Rakadikon @ Palaio Faliro

One Sunday afternoon in early February, we found ourselves in Palaio Faliro & decided to eat on the way home. I did not have particular idea, so we went to Zisimopoulou Street where I knew that there were some tavernas.

After a walk, we decided on Rakadikon which I thought was a Cretan taverna.

The interior space is pretty large. The decor is trendy "bahariko (grocery shop)" style. It was not full, but busy with about 10 tables occupied by small and large groups.



Because of its name, we thought it was a Cretan taverna, but on the meny there were only 5 or 6 Cretan dishes in Cretan taste section. So, except for the black uniform of the waiters, there is not much Crete about this place.

Wine and bread. Half kilo of wine cost 6 Euro.



The salads I thought were expensive. This Salata tou Raka cost 8.50 Euro. It was large, but 8.50 Euro for a bowl of raw vegetable is not convincing.



Melitzana horiatiki (Country style Aubergine?) were overly sweet. Is not worth 6 Euro.



Dolmadakia with mint yoghurt sauce, 6.50 Euro. Too oily.



I don't remember about the fried potatoes (3.50 Euro). This means that they were OK. Otherwise I would have remembered.



Yaourtlou Kebab (9. Euro) was the only plate I thought was above average. Meaty, juicy and generous in portion.



No free raki or sweets (which Cretan tavernas usually usually do), and the bill came to 41.50 Euro. Not expensive, but not having liked the food, I found the value poor.

The food being so average, I don't think I shall come back willingly.

Rakadikon - Ρακάδικον
Zisimopoulou 79, Palaio Faliro
Ζησιμοπούλου 79, Π. Φάληρο
Athens, Greece
Tel. 210 9419686

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Waling along Zisimopoulou, we found this new Lebanese restaurant, at the spot formally occupied by Aladdin (which, as far as I know, had moved to Amphitheas Street). It was called Maroush.

I went near it to see what it offered, in vain. How stupid a new restaurant could be not holding its menu outside? It was not surprising that it had only 1 or 2 tables occupied even in sunny Sunday afternoon.

[P.S.: I found Maroush closed down in October 2013 (20 Oct. 2013)] 

That is the third (at least) of the Lebanese to open in souther suburb, after Livanesiko and Souk in Glyfada. Is Lebanese food in fashion lately and I do not know?

Here is the website which is under construction at the moment of writing.
http://www.maroush.gr/

Tuesday in Athens also in 2013

Without any ado, Βγαίνουμε Αθήνα started again.

The above poster says it started on 12 Feb., but it looks that it started today the 19th Friday.

Official Webpage

And it continues at least until 28th May. If it goes well, it might go further.

The rule is basically the same as the previous season. 10 Euro menu and 12 Euro bottle of wine at restaurants, and 2 Euro coffee and 5 Euro drinks at bars and cafeterias. Some restaurants do not bring you 10 Euro menu (especially if you look like tourists) and in that case, you need to request it explicitly.

Here is the list of the participating bars and restaurants.

At the moment of writing there are 63 participants, but the list most likely increase, so keep on checking.

Try it out!

Pars Persian Restaurant @ Halandri

Last Wednesday evening, we visited a relatively new Persian restaurant in Halandri called Pars. It is in a close vicinity of another and older Persian restaurant Anaxita.



From one of these discount websites I bought a coupon for 32 Euro (4 Euro in advance + 28 Euro at the restaurant) including 2 starters, 1 salad, 2 main dishes and 2 glasses of wine or soft drink. The site was publicizing that it was worth 56 Euro, which I did not believe, of course. However, 16 Euro p.p. for 2 courses + 1 salad and drink seemed to be reasonable.

The most beautiful part of the restaurant is no doubt the entrance which looks like a Persian folklore museum.

The dining floor, on the other hand, is not attractive; it looked like a cheap remodelling of storage or something. It was very dim and rather cold because the heating was provided by gas heaters place in between the tables, just like at outdoor space of cafeteria. I would avoid coming here in a cold evening.

The heart-shaped balloons, hanged upside down, were decoration for St. Valentine's day and usually there should not be there, the waiter told us. Thank God.



The menu includes a wide variety of Persian dishes and I could find some interesting dishes. The starters are either 3 or 5 Euro, salads more or less 7, main dishes around 9. Cleaver readers must have noticed that by ordering 2 starters, 1 salad and 2 main dishes, it hardly goes above 40 Euro. Even including 2 drinks and bread, 56 Euro target should be impossible to reach. Foul No. 1.

Warm pita was served as bread. Nice.



The first starter was Kofte Berenji, 5 Euro.



These are meat balls with rice and herb cooked in tomato based sauce. They reminded us of Greek Youvarlakia except for the sauce.

The second starter, Mirza Ghasemi, roasted aubergine with egg, tomato and garlic, 5 Euro.




It was like warm melitzanosalata. The presence of egg was interesting. I loved it, while GH preferred the meatballs.

Green salad was 7 Euro.



It came in a large flat plate and was a good companion to meat dishes.

Now to the main dishes.

One was Chelo Kebab, 10 Euro.



Koubideh kebab (minced lamb) with rice and tomato. Kebabs were all right.

Kebab Bakhtiari is a skewer of beef and chicken, priced 10 Euro.



Again, tasted fine, but I would not pay 10 Euro for this small skewer of meat with little garnish. Here comes the 2nd foul. On the menu it is clearly written that all the kebabs are served with rice, too. I observed also other tables and can confirm that not all the kebabs were served with rice.

All in all, the food was fine, but the price is rather high for what the food and the restaurant are. 56 Euro menu for 2 is obviously misleading, but still, we would have paid over 40 Euro for this meal without discount coupon.

The waiter told us that on Valentine's day, they offer a menu of 26 Euro for 1 starter, 1 salad and 2 main dishes. With drinks, the guests would pay 30 Euro+. This should be the right price range for this restaurant.


PARS
Konstantinou Palaiologou 15
Halandri, Athens 15232
Τel: 210-6817277

Κωνσταντίνου Παλαιολόγου 15
Χαλάνδρι, Αθήνα 15232

http://www.persianrestaurant.gr/

Kalypso @ Palaio Faliro

A Tuesday evening we ended up in Palaio Faliro. We were heading for a Cretan taverna, but then we found it closed down. Not wanting to take the car and move to another place, we just settled to enter a taverna next door.

It was called Koutsouki Kalypso and we had no idea about it.

It is quite a large place and it was so that I could not count how many tables there were. For was a weekday evening in mid of the crisis, there was quite a lot of people. We were seated where most of the people were seated, which was an enclosed space between the main building and the pace outside. The indoor building looked lovelier, but the Greeks like to eat outside and that was why everyone was here. Greeks...

The strange thing was that this restaurant does not give normal menu with price. On the table there is a list of items without price and the patrons tick the check boxes. I do not know how about you, but I have difficulty deciding the order without knowing how much it is costing me. Fortunately GH is one who order food without looking menu, so we managed to decide.

Grilled bread and tzatziki, which was fresh and right density. Quite good.

Horta (boiled green) was also very good. Oil, lemon and salt were served separately so that we could season how we liked.

Pork souvlaki turned up like this. No garnish at all... on the plate. Actually it was served with fried potatoes, but in a separate plate. By the consequence, the souvlaki looked rather lonely. I found it too dry, but GH said he loved it.

Even better was veal (mosharisio) bifteki, although this one looked lonely as well. Very meaty, juicy (well, by Greek standard) and flavourful. It was one of the best bifteki we have ever eaten.

The side of fried potatoes were hand-cut, freshly fried. Not too oily, sweet, not burnt, perfect fries.

The desserts were on the house. Fruits (banana and apple) and loukoumades with honey AND chocolate. Evidently this grill-taverna is reputed for these doughnuts. Personally, loukoumades are too heavy after the dinner, but do not intend to deny that they were very good ones.

The total bill came to 31 Euro and the fiscal receipt arrived without request.

In this period of crisis, when 2 of you can eat for 20 Euro using coupons, this is not the most economical solution, but we appreciated that all the dishes we are here were very good example of each genre. For us, it is rare not to dislike even one dish in one meal at taverna. Was it a chance? We have to go back to try again.

Kalypso - Καλύψω
Pentelis 41, Paleo Faliro
Πεντέλης 41, Παλαίο Φάληρο
Tel. 210 9422513
Mob. 6944 606208