Giaourtlou @ Pangrati

Recently GH has changed job and finishes work much earlier than he used to. In his former workplace, he finished at 7 and came to town at 8, which can be dinner time. Now he is in town 5 o'clock and it is too early for dinner and too late for lunch. Because of this change, we go out to eat much less and when we do we tend to snack, like sandwich, souvlaki, or pies.

This is one of these occasions. Giaourlou in Pangrati, both the shop and the food.

I was attracted by the look of the place and we decided to snack. We judged the speciality should be the giaourtlou kebab for the obvious reason and here we went.

Fried potatoes were for hubby.

As fried potato specialists can tell just from the look of it, the potatoes were frozen, but at least served freshly fried and piping hot.

I ordered a grilled pita.

Not oily and pretty good, but maybe not very clean because I saw our waiter turning upside down on the grill.

And here is the Giaourtlou.

This is the most unusual giaourtlou kebab I have ever seen. In the deep dish was filled with a big quantity of yogurt, then a pita (which was soggy and not palatable; I recommend you to order the pita separately as I did. It is just 30 cents per a piece), another thin layer of yogurt, and on top of it there are 4 fat lamb kebabs with their fat.

The dish is quite large and even if you are a person of large appetite, you feel satisfied when you clean it up.

Usually the yogurt is poured on top of kebabs and I do not like it as the yogurt cool down the grilled meat, but dishing up in this way, the meat remain warm. Thumb up.

I prefer the mince to be more coarse, but they were nice kebabs nevertheless. Just mind that the smell of lamb is rather strong. It is only for lamb-eaters.

With a can of coca cola, the bill came to 11.70 Euro. If you add a Cucumber and Tomato Salad, it would be 3 Euro more.

Giaortlou
Imittou 69, Pangrati, Athens, Greece
Tel. 210 701 5287

Γιαουρτλού
Υμηττού 69, Παγκράτι, Αθήνα

Kalamaki Solon @ Piraeus

Visited Kalamaki Solon in one sunny Sunday afternoon. It is just below our flat, but we have never visited for one reason or another.

It is situated on Akti Themistkleous, near the big Cross. This place used to be a fish taverna called Solon, then it became a restaurant specializing in kalamaki (meat grilled on skewers). I do not remember the fish taverna Solon, which means that the transformation happened 3 or 4 years ago. The Kalamaki Solon as it was did not survive long and was taken over by Pantos Kairou (a taverna near Dimotiko Theatro of Piraeus), but still as a souvlaki restaurant. For this reason, the signage reads Kalamaki Solon Pandos Kairou now.

It is a small place with several tables outside and several tables inside. This below is the view from one of outdoor tables.

As a souvlaki place, the menu is kept simple: some starters, salad, grilled meat and souvlaki wraps. Before the take-over by Pandos Kairou, it did not have souvlaki in pita. In a residential area like Kallipoli and Hatzikyriakeio, people eat more souvlaki wraps than skewers only, so I believe it was an intelligent move.

Mixed salad cost 5 Euro. It included rather unpalatable hard parts from cabbage, but I should not complain too much about vegetables at a souvlaki shop.

Bread basket.

We were not charged for bread. Maybe because traditionally kalamakia (grilled meat on skewers) are accompanied by bread without supplementary charge.

I wasn't so hungry, so I ordered 1 kebab and 1 pork skewer. One cost 1.40 Euro and the other cost 1.50 Euro (I do not remember which was how much).

Kebab was not soft & spongy kind and was to my liking. The pork skewer, however, was even better: not over-cooked and with right amount of fat.

GH ordered pork souvlaki wrap, 2.20 Euro.

I did not try it, but he said he liked it.

With a bottle of beer, the total bill was 12.80 Euro, which is reasonable enough especially at a table in such a fine afternoon. So why not?

Kalamaki Solon Pandos Kairou
Καλαμάκι Σόλων Παντός Καιρού
Akti Themistokleous 284, Piraeus 185 39, Greece
Tel. 210 4512340

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

Lagoudera @ Perama

It is not far from Piraeus where we live, but I have never been to Perama, because for some reason, GH has an idea that it is a place not worth visiting.

There is no place not-worth visiting, of course, and I persuaded him to drive there in a Sunday afternoon.

The bait was a fish taverna called Lagoudera, of which I have read good reviews.

There is nothing particular about the outlook of the place. Rather shabby construction, no view to the sea (though ships are in sight) and crowded tables, except that there were lots lots of people. It was striking because the taverna next door called Perasma was almost empty.



The menu is quite long, many fish and seafood. There were some intriguing stuff like kokoretsi thalassinon or stuffed sardines.

BUT GH orders tzatziki as always.



Very dense yogurt. Quite good, but nothing particular.

Here is horta, beautifully served with red cherry tomato. Nice.



I wanted to order cabbage rolls with salted cod, but they did not have it and ended up in ordering normal dolmadakia. Again good, but nothing impressive. What impressed us was the yogurt like sauce. We thought it should be tzatziki, but it turned out to be something sweet. Interesting.



The main dish was garides saganaki.



We had expected a larger dish considering the price tag of 11 Euro. There were not many prawns either and their size was medium. It was, however, very filling due to the large quantity of yellow cheese used as crust. I have never seen such a prawn saganaki before. The tomato & red pepper sauce in which cooked the prawns were quite delicious.

The fried potatoes arrived when we finished half of the saganaki. The waiter excused saying that there were so many orders and the kitchen could not keep up with frying fresh potatoes. The point taken, but still it is not pleasant to eat fried potatoes at the end.



The dessert was on the house. Layers of Marie type biscuit, Giotis cream and jello.



With a bottle of beer, the bill came to 31.50 which was average. Anyway, the food was in general good and I would love to go back, hopefully with more people.

If you go there in Sunday afternoon, you'd better book a table in advance. It attracts much people and there is no ready alternative nearby.

Lagoudera - Λαγουδέρα
Leoforos Dimokratias 33, Perama
Λεωφόρος Δημοκρατίας 33, Πέραμα
Tel. 210 4414154

Antonia @ Tzitzifies

About Antonia first spoke to me a taxi-driver who is also a good friend. He said it was a fabulous taverna and I had to try. And later I read good reviews on the web. So I went one Wednesday night with GH.

From what I read I expected the place to be more humble. So it was a nice surprise when we found this large place with a nice environment. I was relieved, because GH sometimes refuses to enter, when the restaurants I want to go look to shabby.

I could not count how many tables there were. The smokers were on the other side, and the non-smokers were on the side where we were seated.

The menu is not short, but the choice is rather limited, because they do not have grill. Most of the people seemed to order fried calamari, fried prawns (large ones for 35 Euro per kilo), fried small & fresh cod, and/or steamed mussels. They have also usual small fish to fry, like barbounia, koutsoura, and gopes.

To start, we ordered mixed salad and tyrokafteri (Cheese & chili dip).

The salad was lovely and huge for 5.50 Euro. It was filling, for it included black-eyed peas and boiled potatoes.

Of course GH ordered fried potatoes.

I am sure they were hand-cut and freshly fried, but they did not taste quite well, probably because the potatoes were not of the right kind.

As main course, we had fried calamari (frozen) for 7.50 Euro.

Unfortunately I did not like them. Not because they did not cook well, but I found them tasteless. GH, instead, said they were fine.

We had also 4 large prawns (14 Euro in total).

As I did not want 3 deep-fried dishes, I had them boiled (I would have preferred grilled, but, as I said, there was not grill). I found them slightly over-cooked and not quite flavorful. They would have better as saganaki or garidomakaronada (or deep-fried, as the other people were eating).

At the end, we were offered semolina halvas, which was just average (not that I am complaining).

The total bill was 36.20 Euro which is quite reasonable. In fact, in Antonia, all the fish/seafood are sold at 35 Euro per kilo at the most (there are no luxury fish), which I believe is quite a bargain in comparison to many fish tavernas in Athens.

For a relaxing meat with friends or family, this seems an ideal place; you will enjoy the food without worrying too much of the bill. I won't, however, come all the way here for the best meal.

Antonia - Αντωνία
Isminis 36, Tzitzifies, Kallithea, Athens
Ισμήνης 36, Τζιτζιφιές, Καλλιθέα, Αθήνα
Tel. 210 9404508