Noor

I loved the wallpaper! Vivid scenes of the Taj Mahal in all the reds, yellows, and oranges of India adorn one entire wall at Noor, a small, odd little restaurant in Metaxourgeio, a gritty neighborhood in downtown Athens. Indian (or Pakistani?) television shows aired on two flat-screen TVs overhead. As we dined on vindaloo, subcontinent dancers bobbed and wiggled to the flow of Indian pop music, with partners who would make Tom Jones proud. Noor, which means light in English, is one of a number of “authentic” Indian-Pakistani restaurants in a part of the city that is home to a budding population of Asian immigrants.

Let’s get this straight: Noor is not the kind of place you’d take your parents for Sunday brunch, but it is the kind of place you might go with a few adventurous friends, especially if they’ve spent time in the UK and are inured to the spicy, aromatic foods of Pakistan and India. The clientele was unusual for Athens. Several Greek women in the company of the owner, a table of American women, possibly students, with whom the owner, in lilting but very good Greek and equally good English, sat most of the night. And us, four middle-aged Greeks and one English long-time Athens resident, discussing the Greek elections on its eve. The décor is a hodgepodge of stuff put together more out of need than driven by a sense of aesthetics. Noor is a classic immigrant restaurant, the kind my grandparents would have opened two generations ago in an equally seedy part of New York City. The food was decent and the prices amazingly cheap.

All the classics of Indian Export cuisine are on the menu, with dishes slathered in thick tomato-based sauces each of which looks exactly the same but varies in degree of heat. The samosas filled with vegetables were a little on the heady, oily side. I liked the raita, the Indian/Pakistani yogurt dip similar to tzatziki minus the garlic. The papadam, thin wafers of spicy fried cracker bread, were a little greasy, but not bad. The nan, a kind of pillowy pita bread, was great for sopping up those sauces of varying spiciness.

The owner was honest in what and how much we should order, steering us away from too much. A few appetizers and three main courses for five people turned out to be perfect. I liked the pashwari nan, a thin flat soft bread filled flavored with sweet onions, sugar and cinnamon. The sweetened pilaf, with pistachios and a hint of orange, was pretty good, plainer than other versions I’ve had but somehow “real.” We ordered a spicy lamb vindaloo, doused in thick sauce and spicy without being anywhere near overwhelming. The madras chicken looked kind of the same but tasted a little more tomatoey. The tandoori lamb came with a side sauce of curry.

At the end of our meal, and after more than a few carafes of box wine from Thebes, the owner brought us a plate of Pakistani sweets, shaped like eggs and bright as Neon. These are too foreign for my baklava-honed palate to enjoy.

Noor isn’t the best “authentic” Indian restaurant I’ve been to in downtown Athens. The fun here wasn’t so much in the gastronomic experience of eating exotic food prepared by a native, but rather in eating it on the eve of a pivotal event in an area of Athens that epitomizes the changes this city and society have undergone in the last decade. As we walked back to the Metaxourgeio train station, someone had just gotten stabbed on the sidewalk.

Cuisine: Subcontinent specialties in a classic immigrant restaurant
Athens Area: center, Metaxourgeio metro station
Decor-Atmosphere: Islamabad meets Metaxourgeio

Service: Fine for what it is
Wine List: Wine and beer
Prices: 15 euro a person
Address: 43, Deligiorgi str., Metaxourgeio (close to the Metaxourgeio Metro Station), tel. 2105246644