Litsa Fish Taverna @ Daskaleio

When 3 of us went to Daskaleio Beach in south east Attica, we stopped at a fish taverna called Litsa, which is very famous to those who like seafood.

From the road side, it looks like a shabby house.

At the gate, there is this timetable. Be aware that it is closed for Sunday dinner. We saw so many people turned down. Who would expect a fish restaurant closes in the Sunday evening in summer?

This is how it looks in the inside. There are not many tables and the indoor space does not say much.

Menu is not very long, and I don't think they had all the fishes, so most of the tables are ordering the same things.

The first thing that came up to my mind was: "Wow! That's expensive". Comparing to the fish tavernas in Piraeus - where the price decreased much recently - everything was 20 to 30% higher. Then I thought. "But you will never know. Maybe they serve big portion".

And no. Not really. The dishes were all small. Even bread wasn't enough for 3 people.

Almyra is 6.50 Euro, Mussels in ouzo was 7.50 Euro and fried squid (thrapsalo) 9 Euro. They were all tasty. But isn't it too expensive for a casual fish taverna?

The fried potatoes cost 4 Euro and saganaki with 7 small shrimps cost 11 Euro.

Are you sure? Yes, I am.

The service also left us a bad impression. When we finished most of the dishes, they had not yet brought maridakia (fried small fish), so we told them to cancel the order, because we did not want to eat fried fish just drinking water. Even though the fish was not yet ready, the manager guy looked unhappy and reluctantly removed it from the bill. We did not receive any word of apology.

OK. The food was good, but not that good that I cannot find anywhere else. At this moment, we don't think going back to Daskaleio for a while (please see my previous post regarding the quantity of vinyl pieces in the sea), but even we go back, we'd rather try other fish tavernas or just go to Kalyvia for meat.

Litsa - Λίτσα
Daskaleio Kerateas
Tel. 22990 28157
(It does not have exact address. If you are coming from Keratea, go down to left).

We left Daskaleio with bitterness, but we made also a very pleasant discovery in Glyfada. This is not the coastal Glyfada we usually go but inland where there is no view. Even though, it well worth a trip.


It is a pastry shop called Malebi by pastry chef Dimitris Lemontzoglou.

Its specialty is Constantinopolitan style sweets but there all the other sweet goodness, like cheese cake, chocolate cake, ice cream. We did not try, but they offer also savory sandwiches and snacks (pilaf and manti).

We ordered an oven-baked rizogalo (rice pudding). It cost 4 Euro, but in large portion.

This surely was the best rice pudding I have eaten in my life. We took out chocolate cake and cream with amarena and cookies. They were all delicious and beatiful.

The service at the cafeteria was also competent. We are surely going back.

Malebi - Muhallebi & Cafe
Gounari 172, Glyfada
Tel. 216 7001922

Μαλεμπί
Γούναρι 172, Γλυφάδα

Daskaleio Beach

We went to Daskalió Beach today.

It is on the eastern coast of Attica Peninsula, east of Keratea.

It was the 3rd time for us to be there and this time we were very disappointed because of quantity of rubbish in the water. I am not speaking about seaweeds or wood tips. I am speaking about small pieces of plastic and paper. They should have come from rubbish dump in the sea, maybe from some of the islands nearby.

I have never seen so much rubbish in the sea. The water might be free of bacteria, but who like to swim among the vinyl and paper pieces?

For a country which is supposed to live on sea-related tourism, I would appreciate better care of the environment.

Melouk @ Halandri

Did I tell you we have been to Melouk?

First I found it on Foursquare (incredible rich - though not always credible as all other websites - source of information regarding restaurants, cafeterias and food in general) and then kept on seeing it on the web. As I had to go to our Embassy in Halandri, I thought it was a good chance to see what it is like.

Here it is (I am not sure what is Poco Loco, but the photo is right one).

It is quite small, much smaller than I had been imagining. And at around 13 o'clock in the Saturday afternoon, there were only some people. Seeing the type of the shop, I guess it to be busier from later afternoon to the night.

Yes. In the night. Because it is a cafeteria as well as a cocktail bar that serves... what else? Loukoumades. The name of the place came from Cafe ME LOUKoumades.

There is a variety of loukoumades, sweet and savoury. We ordered a plate of loukoumades with ksinomizithra with honey from savoury section, which was pretty good. 4 Euro.

And to our delight, we found also a nice soft drink, which is fresh lemonade served in a 500ml jug. 3 Euro.

We enjoyed the visit fine. Although it might not be worth a second trip from Piraeus, when in the area, we would love to revisit.

Melouk - Μελούκ
Kolokotroni 5, Halandri
Tel. 210 6824600
Κολοκοτρώνη 5, 152 33, Χαλάνδρι
http://www.melouk.gr/

+ουσία @ Terpsithea, Piraeus

(For some time, Blogspot did not allow me to post large photos, but now I am happy to see that they fixed it).

I found a discount voucher of this restaurant on the web. As I have been curious about this place for years, probably since I read this review by Diane Kochilas, I thought it was a good occasion.

The restaurant has an indoor space and al fresco space facing to the garden. It is a very pleasant in a cool evening.

The food here is under Cretan influence, but many says that it was not really Cretan. You can find their menu on their website.

This is a red pepper dip with rusk, part of the cover.

Pandesia salad, with lettuce, rocket, green apple, and walnuts. Not bad. 5.80 Euro.

Dolamdes were obviously handmade, but also quite obviously not fresh. They were served very hot. I suspect the use of microwave to reheat. 4.20 Euro.

Jacket potato (patata ofti) was the best dish of the day. It was very buttery and sweet. 3.40 Euro.

Xylopites (handmade pasta) with Greek sausage and pepper, 7 Euro. Very greasy and the pasta was strangely tough.

Gamopilafo's rice was too soft, evidently because it was cooked long time ago. In taste wise it was not bad, but I do not believe it was worth 9.50 Euro.

At the end they offered us some pieces of watermelon and melon for free.

Besides, we had a bottle of beer.

We had a discount because of the voucher (13 Euro reduction), but without it, it would have been about 35 Euro. Not expensive, but not cheap, especially when you consider the quality of the food. They did not give us a fiscal receipt (the above is just an order register).

It is not necessarily a bad place, but I do not feel the necessity to try it again.

By the way, I asked a waiter how should I read "+ουσία". He said it is "synousia", but hurriedly added also it does not mean what it means. I did not know that till then, but in Greek, it means "intercourse".

+ousia - +ουσία
Palaiologou 5, Plateia Terpsitheas, Piraeus
Παλαιολόγου 5, Πλ. Τερψιθέας, Πειραιάς
Tel. 210 4222005
http://www.ousia.com.gr/

What We Ate in Evia - June 2013

Using the long weekend of Whit Monday, we traveled to Northern Evia. Here is what we ate during the trip.

We took the ferry boat from Arkitsa to Edipsos at 9 in the evening of Friday. It should take about 2 hours or less from Athens to Arkitsa, but it took us full 3 hours because of a traffic accident on the National Road.

The boat trip was only about 40 min, but we felt quite tried when we arrived at Edipsos, so we decided to have a light dinner break.

We walked about 100 metres or along the seaside road and entered this grill place called O Gyros tou Dionysi (The Gyros of Dionysis) which looked relatively busy.

We could have eaten just souvlaki wrap, but chose to have a portion of Kondosouvli of Zygouri, just because we have not seen it before. It is evidently mutton.

The meat had that sheepish smell, but the fat and meat were sweet. Although it was difficult to eat because of bones, it was quite good.

Together with a simple salad, tzatziki, bread and beer, the bill came to 17.60 Euro.

It is ideal place to grab something when you leave from or arrive at the port, as it is just in front.

O Gyros tou Dionysi - Ο Γύρος του Διονύση
Miaouli 2, 28is Oktovriou, Loutra Aidipsou, 34300, Evia
Μιαούλη 2 & 28ης Οκτωβρίου, Λουτρά Αιδηψού, 34300, Εύβοια
Tel. 22260 24623

Our destination was Agios Georgios Lichados in the north west Evia. It is a fishery town which became a small and low-key resort with lots of rooms and restaurants.

We stayed at a hotel called Antonis which is also fish taverna (many restaurants in Ag. Georgios have rooms as well). I do not recommend Antonis as hotel (our room was smelly and the cleaner did not even bother to collect trash bag even once during our 3 day stay), although it was cheap (30 Euro a night for a double room including breakfast).

The centre of the exercise no doubt is the fish taverna of the same name (the both places are run by a young couple called Antonis and Fotini, by the way), which can be the best restaurant in Agios Georgios. It was always full for a couple of days we stayed there.

We ate at the same place twice (unfortunately we cannot eat more than once at restaurant while we travel due to our weak digestive system).

Here are some of the memorable dishes.

This is gavros marinatos offered by Antonis (i.e. not charge). It was really good, if you like the genre.

Fried gavros, which was in very generous portion.

Perfectly fried.

This is garidomakaronada (spaghetti with shrimps) for 2.

So we were told, but it was not enough for 2 of us. We were charged 15 Euro for it, which was fair, but if we were charged 30 Euro, it was poor. We never learnt if there was a mixed up in the kitchen or in the bill. The king prawns were good (but - sorry to be so grumpy - I do not understand why the Greeks do not clean the guts when they cook prawns; it is not acceptable for us East-Asians).

Antonis - Αντώνης
Agios Georgios Lichados, Loutra Aidipsou, 34300, Evia
Άγιος Γεώργιος Λιχάδος, Λουτρά Αιδηψού, 34300, ΕΥΒΟΙΑΣ
Tel. 22260 33051


After a meat at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we could not eat dinner anymore, but we stopped at a sweets shop called Athina. It was supposed to sell loukoumades, but when I tried to order, I was told that it would take 30 to 45 min. to cook, so I settled at karydopita with ice cream.

It was all right, but I am not sure it was worth 4.50 Euro (probably not).

On our way home, we stopped at a roadside grill called Koryfi in central Evia.

This is a plate of red beets (pantzaria) and skordalia (garlic and bread paste). Beautiful.

We had 2 main dishes, the one was goat in read sauce served with spaghetti and the other was biftekia with fried potatoes.

Both were delicious. OK. Spaghetti were over-boiled to death, but that is how the Greeks eat their noodles (we might well stop calling spaghetti these Greek noodles, as it sounds too Italian and is misleading), but it was just a detail.

The worst thing for me was that they did not give us fiscal receipt. In rural parts like this, taxman is still a distant entity.

Koryfi - Η Κορυφή
Kamaritsa, Agios, 34400, Evia
Καμαρίτσα, Άγιος, 34400, Εύβοια
Τελ. 2228025470

Over all, we ate quite well during the trip. It is a big PLUS for me to choose travel destinations. :)