To Lychnion @ Ambelokopoi

Since GH changed workplace last year, we rarely go to northern part of Athens (here I use 'northern' in the sense of anywhere above central Athens). Last week, however, we happened to go to Panormos for a coffee with friends. After the meet-up, only GH and I decided to eat.

I chose Lychnion, because I have read positive reviews about this place for some years and have been curious.

The building is a bit particular; it is an old monokatoikia (a house standing on its own) and inside is just like home, except for the big metal air-ducts passing near the ceiling.

Regardless of the ducts, the air was filled with smell from the grill. A tip: Do not come here with your nice clothes on.

In fact, the main dishes are almost exclusively grilled meat. If I remember well, there was only 1 stewed (mageirefto) dish.


I forgot to take the picture, but the first to be served was grilled slices of bread. It was nice that they were grilled, but the bread itself tasted a bit stale.

I did not like much the red wine, while GH did. It depends on taste.

Horta and tyrokafteri were fantastic. Especially the tyrokafteri. It should be fresh and there were large bits of Greek green hot pepper.

Here is a sausage from the starter section. Tasted fine, but was really small.

And here are beef (veal) burgers. They have also stuffed burgers, but I opted for simple one.

They had a good taste, but were rather greasy and contained some hard bits, which means that the meat wasn't from good cuts. Not the best example I have ever eaten.

At the end, we were offered halvas on the house. This was well made and wasn't oily at all.

I do not remember exactly how much we paid, but it should have been less than 25 Euro including tip (note, however, that we had only 1 main dish between us).

Although it was a weekday evening, 6 or 7 tables were occupied. It is quite good for such a small taverna.

All in all, to me it was just an affordable, friendly, neighbourhood grill-taverna. If you are in the area, you can drop by and eat reasonably fine without worrying about the bill. But for us who live in Piraeus, I don't think it is worth a trip.

To Lychnion - Το Λυχνίον
Louizis Riankour 17, Ambelokipoi, 11523 Athens
Λουίζης Ριανκούρ 17, Αμπελόκηποι, 11523 Αθήνα
Tel. 210 6990119

One Saturday Afternoon in Ampelokipoi

Yesterday afternoon, around 15 o'clock, GH and I visited Ampelokipoi.

Actually, I wanted to go to Exarchia, but GH strongly opposed. He says that there are so many drug addicts on the streets there that he does not feel comfortable. It is true that, when we went there once maybe 2 years ago, we saw a couple of guys injecting something in the vein in the plain day light, but I did not feel particularly unsafe.

Anyway, so we had to go to somewhere else and ended up in Ampelokipoi.

It was very cold day and it was not pleasant to walk around, so we stopped at a new wave souvlaki shop ("souvlakerie") called Boutique Souvlaki.

The heater was on, but it was still very cold inside and I could not take my jacket off. Not very pleasant.

The menu was of usual psistaria, except that there was no gyro, if I remember well. Price is same both for eat in and take away.

In general, the price is about 10% higher than traditional souvlaki shops (psistaries) and a bottle of water (1 Euro) is obligatory order. Still it is cheaper than at restaurants/ tavernes. A small bottle of beer was 1.60 or 1.70 Euro. They had also one kind of non-bottled beer (maybe Alfa, but I am not totally sure).

There are 5 or 6 kinds of salads. We ordered grilled vegetables & haloumi cheese (6 Euro).

Nicely presented and tasty.

And we ordered a main dish to share: pork steak (7.50 Euro).

The meat had right amount of fat and pleasant, if it was undersalted (but there were salt and pepper on the table). The size of meat I believe was rather small by Greek standard.

One important observation is that there is no pita on the plate. In traditional psistaries, the portions (merides) come with potatoes AND pites. If you want pita, you need to order separately.

The total bill came to 16.20 Euro. We did not order much. If we ordered right amount of food for 2 people, we would have spent surely above 20 Euros. Cheaper than at tavernes, but slightly more expensive than at traditional psistaries. Not that we regretted to have been here, but it was not a sort of place we would like to go back.

Boutique Kalamaki
Karystou 3, Ampelokipoi, Athens
Καρύστου 3 , Αμπελόκηποι, Αθήνα
Tel 210-699 5840
http://www.boutique-kalamaki.gr/

Afterwards, we stopped at a cafe / bar called Zen for a coffee.

We ordered also an apple pie, 4.90 Euro.

It was quite average and did not taste fresh. Did not worth for the price we paid.

Before we leave, we bought some bread and cakes from a bakery called Spyrou. Here are cherry pies for 2 Euro per piece.

The crust was crumbly and it contained right amount of cherry filling. I wish I could get such a nice cherry pie in my neighbourhood. The shop is close to Sklavenitis supermarket of Plateia Kanellopoulou (and there seems to be 2 more shops in Ampelokipoi).

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

Agora @ Ampelokipi

It was Friday yesterday and we felt a need to do something different.

This something different wasn't so different after all: we met up in Ampelokipi and were to decide what to do.

When Hubby arrived he was very pale. He said he was very tired. So we did not walk around (although I did it alone before he arrived)and sat down in a cafe-restaurant called "Agora" just by Ampelokipi Metro station.

I took this photo quickly before leaving and that is why it is so blurry.



A friend of mine had been to the other branch of Agorá in Evangelismos and she said she liked it.

It was still around 7.30 but there were a quite few people eating dinner, while some were enjoying beer or coffee.

We decided (or I convinced Hubby) to have a meal. A bottle of mineral water (2.10 Euros) and bread with cream cheese dip (1.80Euro x 2) was brought to our table: these seemed to be the obligatory order.



Hubby devoured a piece of bread with cream cheese, although he said he was not hungry.

Mexican salad (8.10 Euros) was brought to us as a starter. I say this because they waited to serve other dishes until we finish the salad.



What is Mexican about it is avocado, red kidney beans and sweet corn. Otherwise nothing really exotic. It was quite satisfying, although I would have liked little more chicken. Anyway it is a nice change from the usual Greek salad variety.

This is chicken, bacon and mushroom crepe (7.60 Euros) we ordered from "Starter" section.



Although it is a huge crepe, the supposedly not-hungry Hubby ate it from head to tale (except for a small piece he conceded to me). How the Greeks dare to call it a "starter"? I asked Hubby, but he could not answer.

The presentation leaves something to be desired, but generally it was a good dish, with big morsels of chicken and fresh mushrooms.

This fried sole with almond crust with leek & mustard 'sauce' served with risotto (9.10 Euros) from the recommended main courses section.



I was disappointed in this dish. It tasted like a failed attempt by Master chef contestant (which I used see this programme when I was in UK, but not in Greece, and guessing it is something similar). It lacked in sense of harmony (of tastes) and in technique. The crust tasted burnt & risotto was sticky.

We were offered two glasses of mastiha liqueur.



Besides above dishes, we had also a bottle of sprite (2.60 Euros) and the total bill was 33.10 Euros to become 35 Euros with tip.

Not a bad place for a casual meal as far as we don't choose anything over-tentative.

Agora Restaurant-Cafe
Vournazou 31, Ampelokipoi
Tel. 210 6426 238

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On our way back we stopped at the metro station of Monastiraki to admire the new projection art of the platform. It is a video projected on the wall and of people and animal coming down with escalator. I like it very much and I had to show it to Hubby who for some reason has never noticed although he uses this station everyday as I do. It eases the tension of waiting metro in the morning. I don't know the name of the artist, but to whoever made it and put it in the station, "well done!".

Peinirli @ Ampelokipoi

After some research about Peïnirli in this post, I've got curious about this Turkish-Greek-Pontic delicacy.

Until then it was for me just a cheesy bread sold at any pie stand, but having realised that it possibily offers more, I was looking for an occasion to try some better examples.

It came when we were walking in Ampelokipoi area. It wasn't a restaurant, but was a bakery specialised in Peïnirli.

The shop is called "Ionias" (Address is 3 Οδός Πανόρμου. I don't have the phone number, as they did not give us receipt). Inside, it was something between pizzeria and bread bakery. There is a counter and behind it is a oven from which a Peïnirli man continues to bake fresh Peïnirli.



There are 6 or 7 sorts of toppings. I was attracted by the one with anthotyro, but I thought I should try first more classic one.

I bought one with kasseri cheese, mushroom and sliced tomato. Before handing it to me, the girl at the counter aksed if I wanted some butter on top. I said "Yes" of course! :)



Hubby went with yellow cheese (I don't remember which cheese was it), ham, sliced green pepper and mushroom.


I think ours cost €2.30 each (it differs according to the toppings).

Now, bread. I think this section photo can tell you something. It is relatively heavy and 'gooey' if it is the right word (probably it isn't, but I cannot find any other).

The cheese was of better quality than in usually pie stands.

I could not finish it because of my poor cheese capacity, but my cheese man finished his and my half.

I am quite happy with the experience and will continue searching good peïnirli.

Filadelfi @ Panormos

Last weekend I went to a taverna/mezedopoleio called To Filadelfi in Ampelokipoi.



Here is what we ate.

http://www.mesogeia.net/athens/estiatoria/filadelfi_en.html

We went there with some friends who live in this area and they had been to this place in the past. As I had already written on the above web page, I was overwhelmed by the quantity of meat and oil on the table and could not really enjoy the meal to the full. It happened because the other people wanted to eat in that way and it was hardly the restaurant's fault.

On this occasion, I realised how important to have right combination of dishes to have an perfect meal. It depends of your eating habit: one man's (or woman's) perfect combination can be another man's nightmare.

Nevertheless, I am grad to have explored a new area in Athens.

Το Φιλαδέλφι ταβέρνα-μεζεδοπωλείο
Δουκίσσης Πλακεντίας 128
(κοντά στον σταθμού Πανόρμου)
Aθήνα