Amanda Dardanis visits the new restaurant arrival that’s finally broken the drought for Thai food aficionados on the southside - and encounters a novel dining concept that’s not afraid to leave you a little hot under the collar. Whenever my family and I go out for a celebratory dinner somewhere fancy, we like to play the “What...
Read moreWhat happens when five phenomenally-talented Greek chefs - including twice Michelin-awarded Nikos Karathanos, brothers and meat artists, Spyros and Vangelis Liakos, master flavor manipulator Pericles Koskinas, and intrepid experimenter Manos Zournatzis - join forces to open their dream restaurant. Total Kitchen Anarchy? Or Gastronomic Wiz...
Read moreAthens’ oldest Persian restaurant Anahita is a great jump-off point for first-timers to discover the fragrant flavours and novel textures of Iranian food. Insider shortlists a few must-try dishes in order for you to fully savour this marvelous exotic cuisine. You’d have imagined that with the reams devoted to the Persian invas...
Read moreAmanda Dardanis joins the slow living movement and retreats from the mad whirl at one of these comfy-cosy and welcoming book nooks where you can easily while away a morning or afternoon, lost in a world of words. Poems & Crimes Art Bar A quaint and chameleon-like literary den that evolves with the hour. Walk into Poems &...
Read moreParis has Les Deux Magots, Athens has Zonar’s. Insider takes a nostalgic look at one of the capital’s most famous and beloved café icons, Zonar’s, fresh from its recent re-fit. Traditionally a meeting place for politicians and intellectuals, but also of the Athenian bourgeoisie, the legendary café-brasserie Zonar's reopened a ...
Read moreAt Bar 8, GB Roof Garden Bar, there’s no need to feel guilty about that mid-week cocktail splurge. Their exquisite new range of healing cocktails, concocted from the natural herbs and aromas of Greece, can actually do you the power of good! Cocktails sure aren’t what they used to be. Especially in the city of Athens. In this e...
Read moreAn essential element of the streetscape of every Greek city and town, the corner kiosk’s or periptero’s unique contribution to the rhythm and character of Greek daily life cannot be undermined. Open until the wee hours of the night, the periptero is where one stocks up on cigarettes and newspapers (strung out like laundry and ...
Read moreFor all those Londoners pining for a fix of Mediterranean magic between summer holidays, don’t despair! Sophie Kalinauckas has unearthed 5 top city spots where you can live like a true Greek, whatever the weather. As wonderful as London is, we locals often find ourselves dreaming of a faraway land full of sunshine, frappes, cr...
Read moreDubbed as a departure from other lounge restaurant bars in the area, Glyfada’s swanky new arrival Blends (run by the same peeps as Moorings in Vouliagmeni) puts a contemporary spin on Mediterranean fare with a side-order of high-art. Sudha Nair-Iliades dons her glad rags to test it out. Glyfada’s shiniest newest kid on the blo...
Read moreIf you haven’t found time yet to road-test Kolonaki’s shiny new kid on the block Simul … we have just this to say: Make Time Simul (Gastronomic Situ) opened up shop on the former site of Kolonaki stalwart Prunier last December and has completely transformed the rather old-school French bistro into a minimal, chic and beautiful...
Read moreAmanda Dardanis spends a flavoursome evening at Nikkei - the city’s most talked-about ambassador of the Japanese-Peruvian food trend. The problem with “It” restaurants – those hot new places suddenly on everyone’s radar that you generally have to book weeks in advance - is that they so often don’t live up to their hype. Maybe...
Read moreInsider’s linguistics whiz and cultural commentator John Carr provides our readers with a fool-proof guide to avoiding verbal offence here in the Great Olive Belt. Visitors and newcomers to Greece are often under the impression that the Greeks, being a voluble, open and highly expressive people, have little use for the kind of...
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