Mikio @ Palaio Faliro

Again, it has been a while to write a post. The reason is still the same: too many sports activities.


Anyway, these are some pics from a Cretan mezedopoleio called Mikio (accent at the last 'o') on Agiou Alexandrou Street of Palaio Faliro. We decided to go there because it was highly rated by Foursquare users (Currently 8.2/10).

It was a warm Sunday evening of September. It was almost empty as we arrived, but it was just because it was early for dinner time and it filled up quickly.

The menu was relatively short and our choices were even more limited because they sold out many items during the lunch service. I noted that they do not serve slow-cooked dishes on the menu, which was disappointing.

First came were bread and marinated olives and peppers.

Feta baked with tomato and peppers. Feta tasted good, but nothing particular about cooking.

The salad would have been good, if it were not soaked in dressing.

I think it was Apaki, if I remember well. Served without any garnish.

We had also fried potatoes and beer. Potatoes were all right, if a bit burned with bitter aftertaste.

We had 4 dishes and the bill came to 28.10 Euro. Not expensive, but I would not say it is good value for money, as there was nothing stood out.

And strangely for a Cretan place, there was no freebie. Let alone dessert, not even a shot of raki.

Mikio is a sympathetic kafenio, which serves some mezedes, but I don't consider this as a restaurant/ taverna/ mezedopoleio. The kitchen is not to that standard. That was my impression.

Mikio - Μικιό
Agiou Alexandrou 58, Palaio Faliro, 17561
Αγίου Αλεξάνδρου 58, Παλαιό Φάληρο, 17561
Tel. 6946995740

Rakaki @ Kaisariani

It has been a couple of month ago since we visited Rakaki in Kaisariani. It is a Cretan restaurant in the Kaisariani Square. As it was already a good season, there were many tables outside. The indoor space is very limited.

The bread came with a cheese dip and small Cretan olives. 1.50 Euro per a head.

Under the bread there were some dried harbs and their fragrance filled our table all through the meal.

They just put a bottled water even if you do not order. 1.70 Euro. It was Cretan water I have never seen before.

We ordered only 3 plates, as we were not hungry and also the price looked a bit high. When the price looks too high in tavernas in Greece, there are two possibilities. One is just because they can charge as much as they want. The other is because portion size is larger than normal. Anyway, in both cases, it is better not to order too many things.

The first dish was a salad of almyra green, boiled potato and spring onion. 7.10 Euro. I have never tries this combination and it turned out to be really good. Because of the potatoes, it becomes filling, too.

Baked kataifi with cheese filling, served with honey and what I think was onion seeds. Enjoyable. Portion size was rather small. 6.30 Euro.

For the main dish, we ordered a stewed rooster with handmade pasta. 9.90 Euro. It was a rather indifferent dish and the meat was extremely small (note that these 2 pieces are on bones).

At the end we were offered glasses of sweet cinnamon drink without alcohol. With one bottle of beer, the meal with 3 dishes came above 30 Euro.

All in all, the food was good, but the price looked too high for what it was.

Rakaki - Ρακάκι
Moschonision 2-4, Kaisariani, 161 21, Athens
Μοσχονησίων 2-4, Καισαριανή, 161 21, Αθήνα
Tel. 210 7237457

Kouzoulo @ Kifissia

I do not know why, but Blogger again removed the function to select the size of the photos. Shame.

Early September, GH and I went to a Cretan restaurant in Kifissia called Kouzoulo. I found a discount coupon on internet and, as I had wanted to try this place for some time, I bought it.

We went there on a Friday evening by car; the road was quite congested and the parking wasn't easy.

The address is "Δραγούμη & Ανδριανού 28", so we walked along Adrianou street without being able to find it. But eventually figured out that it is above this luxurious (Kifissian style) Grigoris, and the entrance is Dragoumi Street side.

It is just in front of ISAP (aka Metro No. 1) station.

Inside is modern taverna style. I wouldn't really call it a restaurant as a waitress and a cook were walking and smoking, while the guy who looked like the manager was working with his laptop at one of the tables.

I think the fact that it does not have any outdoor seating space is a big minus to attract Greek clientele in warm seasons.

Bread is served with olives and olive oil and you are charged 1.50 Euro p.p. And we did not manage to eat bread almost at all.

I wanted to order stamnagathi, but there wasn't. So this is a simple Greek salad. 7 Euro. It was a pretty large bowl, enough to share among 3 people at least.

Sarikopitakia from "pites (pies)" section. The filling was ksinomizithra cheese and topped with honey. 7. Euro.

Pretty good. Very filling. 7 Euro.

This is pork afelia from meze section. 8.50 Euro.

The sauce was tasty and had a good flavour. However the meat had quite a lot of fat and gristle. Not sure if it was the right cut.

GH wanted to eat spaghetti (I do not know why he wanted to eat spaghetti in a Cretan restaurant, but, whatever...), so we ordered this. I do not remember the name exactly, but it had the restaurant's name in it. It was like a bacon, pepper and tomato spaghetti, but the bacon was substituted with Cretan apaki.

Not bad, but it was too salty because of the overdose of apaki and, anyway, it wasn't worth 11 Euro.

I wanted to eat arnaki fricasse, but they did not have any dish with arni or arnaki (lamb) in it, so I ended up in choosing zigouri (mutton) in cooking paper.

A big mistake. The meat was incredibly salty, as if it was left in salt for hours before being cooked. Sad. 12 Euro.

Unusually for a Cretan restaurant, they do not offer anything for free (in Cretan restaurants, often they give free raki, rakomelo, or rusks with cheese even in Athens).

We had also a half litre of red wine (7 Euro) and the bill came to 55.50 Euro before discount (I actually paid 35.50, but they did not give us a receipt for the portion I paid with the coupon).

I am OK for paying 30 Euro p.p. at a restaurant on a condition that they do not serve any bad dish. Kouzoulo did it to me, so it is very unlikely to come back.

KOUZOULO
Dragoumi & Adrianou 28, Kifissia
(Δραγούμη & Ανδριανού 28, Κηφισιά)
Tel: 210-6233900

Ambakas @ Gazi

Friday night out in Gazi.

I intended to try Asty 68, but found it closed due to summer vacation.

Passing in front of Gazohori which is expanding even more (it looks more like an "area" than just a "place"), we arrived at a relatively new Cretan restaurant, Ambakas, which was empty at 8 o'clock in Friday evening. We saw only 3 other patrons during 2 hours we were there.

It is a small restaurant, a half of the tables were on pedestrian walkway and the other half inside. We seated outside. It is one of the back streets of Gazi and I don't think it is particularly attractive. The interior decor looked much better, but good Greeks should eat al fresco.

On seating, they brought us a bottle of mineral water, two small glasses of tsipouro, and this dip & dakakia (small Greek rusks).

And pieces of bread in a bag. These looked like home-made.

The menu is printed on the paper that is used as place mat. There are a wide variety of Cretan appetizers (mezedes). Besides, there are 5 or 6 salads, about 10 Cretan main dishes, and also grill dishes. I don't think there was any fish, but there were many dishes that did not contain any meat. I would say that there is a good range of choice.

We ordered only 3 dishes, but could not clear them all.

First, Cretan salad, which was a variation of Greek salad.

What is Cretan about? It contained mitzithra instead of feta and there were some pieces of small dakos. And small & dry Cretan small olives. Vegetables were crunchy and I liked it, although 6.50 Euro looked a bit expensive.

After a while, we got the appetizers. This is mixed appetizers for 2.

The presentation was really beautiful and the price also really good. I cannot say that I liked all of them, but some of them were quite sympathetic. I liked particular the keftedes made from fava. It cost only 10 Euro and we got stuffed only with these and bread. Very good buy.

But we had already ordered one main dish; "Cretan" pork souvlaki (9 Euro).

I thought that the souvlaki should be a safe choice, but but I was wrong. The pork had unpleasant smell of pork and contained some sinew-ish hard parts. The potatoes were either double-fried or boiled before frying.

After the meal, they offered us two pieces of cakes on house.

These were like ravani, but contained green grapes. Very good.

With a bottle of Alfa beer (3.10 Euro), the total bill is 30.60 Euro. The food did not convinced me totally, but for this price I might come back to try something else.

Ambakas (Άμπακας)
Ikarieon and Orfeos 34
Gkazi, Athens
Tel. 6949 731675


View Larger Map

Heraklio

I am in Heraklio, Crete for a marriage ceremony.

We left the party at 3:45 and arrived at hotel at 4:15. By consequence we walk up at 12 & now we are having breakfast at a Creperie called Melba. Very nice filling crepe.

In the photo is Morosini Fountain and bougatsa shops Filllo...sofies and Kirkor.

Post scriptum

This year we did not enter these two cafeterias, but we did last year when we visited Iraklio for 4 hours during the 3 Day Louis Cruise.

And we ate this sweet cheese bougatsa.

In this photo it was already half eaten. So it was actually double the size.

It was extra-full with Cretan mizithra cheese and topped with honey. Needless to say it was fantastic.

Recommended, if you are once there.

Rakadiko @ Piraeus (near the station)

This content is moved to the main website:

http://www.mesogeia.net/athens/pireas/rakadiko_en.html

Rakadiko
Stoa Kouvelou
Karaoli kai Dimitriou 5
Peiraias
Tel. 210 41.78.470

Ρακάδικο
Στοά Κούβελου
Καραολή κ Δημιτρίου
Πειραιάς
Τηλ. 210 41.78.470

Cretan Night Out

This content is moved to the main website:

http://www.mesogeia.net/athens/pireas/revaizi_en.html