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 

Tamam @ Nea Filadelfia

We went to visit our friends who live in Nea Iraklio, northern suburb of Athens, one weekday afternoon. On our way back to Piraeus, we stopped at a Politiki restaurant in Nea Filadelfia where I wanted to go for a while.

Thanks to our car-navi, we arrived at the place with relative ease. What impressed us was how quiet the area was. It was only 8 o'clock or so and there were so few people walking the streets.

It was no wander that the place was empty. Delivery orders also were few, while we were there.

The place was quite large. Maybe 30 or 40 tables (I did not really count them and I can well be wrong), half outside and half outside.

The menu was long with all you expect from a politiki kebab restaurant (but no slow-cooked food).

To start with, we ordered hummus and beatroot. The large pita in the photo is their bread, freshly baked in their oven.

The hummus was nicely decorated with pickles, tomato and parsley, but I found it too sour (possibly from overdose of lemon). Beetroot with garlic (there was a choice between with and without garlic) was very average. The pita, however, was excellent. Not as good as Barba Alexis', but still good.

We ordered also a pastourmadopita, which, to our surprise, turned out to be baked in oven.

The fillings were pieces of pastourma, cheese, and tomato. We loved them. I find usual fried pastourmadopita too oily, while this one is more like pizza. It is pretty filling, though.

So it was a good decision not to order two main courses. Here is our Adana kebab.

They were quite hot. Adana kebab is supposed to be hot, but it is hotter than you would expect Adana kebab to be in Athens (Greeks do not usually eat much chili). And I found them slightly under-cooked.

By the way, GH ordered also fried potatoes, as you see in the photo. They were freshly fried and fine.

At the end, they offered us freshly baked kataifi. It was like poorer version of kunefe.

With one beer, the bill came to 26.50 Euro, which was reasonable.

To me, it was not the best Polikito restaurant in town, but we would return for oven baked pastourmadopita.

Tamam
Kolokotroni 12, Nea Filadelfia, Athens
Κολοκοτρώνη 12, Νέα Φιλαδέλφεια, Αθήνα
Τηλ. 210 2318163

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.

Uncle Alexis the Second @ Renti

I love Politiki kouzina (n.b. Politikos, Politiki, Politiko etc here all mean Constantinopoletan), but the Politika restaurants that I knew were not very convenient to me in one way or another. That was why we went to explore the one called Barbalexis that I found on the website www.ask4food.gr.

This website is an excellent source of information for restaurants in Athens. I consult it very often, although it is too daunting for me to contribute anything in Greek.

Anyway, Barbalexis is in Agios Ioannis Rendis, between Piraeus and Athens and it is less than 10 km from us. It was easy to park roadside in Sunday afternoon. Another "plus".

On arrival, I discovered the place was not called Barbalexis, but Barba Alexis 2. And later we learnt that it is the second shop of Barba Alexis in Nea Philadelphia. So, the one in Renti is Uncle Alexis the Second.

The restaurant was tucked away from the road Fleming and facing to a large park that looked to be a conversion from an old olive oil factory. Before I saw the restaurant, I was afraid that it might be an old dirty kebab hut and GH would not like it (he is an "atmosphere eater" who does not eat well if he does not like the environment, while I remain totally impassive and understand only the food), but there was no reason for me to worry; it was a totally cosy and clean taverna. Not a huge place, so if you are visiting during the busy hours like Sunday lunch time, you may be fare better reserving a table.

The menu is adequately long; there are starters, mezedes, salads, meat and seafood. You can read it in the website that I post below. Not being hungry, we picked up only 3 plates.

Warm pita was handmade and freshly baked. It was enormous for 2 people and we managed to eat only a half.

From the starters, we chose one called Ali Nazik. I have seen Ali Nazik kebab (in Aladdin in P. Faliro, if I remember well), but never as a meze.

The white part is a mixture of yoghurt, aubergine and dill, and on top of that there is a bit of meat sauce. It was a heavenly combination and I liked it a lot.

And as another starter, or meze, we ordered Xeirovomvides (hand grenades) which are better known to many as Icli Kofte or Kibbeh, although these did not have classical kibbeh shape.

They are bulgur croquettes filled with minced meat. Freshly fried and very hot. These immediately won over GH.

Be warned that they are very filling, even though the quantity of mince inside is not much.

As usual we ordered only 1 main dish between us. This is Kousbasi, practically chili marinaded pork souvlakia.

Again, it was to my taste. The pork contained an adequate quantity of fat and was still pink in the inside. As far as I know, the Greeks tend to like their pork souvlaki very lean and grilled to dry, so I won't swear that you shall love it if you are Greek.

At the end, we were offered a piece of Kazan Dipi (we were so full that we request the waitress to bring us only 1 piece, and not 2).

It wasn't the real Kazan Dipi with chicken breast, but it wasn't panna cotta either. At least it contained rice flour and was properly caramelized on one side.

With a bottle of beer, the bill was 23 Euro. We would go back definitely.


Barba Alexis 2
Fleming 48, Agios Ioannis Rendis
182 33, Athens
Τηλ. 210-483 5903

Μπάρμπα Αλέξης 2
Φέμινγκ 48, Αγιος Ιωάννης Ρέντης

http://www.diaskedasi.gr/barbalexis2


Afterwards, we went to Le Chocolat in Thissio for coffee with a friend. And I found this offer. 2 plates with a drink for 15 Euro, everyday except Saturday.

If you like this sort of place, I guess it is a good offer.

Grill Odos Aischylou @ Psyrri

On 26 December, we went to Athens just see how the town is over the Christmas.

Although our stomachs were somehow damaged by over-eating on Christmas Even & Christmas, we needed to eat something as the day was very cold. So we stopped at a grill in Psyrri for a souvlaki or something.



The restaurant is called Odos Aischylou and located, true to its name, on the Aischyloy street, very close to the central square of Psyrri.

The place wasn't full, but was quickly filling up. We were given a table in the back side corner (to which we did not protest). This is the view from our table. I quite liked the decor.



The menu was long, but heavily concentrated on kebab and doner. If you do not like meat, there is very little alternative. Many of the dishes bear Turkish name.

The main dishes are approx. 7 to 8 Euros & starters/ accompaniments are approx. 3 to 6. Bread is obligatory order, which does not make much sense as most of the main dishes come with some sort of bread anyway.

Greek Husband (GH) ordered fried potatoes, when he learnt from the waiter that his kebab was not to be served with potatoes.



The menu said that potatoes were fresh. Possibly. But when served cold, they were difficult to be appreciated properly.

I ordered a kebab in pita (2.20 Euro). The portion was not large, but kebab itself was fine and the wrap was well balanced. Unfortunately, the potatoes again were cold.



I always need vegetable to eat meat. Otherwise I cannot digest. This plate of horta - I thought was zochoi - cost 3 Euro. Not particularly good, but did its job to me.



GH ordered one of their Oriental specialities, kebab & cheese wrapped in Arabic pita served with spicy - but not hot - tomato sauce.



It tasted all right, but in comparison to my kebab with pita, it represented poorer value for money costing 3 times more. Nonetheless, GH was happy with it.

With a can of coke, the total bill came under 20. I know better Turkish kebab places, but not as central as this one. I am glad to learn that it is there.

Grill House Odos Aischylou
14-16 Aischylou Street, Psyrri Square, Athens
Tel. 210 3244 117


Ψητοπωλείο Οδός Αισχύλου
Αισχύλου 14-16, Πλατεία Ψυρρή

Turkish Restaurant Aladdin @ Faliro

Last weekend, we visited a Turkish restaurant in Faliro, on Zisimopoulou street. It is called Aladdin.



The name and the decoration is a bit 'Arabic', but I don't think it is no more than Turkish. The menu items are in Turkish and dishes are what we find in Turkey.



When we arrived Sunday afternoon at around 2, the restaurant was full (the photo above was shot toward the corner where there was not much people on purpose; so do not be misled). As the other restaurants along Zisimopoulou we saw were quiet, we guessed that it was a very popular place. So reservation is recommended on weekends, especially you are visiting in a group.

The service was slow, because of so much people and lack of service staff. The staff kept on forgetting things (forgetting water, forgetting a fork, forgetting to collect money...).

The fresh pita bread was obligatory order. These pitas were very nice. In general I prefer bread, but I welcome something different from time to time.

The starters (about 10 kinds) were offered on a large serving tray and the guests can choose whatever they want.



Hubby wanted aubergine rolls, but he was told that it was gone (later I discovered it was being served at another table), so I took only Ezme, a paste like salad, mixture of tomato, chili paste, onion and herbs.



And after a very long break (due to slow service), our main dishes arrived. I ordered Adana Kebab (kebab with chili). The meat was served with bulgur pilaf, fried potatoes, onion salad and grilled tomato.



The meat came sizzling hot and was very juicy (mostly fat, but who cares?). Heavenly. I loved it.

Hubby ordered a kebab called Ali Nazik.



This was a dish I have never seen. The meat was morsels of chicken and slices of doner. They were put on the bed of smokey aubergine and yogurt mash and on top was tomato sauce. Hubby liked it very much, although I preferred my Adana kebab. It would have been better if it had some garnishes. Maybe we have to tell them to bring some salad at the same time with the meat, as the salad usually seemed to be served only as starter.



So in general we liked to food very much, but disliked the service. Probably we should avoid going there on weekends.

Bill, please!

Bread x 2 = 1.20 Euro
Ezme 4.50 Euro
Adana Kebab 9.10 Euro
Ali Nazik Kebab 9.90 Euro
Bottle of Water 1.80 Euro
Kaizer Beer 2.80 Euro

Total 29.30 Euro

Aladdin
Ag. Triados 1 & Zisimopoulou
Palaio Faliro, Athens
Tel. 210 985 0330