Kallisti Gefsis

20/11/2008
Kallisti Gefsis

Category: Contemporary Greek fare/Central Athens
Decor: quiet, civilised, renovated, neoclassical house
Service: good
Wine list: good
Prices: 30-35 euro per person
Address: Asklipiou 137, Athens, Tel. 2106453179, 2106445476

Quick bites:

Enjoy a civilized meal based on traditional Greek dishes served up in a quaint, subdued house-turned-restaurant.

Kallisti probably doesn’t need an introduction. One of the first real restaurants to serve Greek food and to promote regionality, Kallisti has long been a bright spot on the Athens dining scene. Civilized, low-key, steady. Somewhere along the line the restaurant seemed eclipsed by all the flashier Greek food that the generation X chefs have been churning out. Olive leaf-shaped pasta and halva ice cream, two signature dishes, suddenly seemed oh so passé.

Timos Petrides and Yiogors Kallos, Kallisti’s owners recently decided it was, indeed, time to pass on the torch and so they sold the restaurant to two young women chefs who have made a name for themselves in some of the same generation X kitchens that overshadowed this lovely, stately restaurant. Niki Tresou and Evdokioa Filakouri are Kallisti’s new owners and they have revamped the space and the kitchen to answer to the needs of the times. Timos Petrides has stayed on in the capacity of restaurateur emeritus, helping them get started in the space he built.

Kallisti’s fresh face includes the new color scheme—sea green and soft white in its spacious, old-world rooms. The kitchen has been renovated. Much of the artwork of yore is still on the walls, but it is still timely and attractive.

I like the small menu, which is a sign of seriousness and the intent to control what comes out of the kitchen. I like the prices, too, which are very reasonable. The service is still a little raw, but we were there when the new restaurant had not been operating for more than a few days.

The revithada with proscioutto Evritanias is a dish I had tasted before from Tressou’s able hands. It’s delicious and is a great example of the elegant simplicity that is Greek food’s best character trait. The chick peas are al dente but also buttery and the specks of cured pork a well-balanced foil. The shredded cabbage salad with chestnuts and pomegranate is a heftier salad than we imagined. It could stand a little better plate presentation and a slight twist in its dressing, but the basic idea works well. The mushrooms fricasse were very good but not exactly what I expected: no avgolemono in this fricasse. Just plenty of various wild mushrooms in a lovely light brown sauce. I rarely meet a pasta I don’t like and there are several on the menu, all good. The papardelles with chard pesto and frsh myzithra is delicious, but so is the very tangy, deep-flavored shrimp Yiouvetsi. My friend Yiorgo tried the rooster with noodles, a homey dish simply presented and well-prepared.

Desserts were not as strong as they could be and not as Greek either! The rice pudding with orange and star anise was a light and a little loose. The two chocolate ganaches, white and dark, worked well. The orange-blossom-water ice cream over kataifi is a dish that’s been on Kallisti’s menu since just about day one, and no wonder: it’s still a great soul-warming dessert.

Tressou and Filakouri are right on in this casual, comfortable but stately place, with a menu that is at once accessible and artful. If anything, they could be a little wilder!