Nonna Pina

One of the things I love about this city is its serendipity and the sometimes surreality of living here. The chance encounters on the street, the chance discoveries of pretty good restaurants in unlikely places. That’s a little how I felt after visiting Nonna Pina, an Italian restaurant in Daphne that’s decidedly gourmet despite its working-class-neighborhood environs. Nonna Pina is an anomaly, slightly out of place but worth the trip thanks mainly to the able hands of its chef, one seniorita Angela.

The décor reminds me a little of the houses of Italian American friends in the 1960s, a little kitsch but cozy and filled with the effort to look good. White, red, and wall-covering prints of a female face replete with plumed hat make up the décor here. The room is elevated above the street, right on a corner, so that if you sit by the window you are literally sitting over a stream of traffic whizzing by.

Our hostess was obviously filled with pride over the quality of food served forth from her kitchen. Right after the Prosecco arrived, so did two delicious wedges of bruschetta, topped with marinated mushrooms. Molto bene. So was the foccacia in the bread basket, topped with caramelized onions, rosemary and tomatoes.

Our meal veered from classics like vitello tonnato, very thin slices of veal arranged over a rich tuna sauce to not so classics like a broad-bean and ricotta puree. The vitello tonnato was very good, the veal as tender as it gets and the presentation a little different from the norm, as the meat was fanned out over the sauce, topped with a few crunchy caper berries. The broad bean puree was less successful but interesting nonetheless, a velvety mixture of whipped fresh broad beans and ricotta (the cheese was lost on us) topped with shrimp. The original called for a topping of clams, but these were unavailable the day we went.

I liked the simplest things best here, namely the delicious roasted chicken that was tender and very well seasoned, with just the right amount of peppery heat. The simple steamed potatoes that accompany it were a perfect foil. My stuffed tsipoura was less of a hit mainly because the chef seemed to be trying too hard—there was way too much happening on the plate: fish fillets with a farci of shrimp puree, accompanied by cubed zucchini and other vegetables and a sweet orange-honey sauce. We sampled one pasta dish, the orecchiete with avgotaraho, which needed just a minute or so longer in the pot to move it out of “almost uncooked” and into the al dente zone, but the avgotaraho was generous and the simplicity of the plate just right.

Dessert follows the rich line here. We tried the Semifreddo of strawberries and porto, which was very good and very sinful. Espresso, of course, came on the heels of that, a much needed balance to an Italian-wine-and-prosecco filled night in this unusual place.

Cuisine: Innovative trattoria fare

Athens Area: The working class neighborhood of Daphne

Decor: comfortable kitsch

Service: Warm, friendly, enthusiastic

Wine List: good, Italian

Prices: 35-46 euro per person

Address: 64 Ethn. Makariou str., Daphne, Tel.: 2109021118