Tsi Tsi @ Glyfada

Today is the final day of the Easter holidays.

To tell you the truth, the Easter holidays are not my favorite holidays. ALERT: If you are very religious, do not read my following statement. As we have to fast and to go to church, I do not feel relaxed. We do not fast as seriously as we used to, but still, these 2 days (Wednesday and Friday of the Easter week) without oil are very difficult. Besides, the traditional Easter dinner after the midnight makes my biological rhythm go crazy. I do not feel all right through the Easter Sunday.

Anyway, it's done now.

The following dinner took place before the Easter week. We fasted the 1st and the last week of the Lenten period, but not the weeks in between.

One weekday evening we found ourselves in Glyfada and decided to eat before we go home. GH preferred to eat meat and we ended up in a modern souvlaki restaurant called Tsi Tsi. Looking at their website, I found out that there are 3 outlets in Athens, the other ones being in Agia Paraskevi and Kifisia. The Glyfada outlet is quite spacious.

When we were seated, a waiter brought us a bottled water and just opened it without asking if we wanted or not. The grilled pitas were also an obligatory order. If you order a main course, it usually comprises pitas anyway. I believe that the starter pitas should be optional, although we probably would have ordered it anyway. Pitas cost 1 Euro (not per a head, but per portion) and water was 1.50 Euro. The Amstel Pils was 4 Euro (I think there were cheaper beers).

Salad Tsi Tsi (7.90 Euro) consisted in lettuces, grilled vegetables, strips of cucumber, and katsiki cheese (the white mass that looks like yogurt in the photo). There was no ingredient that stood out and the elements did not really combine. I would say that it was rather average for 7.90 Euro.

As neither GH nor I do not eat a Greek-size portion of meat alone, we ordered 1 portion of chicken gyros and shared between us. There is not as much meat as it looks because there were pieces of pita under the meat.

The chicken tasted more natural than at other souvlaki shops; it was not so salty and without mysterious spices. If we cook gyros at home, probably we get something similar to this one. 7.90 Euro.

As it did not have fried potatos, GH ordered a portion separately (3 Euro). I snatched some slices and did not find them either particularly delicious or disappointing. In any case, I prefer fried potatoes in stick form and not in slices.

The restaurant gives a huge plate of sweets after the meal (for free, just to be clear) and probably this is the secret of their success.

GH enjoyed it very much, but I thought it was an over-kill after a souvlaki meal.

The total bill came to 25.30 Euro, which is an all-right sort of price.

It is not my favorite, but is fine for a light souvlaki meal.

Tsi Tsi - Τσι Τσι

Leoforos Angelou Metaxa 50
Glyfada, 16674, Greece
Αγγελου Μεταξα 50, Γλυφάδα 16674
Tel. 210-8985531

Glyfada Update - January 2015

About a week or two ago, we went to Glyfada for a walk and I noticed some new restaurants (or, rather, I verified where they were, as I have already heard about most of them).

We parked on Napoleon Zerba street, in front of a yet another new kebab shop called O Proedros.

This one is more like a take-away outlet, but there is a proper restaurant establishment on Lazaraki Street. It is incredible how quickly kebab shops multiply.

And this is Vinarte on Maragkou Street. For some reason, I had an impression it was somewhere near Hesperidon Square, but it was wrong.

It is a wine bar, but looking at the menu, it is also an Italian restaurant.

Now Glyfada has 2 Indian restaurants, one on Konstantinopoleos Street and the other one is on Zisimopoulou Street. This one the former one, Indi Go.

It offers Sunday lunch buffet for 15 Euro p.p.

Maybe this one is not so new: another Lebanese restaurant on Konstantinopoleos street, almost next to Livaneziko Lebanese restaurant.

Together with Souk and Kipos tou Edem, this is the 4th Lebanese/Arab place in Glyfada (although I am not totally sure if the Kipos still exists).

Although there were many attractive choices, we just went to Baron to have glasses of wine, as we had already eaten elsewhere.

We will try to return soon to visit some of the new places.

To 25araki (Eikosipentaraki) @ Glyfada again

On 29th December. Sunday afternoon with very fine weather. Needless to say, everyone is out to enjoy the sun, including us. We ended up in Glyfada and looking for a place to eat.

We past in front of several places and some had even queue. Not wanting to wait to eat, we entered To 25 araki (Eikosipentaraki) which was busy but not awfully.

Reading back this blog, we visited here in October 2012 (here), so it is about a year ago. The decor has not changed, but the menu has. I have a impression to have seen more interesting fish-mezedes back then and now there are more simple ones.

The bread was the same as before, except that now there are no brown version. We had 4 pieces this time, instead of 5 of 1 year ago, but 4 were quite enough for us. The dip was a cream-cheesy yogurt with citrus flavour.

The bread was very nice, but I found it too rich to go with other food.

The first to come was mussels with chili from fish-mezedes menu.

It was beautifully cooked. The cleaned mussels were steam-sauteed with mustard, red chili flakes and Greek fresh green chili. For us its hotness was a the right level, but some people who ordered the same dish were saying it was too hot. But, of course, there are normal steamed mussels as well.

And small fried fish of the day, atherina (white bait or smelt). It came in a good portion.

It was fine, but not exceptionally so. The fish did not much taste (out of season?) and was slightly too oily.

The vegetables came a bit late (usually the vegetables arrive first and eaten as a starter in Greece). This is boiled veggies in citrus dressing.

It contained celery, potatoes, zucchini, potato, carrot, leek and finocchio (fennel). It was good accompaniment, but I wanted a larger portion.

At the end is giouvetsi with prawns and mushroom, from main course section.

It was quite heavy with cheese and butter and had a good flavour from prawns. I did not like that the prawns were not well-cleaned, but this I should have expected. The Greeks evidently do not mind eating prawns with sand.

In addition to the above dishes, we had also a 0.5 kilo of white wine, which was very good for a house-wine, and a bottle of water, which was obligatory order. The total bill was about 40 Euro, which was all right, and I really paid only 32 Euro thanks to a discount card.

The price is slightly too expensive without discount card, but for bit of wine and fish mezedes, I find it a good place to visit.

Here is the bill in detail:
Bottled Water     0.90 Euro
Bread and Dip     0.90 Euro  x 2 persons
500 ml white wine     5 Euro
Boiled Vegetables     5.50 Euro
Small Fried Fish     6 Euro
Mussels with Chili     8.20 Euro
Giovetsaki with prawns     13.50 Euro


ΤΟ 25ARAKI (To Eikosipentaraki)
Artemidos 3, Glyfada, 16674
Αρτέμιδος 3, Γλυφάδα, 16674
Tel. 210 8944112

Mentzelos' Slow Food @ Glyfada

Visite Mentzelos' Slow Food on a Tuesday evening. Restaurants are not expected to be busy on Tuesdays and this place wasn't an exception.

I have read good reviews about this place on web, and having find a discount coupon (20 Euro discount from 40 Euro of food purchase), I gave it a go.

This is the interior. There are some tables outside, but on that day it was too chilly to be seated al fresco.

And one wall was covered with these distinctive book shelves.

I liked how it was decorated. It reminded me of pictures of Morocco.

The problem which could not be pictured was overwhelming smell of grilling meat. It smelt like a burger joint. They need a better ventilation system.

A plate of grilled bread and a bottled of mineral water were obligatory orders. They just brought these without asking us if we wanted or not.

Bread was fine. Problem, however, is that GH does not eat brown bread. Posh restaurants should stop serving things that patrons might not like.

The menu is pretty long, and most of them are starters (mezedes). There are also pasta, salads, and grill, mainly meat (if I remember, they had king prawns and salmon). I was disappointed to find out they almost stopped serving mageirefta (slow cooked food, like stews, casseroles, etc). If I remember well, there was only one (veal with orzo pasta) as a dish of the day.

As starters, we picked up smoky melitzanosalata, which was lovely. 4.50 Euro.

Un-smashed esame seeds gave it a nice texture. Although I did not like it to combine with the grilled, olive-oiled, and salted bread provided by the restaurant, it was a quite good melitzanosalata.

On the menu they have a section dedicated to smoked food and I chose smoked feta from there. 5.50 Euro.

I liked this, too. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that smoking process changed the texture of feta.

However, GH did not like it. He thought the smell of smoke was too much. It is a matter of taste, though.

From here, things started to go not-so-well.

There are 4 or 5 salads. I wanted horta and zucchini, but was told that horta was out of season. Really? It is October and there is not horta in season?

Here is green salad.

It was OK (except for spongy radish), but it definitely wasn't worth 8 Euro.

GH ordered grilled chicken (kontosovli) marinated in Oriental spices.

I expected the "Orient" to be Middle East, but it actually was India. It was somehow like tandoori chicken. Unfortunately it wasn't enough cooked and, regardless of the spices they used, there was rather unpleasant smell of chicken carcass. 11 Euro.

I had a Angus beef burger. 12 Euro.

I ordered it to be cooked medium, but was well-done and burnt on the surface.

Here a suspicion came. Although they are heavy on grill, may be they not have good grilling-skill. If so, it is very unfortunate.

The bill came to about 50 Euro in total, for which I actually paid 30 because of the discount voucher. If I ever go back again, I would order only mezedes and drink.

Mentzelos' Slow Food
Pandoras 16,
Glyfada 16674

Πανδώρας 16,
Γλυφάδα 16674

Tel. +30 210 894 1071
Mobile: +30 693 239 3832

http://mentzelos-slowfood.gr/

(At the time of writing, the menu on the web is not updated. There are much less choices and the prices are higher now.)

To Elliniko Mezedopoleio @ Glyfada

On 7th May (replacement holiday of 1st May), we found ourselves in Glyfada to receive some sunshine. After a coffee at Casual in Asteras, we looked for somewhere to eat.

First we wanted to go to To Sardelaki, but we found it closed. Maybe because they worked too much during the Holy week.

We decided to enter this place, because there was a lot of people. It is a mezedopoleio with fashionable "bahariko-pantopleio" style decoration.

The menu is very long, with lots and lots of mezedes. Some of the choices sounded interesting and it took a while for us to choose.

They charge 1.40 Euro p.p. for bread, but it came with two small mezedes, one beans the other potato salad. Edible, but not particularly good.

This is bougiourdi with kavourmas 5.80 Euro.

Loads of cheese and quite rich.

Salad "Grandfather's garden (kipos tou pappou)", 7.50 Euro.

It included various rather unfamiliar green leaves like young cresson. Not bad as a concept, but was somehow ruined by too-much dressing. Probably not worth 7.50 Euro.

Chips were supposed to be fresh, but they did not taste like it. 3.50 Euro.

Honeyed pork fillets (7.50 Euro) were the worst of all the dishes.

It was because 1) pork fillets were over-cooked and very dry and tough, 2) the "honey" sauce was burnt and bitter.

The free dessert (free-style baklavades), instead, was the best thing I ate at this restaurant.

With a bottle of beer, the total bill came to 29.80 Euro.

In many elements, this place reminded me of GouGou Meze in central Athens, but the food was not as good. Different from GouGou Meze, To Elliniko gave us the fiscal receipt without any prompt, but it wasn't much of a consolation to me.

Mezedopoleio to Elliniko
Lazaraki 28, Glyfada, 166 74
Tel. 210 8941471

Μεζεδοπωλείο Το Ελληνικό
Λαζαράκη 28, Γλυφάδα, 166 74

The Burger Joint @ Glyfada

After a Sunday stroll in Glyfada, we decided to eat a burger. As Burger Times was a huge disappointment, we headed this time for The Burger Joint.

The place is hidden away in a stoa (gallery) and we almost entered a souvlaki restaurant next door. This photo was taken from one of the outdoor tables of The Burger Joint and the part that had a lot of people is this souvlaki place of which name I do not remember at this moment.



The Burger Joint is at the end of this corridor, on the right side. We stayed outside, but there are also tables inside.



They have burgers and pizzas. I heard that also the pizzas were good, but we ordered burgers only this time.

On the table, there are ketchup, mustard, pepper and salt. Tub water was provided without any request.



I wanted to order a sort of steak sandwich, but they did not have it at that moment, so here is a cheese burger for me.



I was very impressed by the perfection in its genre. Maybe because I am not a huge fan of burger, I won't expect any better from a cheese burger. So it was perfect.

The waitress did not ask us how we liked the meat done and it came somewhere between well-done and medium, which was nice.

GH, who eats much more burgers than I do, ordered Umami burger, which is with goat cheese cream, mushroom and caramerized onion.



It was a very nice combination. If you have already gone through all the burgers and want to try something different, it is a good choice.

Only unfortunate thing was that neither of us liked the slim chips. They soaked up too much oil and we got bored of them easily.

With a bottle of coke, the total bill was 18 Euro (cheese burger was 7.50 Euro and Umami was 9 Euro). Expensive? Well it depends on how much you love burgers, I guess.

The Burger Joint
Fivis 17, Glyfada 16674
Φοίβης 17, Γλυφάδα, 16674
Tel. 210 8940260
http://www.burgerjoint.gr/


We found that Paul (famous French, now international, bakery) is about to open nearby. Paul currently has at least another shop near Syntagma.



Walking toward our car, I saw this cat with Hitler mustache.

Burger Times @ Glyfada

I am not a burger-lover, but GH sometimes wants to eat burgers and I need to accompany him. It was one such Sunday afternoon.

I searched around the web and found this burger shop enjoys quite a good reputation.

Burger Times. It is on Konstaninopoleos Street, i.e. in Biftekoupoli. As the burger patty is basically a bifteki, we can say that it is situated in the right place.

When we arrived in the Sunday afternoon, at around 3:30, there was no customer inside. There were three people in the shop, a young man at the bar counter, an older man who was the cook and probably the father of the young man, and a woman who I thought was the wife of the cook (she is in the photo above). So, basically, it is a family run burger shop (ikogeniako burgeradiko).

The menu is rather long for such a burger shop. Apart from the burgers, there are various starters (nachos, buffalo wings, etc), salads, wraps, hot dogs, and desserts. There was also a not-bad selection of beers.

For burgers, you can choose the patty size from 100, 200 or 285 g, and you can even order it without side. It was written that the beef was Angus, whatever it means (I know that Angus is the name of the cattle, but to be honest, I do not know what is the difference from the other beef in taste-wise).

GH ordered a 500ml Vergina Weiss beer, which was reasonably priced at 4 Euro. I ordered a bottle of coke (250ml, 2 Euro).

And burgers. They arrived suspiciously quickly. Here is 200g Old Western Burger for 8.50 Euro, with the side of salad and country potatoes.

Here is my Chili Burger for 8.50 Euro, with the side of salads.

I ordered the patty to be medium-rare, but it was cooked below rare. The centre was still cold. Being afraid of food poisoning, I sent it back to the kitchen.

The Old Western Burger that GH ordered "well-done" also was undercooked to "medium", to say the least.. The centre was still red, not even pink.

No wonder that the burgers appeared so quickly.

A guy seated behind me also sent his burger back to the kitchen, as it was not "well-done" as he liked.

I am not sure what to think. Was the cook not in the right mood, or the kitchen grill was not functioning properly? In Greece, the default way of grilling meat is "well-done", so under-cooking burgers is really strange, especially when the restaurant is not busy.

After the meal, we were offered "mosaiko" or "kormos", which were pretty good.

I am not sure if they always offer the dessert, or only to the unhappy customers.

The total bill came to 23 Euro, which is not bad, as far as the food is cooked correctly.

A sympathetic burger shop, but I would not rush to return.

Burger Times
Konstantinopoleos 14
Glyfada
Tel. 210-8920959
http://www.burgertimes.gr/

Kωνσταντινουπόλεως 14
Γλυφάδα

The place is mentioned in the following websites.
Ask4Food
Athens Menu
Glyfada Life