Pizzeria dei Fratelli @ Nea Smyrini

Visited a relatively new pizza restaurant in Neos Kosmos (or Nea Smyrni?), near InterContinental Hotel.

It was a very cold and snowy night and there were very few customers. Some seemed to be foreign businessmen staying at InterCon or Ledra Hotels.

The interior is industrial style. Spacious with high ceiling. The kitchen is open and you can see the food being cooked.

The menu is not too short not too long, mainly pizzas as you expect from a pizzeria. There are also bruschettas, pastas, and a few meat main dishes.

While we wait, we ordered freshly baked pita bread with a dip which tasted like mayonnaise. The pita should have been made from pizza dough, but it is much less oily than regular focaccia. It was soft, moist, and pretty nice (0.80 Euro).

We ordered a salad with veal and potato, but after 10 minutes from taking the order, the waiter (who should be one of the 2 owners) came back to tell us that they did not have potatoes and could not prepare the particular dish. I have no idea why it took 10 minutes to figure out that they did not have potato. Never mind. Strange things happen at restaurants. We ordered a chicken caesar salad following recommendation by the waiter.

The chicken carsar (7.10 Euro) consisted in lettuce, grilled chicken fillet, shaven hard cheese and dressing.

It was quite filling and chicken was soft and moist. If there were other types of lettuces or leaves mixed in, it would have been even better.

GH said he was hungry and ordered 40 cm pizza with guanciale and real mozzarella cheese (there are regular cheese ones and 'mozzarella di bufala' ones with a bit of extra, but I am not sure if the mozzarella really was from water buffalo which is quite expensive even in Italy), for 13.50 Euro. The amount of guanciale (cured meat made of pork cheeks) was quite little, but at least had enough cheese and tomato sauce to go on.

The restaurant has a proper pizza oven, but, when they bake, they put the pizza in baking tin. You don't say that it is not 'Italian' as even in Italy there are pizzerias that use baking-tin method, but to my understanding, the bottom crust does not come out as good as when baked without tin.

Still, it was enjoyable enough. Besides, I think 40 cm pizza should feed 2 people; GH ate 3 pieces and then gave up. But, do not worry. They can pack up the rest! I had an impression that most of the patrons brought home some remains. So, if 2 people order only 1 salad and one 40 cm pizza, a meal should cost around 20 Euro + drinks. It is pretty reasonable for an Italian restaurant in Athens.

I ordered a dish of penne with chicken and moscato d'Asti (8.60 Euro). Nice, but a bit heavy. Later I figured out that it was because of huge amount of butter. How I figured out? I brought a half home and observed that the sauce was totally solid after one night in fridge.

We had also 2 glasses of wine and the total cost came to 37.50 Euro. Considering that we did not really have to order so much food, a normal meal should be more affordable.

This was not my perfect pizza, but still, the restaurant is a nice and affordable place to have a pizza and a beer.

PIZZERIA DEI FRATELLI 
Kratitos 10, Nea Smyrni (Neos Kosmos), Athens 17121
Κρατήτος 10, Νεα Σμύρνη, Αθήνα 17121
Tel. 210 9355220

Ndrangheta @ Elliniko

The first post of 2015 is about our first restaurant in 2015.

I have been in search of good pizza in Athens. Finding a new pizzeria opened in Elliniko and a discount coupon on sale, I decided give it a go.

It situated indeed close to Elliniko station, about 2 minute-walk away.

From outside, it does not look much like a restaurant, and more like a cafeteria. And indeed, the most of the people there were for coffee when we visited in a Sunday afternoon.

The space is divided in smoking and non-smoking sections and we were seated in the latter, But afterwards, a member of staff sat down and started to smoke at one of the tables (the family seated there seemed to be her friends). So what the meaning?

Evidently they have a garden on the back side, but now that it was winter, it wasn't open.


The kitchen was semi-open. At least 3 cooks were working inside.

Bread and dips to start, provided without order. The bread was like very think pizza crust; it was warm and pretty nice. The dips are green olive paste and olive oil with balsamic vinegar.

As they did not give me the receipt, I do not know how much it cost.

This is Caesar salad with grilled chicken. Chicken was warm and plenty, while amount of cheese was a bit poor. But I liked it as a starter (in Greece, the salad is often eaten like a starter, and not as a side - contorno - of a main dish in Italy).

GH ordered a pizza with prosciutto crudo. As you see, some parts were burnt and the cheese was dry. I suspect that the heat from above was too strong. Fresh and crunchy crust was nice and the size was good, but not my perfect pizza.

Seafood pasta, instead, was really good. Seafood consisted in mussels and karavides (which normally translated as scampi, but they look different from Italian scampi). On the menu, the past was supposed to be black tagliatelle, but was less broad and similar to linguine. To my taste, it was too buttery, but the strong seafood taste convinced me.

As always, we were too full for a dessert.

Including two bottles of coca cola (these miserable small glass bottles that you can find only in restaurants), the bill came close to 40 Euro. Not cheap, but I don't think it was more expensive than other Italian restaurants, as Italian food tends to be rather expensive in Greece. We paid about 12 or 13 Euro less because of the discount voucher, and maybe for it, we did not get any receipt, as I mentioned earlier.

I liked the salad and pasta, but not so much the pizza. My search for perfect pizza in Athens continues.

Ndrangheta Pizza Bar
Iasonidou 10, Elliniko
Ιασωνίδου 10, Ελληνικό
Tel. 210 9649092

Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino @ Akropoli-Makrigianni

One Sunday afternoon we visited a pasta restaurant called Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino of Makrigianni Quarter. It is just 3 min. walk away from Akropoli Metro station.

"Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino" means literally "Garlic, Oil and Chili" in Italian and practically it means pasta (usually spaghetti) cooked with these 3 ingredients (plus salt, of course).

Although I have been to this station some dozens of times, I have never seen this restaurant, because it is tucked away in a quite minor street.

I heard about this place from a friend of mine some time ago. After checking the score in Foursquare, we decided to try.

It was quite small. Much smaller than I imagined; I don't think there were not even 10 tables. The decoration looked somehow Christmasy; I guess you can see what I mean looking at the photo below.

Even though the place was small and there were two waitresses, the service was rather slow. It took quite a while to bring us a menu. I noted that the waitresses did not bring more than 1 dish a time for some reason. It was odd.

I had thought it was an Italian restaurant, but it proved not to be the precise definition in my mind. The reason is that the only main dish it serves is pasta. There is no pizza, no risotto and more importantly, no meat or fish.

In Italy, pasta is considered to be the first course and, for a meal to be complete, there should also be second course (normally meat or fish). Although people often eat only the first course to save time, money or calorie intake, it is odd if restaurants do not have any second dish.

I lived in Italy for 5 years and I have a rather clear and inflexible idea what Italian restaurants are like. So I would call this place a pasta restaurant, not really an Italian.

From the rather limited choices, we ordered 1 salad and 2 pasta dishes.

To start, we were served some bread (2 black and 2 white) and some olives (0.80 Euro per person).

This seemed to be an obligatory order. However, I believe they should ask the guests if they want bread or not, because people do not necessary eat bread with pasta. It is carbohydrate overload.

The salad we ordered was with grilled aubergine and yogurt. You can see in the photo yogurt and aubergine. What you do not see are cucumber and tomato below the aubergine. I found the combination a bit odd. 8.50 Euro.

My pasta was tagliolini (alla) "siciliana", I was explained by one of the waitresses that it was tagliolini cooked with minced pork, chili, white wine and a bit of cream. I am not sure why they associated this dish with Sicily.

It was not bad, but I found it a bit too heavy, maybe because of the cream.

GH had Papardelle with speck and cheese (I do not remember which cheese it was). Speck is like prosciutto crudo, but it is smoked. I thought that the speck was too cooked.

Neither of the pasta wasn't bad, but I would not pay 12 Euro for such simple dishes. I would rather cook at home.

At the end, they offered either grappa, limoncello or lemon sorbet (we chose the last).

With a bottle of beer, the bill came to 37.10 Euro. Considering what we ate, it was rather expensive.

Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino is no doubt a successful restaurant which has continued for years attracting many regular customers. But it did not do the trick to me.

Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino
Porinou 13, Makrigianni, 117 42 Athens
Πορινού 13, Μακρυγιάννη, 117 42 Αθήνα
Tel: 2109211801

Walking toward the metro station, we found this strange sculpture.

Parmigiani @ Passalimani, Piraeus

One Saturday afternoon, we decided we wanted to eat Italian, but not far from our flat.

So I called an Italian place called Mafioso which is about 10 min walk and is getting good reviews on the web. But the woman who answered the phone told me that we could go to their new restaurant on Passalimani, called Parmigiani, because it is at a better location.

And there we went.

The place above does not say much, but they have several tables on the seaside walk of Passalimani. They serve food as well as cafeteria stuff.

When we arrived, about half of the tables were occupied, but most of them were only having coffees. The problem was that there was only one waitress for all the tables and, as in other places of Passalimani, she had to cross the street all the time from the shop to the tables. And the worst was that she was not willing to do it much.

The menu consists of not-to-complicated appetizers, some salads, pizze, pasta, some (other) main dishes, and desserts. The emphasis is on pizze and pasta that are very reasonably priced.

To the waitress who insisted to speak in English while we spoke to her in Greece, we placed the order.

We got Insalata alla Caprese as starter, which came with a big place of bread that we did not order. I don't like the place that automatically brings the bread, while we order starches for main. I do not eat spaghetti with bread, although I know that there is a plenty of people who do; they could have asked me, couldn't they?

And the waitress forgot to bring us water till this point. She brought us two glasses, but forgot again to bring the beer for GH, even though he reminded her together with the water.

The salad was all right, anyway.

The main dishes arrived in not more than 5 min. No beer, though. So he reminded her again.

GH got a pizza. I think it was called Pizza della casa or something; it was a pizza with everything-anything you can think of, just as the Greek people tend to like their pizza.

Frankly speaking it tasted rather boring, due to, I think, poor quality of cheese. The dough was a bit too charred to my taste.

I got a plate of Spaghetti all'Amatriciana.

This came in a big portion and tasted quite good. The spaghetti were cooked to the right degree of "al dente".

The beer did not materialize until the last and the waitress disappeared inside the shop completely.

GH had to go inside the shop to pay. Then, he had to point again to that waitress that she failed to bring him the beer, and she was like ... "Oops". Nothing else. We had a receipt on the table, but the waitress had to take it to check he ordered the beer with it and later she just confiscated it.

The price was like 20 Euro for two (without beer!), so quite reasonable. But GH swore that he would not come back to the place that did not give him enough water to drink.

A shame.

Parmigiani
Akti Moutsopoulou 11, Piraeus.
(I don't know the phone number of the place, as they did not give me the receipt).

Piu Verde @ Papagou Hill

After our adventure in Hymittos Mountain, the last thing we wanted to get involved again the traffic chaos in Kaissariani, so we we tried to go another road. The only one we found was toward Cholargos.

As it is one of the areas in Athens we do not usually visit, we decided to have lunch here. Greek Husband said he wanted Italian, so after a short search with my smart phone, we decided on one in Papagou Hill called Piu Verde (as you see on the napkin, there is no accent on u of piu - what I am saying is that IT IS NOT MY FAULT).

It is situated in the park and comprises restaurant section and cafeteria section. This nice looking part is cafeteria.

Unfortunately the nice part was very much full and we were seated indoor. GH was VERY unhappy, but he was too hungry to walk out, so he stayed (but, actually, it would be very nice in winter).

We had a salad as starter: cherry tomatoes, olives and caper salad served with pita bread, rocket leaves and fried feta in sesame.

This was a pretty good, filling salad. The bread and dips (minty yoghurt and black olive) were nice, too.

My main course was small pork steaks in Marsala sauce served with broccoli risotto. Plating was beautiful.

The meat did not have freshly grilled taste, as it was cooked in low temperature. I appreciated that the broccoli had crunchiness, but the risotto itself was over-salted. Did not manage to eat all.

GH who wanted Italian food ordered pork souvlaki.

The souvlaki was almost non-salted. And tragically, there was no salt on the table and all the waiters were too busy running around.

We had also one not-ordered bottle of mineral water and one big beer (500 mil?) and the final bill was about 42 Euro.

I did not like at all the fact that they did not leave the not-ordered mineral water on our table and we had to call the attention of waiters get my glass filled. AND, some of the other tables had cold bottle of tap water for free! What sort of service is it? And 7 Euro for beer I think is too much.

In conclusion, we won't go back (too far from our areas anyway). But if you live close and want coffee, it would be a nice place in warm seasons.


Piu Verde
Strat. Al. Papagou & 8th Merarchia, Alsos Papagou
Στρατ.Αλ.Παπάγου & 8ης Μεραρχίας, Άλσος Παπάγου,
156 69, Tel 210 6546185
http://www.piuverde.com.gr/

Alberobello @ Alimos

[P.S. on 6 Jan., 2014: This restaurant does not exist any more].

Visited Italian restaurant Alberobello in Alimos on a weekday.



Of course I was not expecting the place to be busy (if anyone has not noticed yet, Athens is in a deep crisis), but I placed a reservation all the same, because with a reservation, there is a better chance of getting better service.

But I did not expected it to be so empty.

No one here.



No one there.



It was about eight o'clock & until the time we left at ten, there were only two other patrons, although there some take-away orders presumably from visitors of the cafeteria Ostria which is in the same building.

Anyway, we were greeted by a polite waiter and, after placing the order, we were served a piece of grilled bread with garlic-flavoured tomato bits.



Hubby's beer was Mythos, because this is the only non-bottled beer.



We order a salad as starter. Italians would not order salad as starter, but we are in Greece, so "in Athens as the Greeks do".



It was called Salad "Casanova" and except for leaves there were plenty of mozzarella and tuna. I was not sure if this combination worked (why the Greeks mix everything?), but would not question their generosity; we got half full when we finished it.

Hubby ordered chicken scaloppina with lemon. We could choose the garnish and he of course chose fried potatoes.



He said he liked it, but I thought that the chicken was cooked far too long time & the result being hard & dry pieces of slices of chicken breast.

Mine was Tagliata di Vitello and of course I chose vegetables as garnish. I asked "al sangue" and came pretty pink.



Veal does not have the depth in flavour as beef does, but as veal steak it was all right, although I would have preferred balsamic vinegar instead of the yellow dressing.



If we were in Italy, tagliata should be made with manzo, i.e. beef, but in Greece beef is something hard to get. Shame.

The vegetable garnish tasted like something frozen at some time in its life. I usually can finish anything veggie, but I left some pieces meaning that I did not like it.

We were quite full when we finished the above dishes and skipped the dessert. So we thought...

Hubby just ordered an espresso, with which the waiter brought us some liqueur that Hubby said is "Amaro".



Then, we were offered even dessert, this time by the Italian manager from Puglia (so we discovered afterwards). He said it was Zuccotto which was boozy ice cream with candied fruits in sponge cake skin. This one tasted the most Italian dish we ate on this occasion.



The total bill came to 48.50 Euro which I thought was acceptable by the Italian restaurant standard in Greece (and it was very reasonable if I consider all the freebies).

All in all, we found the meal enjoyable. Next time we would like to try pizza.

BILL IN DETAIL
Bread 2 Euro (not photographed here)
Insalata Casanova 9.50 Euro
Scaloppina al limone 12.50 Euro
Tagliata di vitello 15.50 Euro
Beer 6.50 Euro
Mineral water 2.50 Euro

Total 48.50 Euro

Alberobello
Paralia Alimou, Alimos
Tel. 210 9852 350
http://www.alberobello.gr/

Peccati Di Gola @ Glyfada

After more than a year, we went back to Peccati di Gola.

Glyfada is not particularly close to Piraeus, but we like it because 1) easy to park, 2) we can combine a walk and food, 3) there is a decent range of choice of restaurants.

Now that I work in Alimos and not any more in Kolonaki, probably we will find ourselves in Glyfada in Friday evenings more often than ever.

We visited this restaurant in May 2010 (I wrote about it here) and left with a good impression.

From outside, it did not look busy, but the manager (who should be one of the owners) said all the indoor tables were reserved (it was not warm enough for us to be seated outdoor). It seemed that this business was still going well. However, we got a table which was reserved from 23:00 on; it was still 20:30, so we had plenty of time.

A bottle of water was an obligatory order and Hubby ordered a Peroni beer.



Last time, we made a mistake of ordering mozzarella di buffala and prosciutto crudo (not due to the problem of the dish, but the portion was so large that we got full half away through the main dish) and this time we did not repeat it. This is Verdure alla Griglia.



I like grilled vegetables so I liked it. It included lots of garlic and fresh thyme.

Hubby ordered Pizza 4 stagioni.



The pizza dough was much softer than usual ones we find in Greece. The cheese, again, is not regular yellow cheese that often used for pizze in Greece. The quality of the ingredients seemed above average. Hubby was happy with it.

I ordered Saltimbocca alla Romana instead.



I think that the Roman style saltimbocca should be made with veal, but this one was with pork. As veal is readily available in Greece, I am not sure what was the reason of this choice. To keep the price low probably is the most probably explanation. Anyway, it was satisfactorily good with strong sage (salvia) flavour.

A bit disappointing was to find as accompaniment the same grilled vegetables that we had for the starter. They - especially the waitress who I think was the other owner - should have give it a bit thought.

Hubby had an expresso after the meal and the total came to 41 Euro. We were not offered limoncello as last time.

Not cheap, but considering that we paid the same for the imho inedible meal at La Pasteria, this is much better value. Probably this is what we should pay at Italian restaurants in Athens.

Service over all is just OK. The indoor space is limited and, tables being close to each other, we felt a bit uneasy especially when the waiters ran around us constantly.

Bill in Detail
Water 2 Euro
Peroni 500ml 4.50 Euro
Verdure alla Griglia 6 Euro
Saltimbocca alla Romana 13.50 Euro
Pizza alle quattro stagioni 12.50 Euro
Espresso 2.50 Euro

Total 41 Euro

One Saturday Afternoon in Glyfada

Since this Friday, we don't have water in the kitchen.

Our building administrator says it is because our tap is broken, but I think it is somehow related to the central water distribution system of the building. Today we had an appointment with a plumber but he just did not show up. I returned early from work to open the door to him. Annoying.

Having substantial difficulty in washing dishes and pans, we were constrained to eat our this weekend.

Saturday, we went to Glyfada with a brother of Hubby. Hubby wanted fish taverna, because he said he wanted to fast (in a Lenten way). We gave a "pass" to Malidakia fish tavern which was very mediocre. We found this one called Nikolas tis Sxinoussas, but, after checking the menu, we said it was more expensive than what we wanted to pay then.



So we went to Vincenzo, Italian restaurant we went once. This is carrot, walnuts & Parmesan salad. Not particularly tasty, but it was nice to have from time to time as a change.



I had spaghetti allo scoglio as did the last time. Again, not a master piece, but for the price (12.60 Euro), it is a good value dish.



Hubby had a pizza. I don't like much the type of cheese they use on pizze, but let him have what he wants. :)

And afterwards, we returned to the fish restaurant for coffee.



We had 3 coffees and cost only 10 Euro.



Looking around, the food looked interesting. I will come back to try the food as well.