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

Druid @ Palaio Faliro

Visited Druid cafe/ restaurant in Palaio Faliro.

It is in a residential area of P. Faliro, although it is in a short walking distance from the main street Agiou Alexandrou, and you won't never find it, if you are not looking for it. Also because it is in a converted residential building.

I found the place on internet and have been curious due to many positive reviews. I grabbed a chance to try it, when they were selling discount coupon (25 Euro voucher against 50 Euro value).

The table setting was rather basic, like at a cafe. Indeed some people around us were there for coffees, rather than a meal.

The menu was neither long nor short, and tends toward meat than seafood/fish.

Although it looked like a cafe, we were offered amuse-bouche like in a restaurant. Left side is a layered mousse of broccoli and something else (pumpkin?) which I do not remember any more and right side is home made grissini with yogurty dip.

As drink, we could have ordered wine or beer. We decided to try Argos Star beer which we have never tasted. It is one of these micro-brewery beers and tasted quite nice. 3 Euro only.

As a starter, GH ordered a tart of feta cheese (7 Euro).

I ordered a salad of avocado and prawns, 12 Euro. It included one entire avocado and prawns tasted fresh.

Here is entrecote for GH as main dish, 20 Euro. Nicely cooked, but the meat itself was usual Greek veal which is not really adequate for steak.

I ordered squid-ink pasta with cockles, 15 Euro. The shellfish tasted fresh and not from tin.

We did not order any dessert, but were offered limoncello on the house, with pistachio nuts.

The total bill of all the above should have been 53 Euro, if we did not have coupon. The food was gourmet-ish and the ingredients tasted fresh, but, in my humble opinion, the kitchen is not up to the real gourmet restaurant standard. Besides, for this price, I can think of some other places I would prefer to go.

What do you think?

DRUID
Afroditis 57, 17561, Palaio Faliro
Αφροδίτης 57, 17561, Παλαίο Φάληρο
Tel. 210 984 8151
http://www.druidrestaurant.gr/

Iodio @ Palaio Faliro

We visited Iodio in a inland part of Palaio Faliro one Friday evening.

Iodio is a gourmet fish/seafood restaurant near a shopping street of Eleftherios Venizelos. I go to the street to buy sports wears from time to time and have been aware that Iodio was there, but never had a chance to visit.

It is not directly facing to any major street, so you won't find it if you don't look for it. Well, Achilleos street is a major street, but after Eleftherios Venizelos, it becomes less frequented.

The place is not large, if not small. When 10 tables are occupied, you'd feel that it is almost full. There was only indoor space in the winter, but I guess they arrange tables outside in a better season.

We went there without reservation at 8 o'clock and found only 1 couple eating. Then, by 9 o'clock, I think there were 6 or 7 tables occupied.

After having taken our order, a waiter brought us a plate of rusks and olives, a basket of bread, and a bottle of water.

Bread basket contained white and black bread.

The cost of the above amount already to 6 Euro.

This is green salad. It costs 7.50 Euro, but the portion was generous. Pickled artichokes gave a nice accent.

I wanted to order ceviche of scallops, but they did not have any on that day. The waiter recommended us to order a plate of marinated barbounia instead (9 Euro). I expected it to consist of fillets, but actually came chopped. Not bad, but I don't think barbounia is suitable fish to be eaten raw, because it smells.

Grilled calamari with truffle oil was excellent (10.50 Euro). The calamari was soft and juicy. The combination with truffle was surprisingly good.

Here is a plate of grilled sardines (8.50 Euro). It was good, but probably you don't have to eat this at Iodio, as you can find the similar staff for much less in other fish tavernas (in my neighbourfood of Peiraiki, the price of grilled serdines is currently 5 or 6 Euro, if you are interested).

Fried potatoes (3.50 Euro) came toward the end of the meal. We were about to cancel it, because we did not want eat potatoes at the end of the meal. It was not because the waiter forgot about it, but evidently it took a while to heat the oil as we were ones of the first diners of that evening. I think they should have delayed other dishes, too, so that we could eat potatoes with the main courses.

When we asked for the bill, they left us a bottle of mastiha liquor with it. It was drink as much as you like. Good service for those who like mastiha. I am not particularly a fan, but still a bit of sugar at the end of the meat is pleasant.

The total bill came to 49.50 Euro, including a half kilo of white wine, which was not in the photos.

Not cheap, but not expensive either for fresh fish in Greece. I have to return, when they have scallops.

Iodio - Ιώδιο
Achilleos 119B, Palaio Faliro 17563
Αχιλλέως 119B, Παλαίο Φάληρο 17563
Tel. 210 9884258
http://www.iodio.gr/

Aialis @ Palaio Faliro

One Sunday, we went to a small 'Politiki' restaurant called Aialis in Palio Faliro. You would never learn the existence of such a small cafe/restaurant, if you do not live in the neighbourhood and if there were not internet. Of course this is a pure hypothesis and with the world wide web, you can learn quite a lot about a small restaurant in a town 50 (or 5000) KM away from you.

Indeed it was how I heard about this place. Although I work in the same neighbourhood, as it is located on a side road not visible from a major street, I would never have noticed it if I had not read about it before.

It is quite a small place, maybe with only 7 or 8 tables. In the decor wise, there is not much to say. It looks more like a kafenio than a taverna.

The menu is not long, but neither short for such a small place. We picked up some characteristic dishes.

OK. This one is the least characteristic. Fried potatoes. They look burnt, but tasted ok. Freshly cooked.

This is pastourmadopita (pita kaissarias). Inside the Turkish style fine fyllo, there are yellow cheese, tomato and pastourmas. It was tasty, but the core was strangely cold. This is of course a sign that it was frozen (or it was not well defrosted). I read in reviews of this place that the pastourmadopita here was freshly wrapped and fried. Well, our example showed me that it does not happen every day.

Cioban salad was OK. Nothing spectacular.

This is much praised manti. Each dumpling was very small and I admire the amount of labour put into it. My complaint was that the filling was so little that I scarcely tasted meat. It was fine as pasta dish, but not as meat dumpling dish.

The chopped and fried liver came at the moment when we finished most of the other dishes. It was unfortunate because I am the only person who eat liver (GH never touches liver). By consequence, I had to keep on eating fried (rather oily) liver alone when I was almost full.

Together with a bottle of pleasant Ionian beer (4 Euro), the bill came to 28 Euro. Not expensive, but, when I take into consideration the quality of the food and the service, I won't say it was cheap. It was just average.

Although I won't say that I disliked the place or I regretted to have tried it, one visit is probably enough for me.

Aialis-ΑΙΑΛΙΣ
Alkyonis 27, Palaio Faliro, 17561
Αλκυόνης 27, Π. Φάληρο, 17561
Tel. 212 1003311 

Godzilla Sushi Bar @ Marina Flisvos

Quick post about Godzilla Sushi Bar in Marina Floisvou.

Godzilla Sushi Bar was used to be in Psyrri and some time ago it relocated to Marina Flisvos, in Palaio Faliro. The location is a bit strange. It is just next to Mare Marina club/restaurant and it shares the same entrance. I.e. To enter Mare Marina from the south side (I think there is another entrance at the other end), you have to go through Godzilla.

It is a very small restaurant, with a dozen of tables. There is a sushi counter with 2 young Asian sushi chefs, but all the other food seems to be cooked in the kitchen of Mare Marina.

We went with a 29 Euro coupon, so I do knot know the real price, but I am sure that it is on the expensive side due to the location.

The first course was miso soup which was probably the worst I have ever had. They added too much water and it tasted barely miso. To compensate the lack of taste, they added a drop of sesame seed oil. It was entirely wrong.

The second course was Gyoza. Japanese people won't eat gyoza and sushi at the same time, but it does not matter. Problem was that the gyoza (dumplings with minced meat filling) was reheated in a strange manner that the lower part was lukewarm and the upper part was totally cold. I have no idea how they did this magic.

Godzilla salad did not contain any godzilla meat, but with chicken. Sour-sweet sesame dressing was pretty good.

And finally sushi. From the left, spicy tuna maki, salmon nigiri, and prawn and cucumber maki. And the sushi were fine. The spicy tuna maki was clearly the winner, although it was not spicy (it just had some mayonnaise). But again, all tasted all right. Correct sushi.

But the final vegetable noodles were again wrong. They used instant ramen noodles which were not for stir-frying. The noodles fell into short pieces.

GH had an Asahi beer for 6.50 Euro.

I satisfied my curiosity with 29 Euro (+6.50 Euro beer). If I ever come here again, I will eat only sushi and salad.

Godzilla Sushi Bar (by Mare Marina)
Marina Flisvos (Building 6), Palaio Faliro
Μαρίνα Φλοίσβου (Κτίριο 6), Παλαίο Φάληρο
Tel. 210 9822220

Suzanna @ Palaio Faliro

I intended to visit this place for a long time and finally made it on a Friday evening of September. It serves Lebanese & Politiki (Constantinopolitan) food and it is not one of these new Lebenese that opened in half a dozen recently.

We arrived there at 22:30 and the place was half full. More precisely, most of the tables in outdoor space were occupied while the indoor tables were empty except for one.

It is a small restaurant, but the space between the tables is large and we did not felt to be in a crowd.

The bottled water on the table was served without any request on our part, costing us 1 Euro.

The menu is not long. The food is divided in 3 parts: cold appetizers (which includes salads), warm appetizers, and main dishes. Fish is not served, and the vegetarians do not find any choice except for Falafel as main dish.

We ordered 3 appetizers and 1 main dish, with a bottle of beer (3 Euro for beer seems reasonable).

Lots of warm handmade mini-pitas were served together with appetizers.

This is Ezme, which is finely chopped tomato, radish, parsley and chili. Simply it might be, perfectly prepared. Thumb up.

Another cold appetizer was babaganoush. Similar to melitzanosalata, except for the presence of tahini. Red dots are pomegranate.

The aubergine had good smokey flavor and we did like it. Perfect with pita bread.

GH wanted pastourmadopitakia, so here you are.

These are fried rolls oriental yufka pastry, with the filling of pastorma and yellow cheese. Again good, but I liked better those I ate at another restaurant in Palaio Faliro, Avli. Nonetheless fine.

As main dish we ordered Kebab ala Suzanna.

I found the meat a bit too dry, but loved the flavor of meat and abundant spice. But if you prefer soft kebabs (that I dislike), you might not like these.

No fruits or desserts were offered at the end, but they have cheap desserts starting from a scoop of ice cream for 1.50 Euro. We were, however, too full at this point.

The total bill was 26.50 Euro. For the quality of the food, I found it reasonable enough.

The only thing I did not like was that the service was somehow slow, due to lack of manpower. There was only one serving staff and at some points she was struggling.

I would happy to return, but would avoid busy hours.

Suzanna
Chariton 5 & Orfeos, Palaio Faliro, Athens
Χαρίτων 5 και Ορφέως, Π. Φάληρο
Tel.210-9428129.

Walking along Zisimopoulou Street @ Palaio Faliro

Today I had a chance to walk along Zisimopoulou Street in Palaio Faliro. In case you do know it, it is a long street spattered with tavernas.

I started from the intersection of Zisimopoulou and Agias Triados where I found a new large restaurant called Kebaptzidikon Kyr. Aristos.



Something reminded me of Kebabzidiko Barbadimos, but this is more spacious and looked a bit modern.

Walking toward the direction of Syggrou Avenue, I noticed the old Syrian restaurant Ghazi did a bit of face-lift, if not a total make over. Now it is called Sahara, but it keeps the old name, too; if you look very closely, you can read it under the current name.



I won't call it a renovation, but not it looks much less scary (you now what I mean if you know the old Ghazi).

Lemoni kai Rigani was under construction.



I believe it is part of a small chain.

The photo is awful, but this is a relatively new restaurant called Magikes Katsaroles (Magic Casseroles).



And it is already closed for summer and reopens in September (at least it is the idea).

I have totally ignored this restaurant called To Kοloraki until today.



There is no trace on WWW. How is this possible?

A nice fat cat relaxing in front of his house.



This is a fish restaurant called Bouillabaisse (ΜΠΟΥΓΙΑΜΠΕΣ).



I have been curious about this place, but I have never been to, because I read it was expensive (35-45 Euro per ahead only for food). It looked pretty nice with many tables. It has also a garden for those who prefer to eat outside (i.e. most of the Greeks).

This is another well known restaurant called Barba Lazaros.



This one looked also quite nice with a waiter dressed as a waiter. I read the menu at the entrance. The price is rather high, but not so high that I should give up from the start.

Taverna Arsenis appears much less nice in comparison to Barba Lazaros. It looks quite "xima". I did not know that these two belonged to two different categories, or rather, different classes.



It sells discount coupons on line almost permanently, so it is stupid to go without buying one. I do not understand the restaurants that do this trick. It is one thing to offer discount coupons from time to time for publicity or to fill some tables in low seasons But selling it all the time is tantamount to declare that they are over-charging patrons without coupons.

Alkyones' decor is of the same order of Arsenis.



As I do not read good reviews about the food at Alkyones, I do not think I am going, but if you are after a place with live Greek music, this is where you might be able to try.