Visited a relatively new pizza restaurant in Neos Kosmos (or Nea Smyrni?), near InterContinental Hotel.
It was a very cold and snowy night and there were very few customers. Some seemed to be foreign businessmen staying at InterCon or Ledra Hotels.
The interior is industrial style. Spacious with high ceiling. The kitchen is open and you can see the food being cooked.
The menu is not too short not too long, mainly pizzas as you expect from a pizzeria. There are also bruschettas, pastas, and a few meat main dishes.
While we wait, we ordered freshly baked pita bread with a dip which tasted like mayonnaise. The pita should have been made from pizza dough, but it is much less oily than regular focaccia. It was soft, moist, and pretty nice (0.80 Euro).
We ordered a salad with veal and potato, but after 10 minutes from taking the order, the waiter (who should be one of the 2 owners) came back to tell us that they did not have potatoes and could not prepare the particular dish. I have no idea why it took 10 minutes to figure out that they did not have potato. Never mind. Strange things happen at restaurants. We ordered a chicken caesar salad following recommendation by the waiter.
The chicken carsar (7.10 Euro) consisted in lettuce, grilled chicken fillet, shaven hard cheese and dressing.
It was quite filling and chicken was soft and moist. If there were other types of lettuces or leaves mixed in, it would have been even better.
GH said he was hungry and ordered 40 cm pizza with guanciale and real mozzarella cheese (there are regular cheese ones and 'mozzarella di bufala' ones with a bit of extra, but I am not sure if the mozzarella really was from water buffalo which is quite expensive even in Italy), for 13.50 Euro. The amount of guanciale (cured meat made of pork cheeks) was quite little, but at least had enough cheese and tomato sauce to go on.
The restaurant has a proper pizza oven, but, when they bake, they put the pizza in baking tin. You don't say that it is not 'Italian' as even in Italy there are pizzerias that use baking-tin method, but to my understanding, the bottom crust does not come out as good as when baked without tin.
Still, it was enjoyable enough. Besides, I think 40 cm pizza should feed 2 people; GH ate 3 pieces and then gave up. But, do not worry. They can pack up the rest! I had an impression that most of the patrons brought home some remains. So, if 2 people order only 1 salad and one 40 cm pizza, a meal should cost around 20 Euro + drinks. It is pretty reasonable for an Italian restaurant in Athens.
I ordered a dish of penne with chicken and moscato d'Asti (8.60 Euro). Nice, but a bit heavy. Later I figured out that it was because of huge amount of butter. How I figured out? I brought a half home and observed that the sauce was totally solid after one night in fridge.
We had also 2 glasses of wine and the total cost came to 37.50 Euro. Considering that we did not really have to order so much food, a normal meal should be more affordable.
This was not my perfect pizza, but still, the restaurant is a nice and affordable place to have a pizza and a beer.
PIZZERIA DEI FRATELLI
Kratitos 10, Nea Smyrni (Neos Kosmos), Athens 17121
Κρατήτος 10, Νεα Σμύρνη, Αθήνα 17121
Tel. 210 9355220
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