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).

Change of Look

If you are reading this post with your PC, you must have noticed that I changed the template. 

Not that I wanted to change, but I did not have much choice. 

I used to use a widget called a comment system called JS-Kit, because in some years back, the comment system of Google Blogger was really crappy (you might not be able to believe me, but in the earlier years, Blogger itself was quite crappy and I used to blog mostly on Opera community which was working perfectly then) and it was now workable. JS-Kit was a better solution, but now the company owns the software decided to kill the widget. 

https://sites.google.com/site/echocomments/

I tried to remove it from the template, but it looked to be too much into it and it was too much for me to do so. It looked safer to change the template at all. 

I am sorry to lose the comments on JS-Kit, but they were to be lost from October anyway. There was not much I could do. 

I hope that Blogger has improved the commenting system meanwhile (but, to be honest, I don't receive many comments fortunately - Not that I don't like the comments, but I do not have time to take good care of them, sorry!). 

Asty 68 @ Gazi

This Thursday evening, I was in Gazi, waiting for GH who was stuck in the traffic caused by a demonstration in Syntagma Square (yes, it has started again). We were supposed to go to a concert at Technopolis, but after 2 hours of drive for him and 2 hours of wait for me, we were hardly in the mood/state of going to the concert. (Note: In usual circumstances, it should have taken about 30-40 min from Maroussi and Thissio).

When we finally met about 9:15, we decided to go to eat something nice at least. So, I took him to Asty 68, of which I have read good reviews.

It is really a small restaurant and the number of the tables where you can heat is pretty limited (additionally there are also some other small tables and bar stools, as it is a bar, too).

I shot this photo toward a corner where there was no body, but the place was already half full and later it got 80% full.

Above reminds me of some scenes from David Lynch movies.

The menu is rather short; I think there were about 25 items in total (from appetizers, salad to main) and some desserts. To be honest, the prices are on higher side - you should judge if it is reasonably high or not by yourself.

There are no cheap starters (Orektica) that you can get for 3 or 4 Euro as in usual Greek tavernes (probably because this place is not trying to become a taverna), so we did not order any. We just got bread (1 Euro per person).

The bread, however, was served with yoghurt+red beets dip and oil+balsamic vinegar dip. The bread itself was also very edible, grilled and sprinkled with sea salt, olive oil and oregano.

With the bread, we were also offered a shot of vegetable potage soup as amuse-bouche. Very good.

This is green salad with walnuts, dried apricot (this was supposed to be dried plum which was out of stock on the day), and talagani cheese on top.

Nice combination, but the amount of dressing was just too much. 7.30 Euro.

We did not want to order 2 main dishes (we cannot usually eat one main dish per a head). Here is the problem of this restaurant for us; there are only a few half-portion (meze) size dishes to achieve our ideal 1.5 portion between us two. One possibility was this: a bowl of oven baked potatoes, and the other was a combination of dips (taramosalata, aubergine something and another).

Potatoes were fine, but I did not know that we were to get the same as a side of the main course. I always think that the waiter should either tell us (when it is not written on the menu, and it wasn't written) or offer something else as side.

4.30 Euro for the potatoes.

Here is the main dish: biftekakia with yogurt & herb sauce.

The portion of dish is not large by Greek standard, if not small. The quality of meat, however, was pretty good and they were as if the wel-made biftekakia at home. 9.80 Euro.

You believe or not, we were full at this point and there was not space for dessert (there are 3 desserts, if I remember well, and sounded interesting).

However, with the bill we got a shot of rakomelo and mastiha ("submarine").

With a large glass of beer (4.50 Euro), the bill was 27.90 Euro and we left 30. If you order 1 starter (salad), 2 main, 2 desserts, and 2 glasses of beer, expect to pay about 20-25 Euro per a head.

And we got the fiscal receipt without any fuss.

I am not sure if this restaurant is suitable for the way I eat, I would be more than happy to try other dishes.

Asty 68 (Άστυ 68)
Leoforos Konstantinoupoleos 68, Gkazi
Tel. 210-346 6896

Around 22:30 we went to the concert and left after half an hour. The music was good, but were were just too tired and it was only Thursday.

A shame.

Glyfada Update

So, some updates about Glyfada.

Saints Constantine and Helen is ... as usual.

The first thing I did was to check the Konstantinopoleos Street, also known as Biftekoupoli. The ever changing street.

First I passed in front of Pagotomania. A middle-aged woman who looked like the owner, was chatting with young male waiters... lying. Yes, she was lying on her back. You say that the Greeks are relaxed people, but this is definitely too far.

Biftekaatsi, where we ate once, is still there.

In front of Biftekaatsi, I found a new restaurant called Mavro Provato.

It was closed when I passed in front, so I don't know what sort of place it is.

Then, I saw in the former premises a new outlet of Golden Phoenix, small chain of Chinese restaurants.

I thought Golden Phoenixes are pricey restaurants, but this place offers buffet for 16 Euro.

Then we walk towards Zisimopoulou Street. On our way, we saw patisserie-cafeteria Alea disappeared. It was replaced by a cafeteria.

We ended up in Haagen Dazs, where we are always able to find place.

Very expensive in current Greece. It offers any coffee for 3 Euro only during the daytime Monday-Friday. The target, obviously, is not the people in regular employment of 9 to 5.

Haagen Dazs @ Glyfada

[Post scriptum 13 April 2013: This venue does not exist any more]

After several months we came back to Glyfada.

I don't remember when was the last time we came here and don't know why we were away so long time. But now that I think, maybe because GH got very tired to run to and fro between Piraeus and Voula in spring when his father got hospitalized in Asklepeio.

Now in Glyfada, some shops closed down and some new opened. Still not many people around. I see that many are still in vacation.

We stopped at Haagen Dazs in Zisimopoulou street. Freddo cappuccino is still at the pre-crisis level of 4.60 euro. Frappe 4.10. But at least here the service is good.