't know how it tasted like.

We bought some ekmek kataifi for ourselves.



It consisted in 4 layers, whipped egg white like cream on the top, then sort of stiff mousse, then kataifi noodles, and spicy sponge at the bottom. It certainly wasn't a conventional ekmek kataifi, but was all right on its own light.

I will try galaktoboureko at the next occasion.