Galaxy

One of my favorite places in all of Athens is the top of the Hilton. First because it brings back so many memories of my first trips to Greece in the summers of the 1970s but also because the view is pretty spectacular. That said, one of my least favorite places in all of Athens is also the top of the Hilton. For dinner, that is.

While the Galaxy is a great place to enjoy a cocktail (an expensive one) while marveling at the panoramic vistas spread out before you, it’s also a place that has to compete with one of the best restaurants in town, just a few stories down (Milos), and it pales in comparison at every level. The service was forgetful, the food was hotel kitchen at Michelin prices.

We were there one recent weeknight, eager to savor the luxury of rooftop dining in this hot summer city.

The menu is a potpourri of Mediterranean – inspired dishes. A few haute-cuisine musts are also on the menu, such as caviar, foie gras and lobster. We tried the latter, as an appetizer, with zucchini salad. The plate was nicely presented with a parmesan crisp and a light dressing of olive oil spiked with hot pepper, which we couldn’t taste. The parmesan crisp was hard as Pendeli marble and the lobster was a shameful shadow of its tasty self, cooked to the consistency of tire rubber. The flavor had gone out of the dish somewhere between the kitchen and the rooftop, but the price, 26 euro for an appetizer, somehow stayed right there on top. One of the gimmicks of the Galaxy is to offer a few dishes that are seared right in front of you on a metal hotplate. One of them, a shrimp satay, sounded interesting, with coriander, grilled calamari and lime-coriander salad. The lime coriander salad was hardly visible and the shrimp itself was ok, maybe because we cooked it ourselves (and paid 26.50 to do it!). I also wondered about the name of this dish, since satay refers to a sweet peanut sauce, which was nowhere to be found.

The main courses were in the same price stratosphere and, sadly, in the same flavor sphere, too. I tried the chicken with truffle oil, oven roasted beets and ricotta, which sounded promising. What came out was a drier than necessary breast (even though it was corn fed according to the menu), redolent of truffle oil but lacking in finesse. I am still trying to figure out where the promised watercress (kardamo) on the plate was. My dining companion chose the lavraki with pistachio crust, with steamed spinach and mussels. This was a hodge podge of too many things not connected to one another, with a piece of fish that had been cooked to death.

I didn’t intend to bring the Galaxy back to earth with such a crash, but I fly off like a loose missile when the price tag in a restaurant is so egregiously out of sync with the quality of food, service and overall experience.

Cuisine: Modern Mediterranean hotel fare with Greek sprinkles

Athens Area: Hilton Rooftop

Decor: Great view, sleek design

Service: Competent

Prices: In the stratosphere, 60-70 euro per person

Wine List: Good, International

Address: 46 Vas. Sofias, Hilton Hotel, Athens, Tel. 2107281000