Askimopapo (The Ugly Duckling)

How could Frank Bruni, the New York Times’ former restaurant critic, miss the ugly duckling, which is what Askimopapo translates to, when he wrote a recent roundup of traditional Athenian tavernas? Indeed, Askimopapo is one of this city’s oldest holes in the wall, located in one of its oldest neighborhoods, together with a handful of other traditional tavernas and a slew of newer, sleaker places. It’s so old it’s a kind of temple to Athens of another era.

Askimopapo wreaks of history. The taverna was opened by the current owner’s father and was actually the original family home. The walls are covered with old Greek objects, from musical instruments to 50-year-old black and white photos. Braids of garlic hang from the rafters. Smells of traditional food waft from the kitchen.

The taverna interpretation of “tradition” unfortunately means almost nothing but meat, which always struck me as odd, given Greece’s wealth of main course vegetable dishes. On weekends, the specialty of the house is chick pea soup. We visited midweek, when the menu is scaled back to include about five or six main course meat dishes (mainly stews), a few salads, a phyllo pie or two, usually with cheese, and boiled greens.

We sampled a cheese and pasturma pie, called pita kaisarias, which glistened with butter and resonated with the spicy flavors of the cured beef (pasturma). A beef stew in paper was homey and comforting. The salad, a large, overflowing platter of grated carrot, cabbage, lettuces, arugula and more, was just right. Dessert was the taverna classic halva, the lagniappe almost all old-school holes in the wall like this treat their customers to when the meal is over.

Wines are bulk and served in quarter and half liter carafes.

Ionon 61 Petralona

Tel. 210 346 3282

Note: The taverna is about a 12 minute cab ride from central Athens.

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Greek Diples - Fried Dough with Honey. Yum!

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FUGA

This business of reviewing restaurants usually sounds more glamorous than it is. Most of the time, people who eat for a living end up eating a lot of very mediocre meals and a few very good ones in any given year. This year, 2011, got off to a great start for me with a visit to Athens’ newest haute dining spot, Fuga, which belongs to the Athens Concert Hall and is perched on the top of the hill right behind Hall.

Getting up there is either a climb or an elevator ride through the labyrinthine catacombs beneath the Concert Hall. When you finally find your way, the room, simply and elegantly appointed in wood and glass, makes you feel somehow light. It’s the view, of course, overlooking Athens, the modern city. At night, with the Athenian hills silhouetted in the background, and lights flickering everywhere, it’s easy to forget this is the same Athens of suffocating strikes and civil strife. Gravure-like projections of classical composers and a gravure-like wall remind us, like its name, a play on fugue, is part of the grand Concert Hall (Megaron Mousikis in Greek).

For a time, before coming, I had a fixed idea that this very iconic space overlooking moderns Athens needed to serve modern Greek food. That was before I sipped the first taste of a warm carrot soup studded with rosemary croutons and indulged wholeheartedly in one of the most delicious meals I have had in a long time here. The chef, Pantaleo de Pinto, is a protégé of 2-star Michelin chef Andre Berton. The food achieved a level of artfulness rarely seen in this city while maintaining its earthy Mediterranean roots. Much on Fuga’s menu is a paean to Italian classics, but nothing wehad was even remotely cliché, either in presentation or flavor.

I feared the buffalo milk mozzarella-tomato-basil trio would be pedestrian, since this dish now belongs to the rank of international food. What arrived at our table was a visual garden of delights: mozzarella, tender and milky, cut into small wheels, each one with a tasty core of jelled tomato. The basil sauce spread out like a star beneath the rolls. A sprouting of lettuce and other tender salad leaves at the top gave the dish the aura of a flower that had just bloomed. The whole thing was very subtle and soothing on the palate. The warm cod ad steamed vegetable salad had an entirely different composition. This came like a game board with pieces of zucchini, broccoli and more upright on the plate, softened by bite-sized chunks of perfectly salted fresh cod. We poured a little more olive oil over it, morphing it into a more “Greek” dish that way. The vitello tonato, so often heavy handed and stodgy, was another salute to the breeziness that the room itself inspires, despite the earth-water duet on the plate. The veal came in two rounds of perfectly cooked, very tender loins, crunchy with a bit of sea salt; the tonato was a dollop of sauce on the plate. One caper berry had to suffice for the two of us (I got it!). Strips of crisped celery were woven into a stack on the plate.

All the starches beckoned to be sampled, so we had to chose: the rigatoni Amatriciana and the classic risotto Milanese. Both were superb. The risotto, served in a shallow bowl with a wide lip, was the color of wet marigolds, swirled with veal juice which added a discernible depth of flavor (not that the risotta wasn’t rich and perfectly al dente to begin with). The Amatriciana was playful: served forth with each piece of perfectly cooked rigatoni upright in a filled circle on the plate, wrapped in sauce, with three strips of crisped pancetta, all pink and white stripes, jutting out like flags. I wish there were more pasta on the plate, especially for the 18 euro price tag, because it was delicious.

We shared a main course, the osso buco, which comes osso-less! Oddly, I thought this was the weakest dish because deboning deflated the anticipation of drama that is inherent in more typical presentations. The potato puree that accompanies the osso buco is something I aspire to in my own kitchen: so smooth it’s almost liquid, but with not even a hint of gumminess.

Next, came dessert: the panna cota is a study in contradictions but opposites, after all, attract. The cream was silky with evident body, served in a parfait-like glass, and topped with a crunchy granita of frozen espresso. I couldn’t get enough of either. In the chocolate pave I thought the contrasts were a little untamed, the dense opulence of a delicious chocolate ganache whipped by a very tart mango sorbet. I wanted more harmony.

One detail that remained with me all night: just as heels do make a woman’s legs prettier, so do proper plates give an aesthetic boost to the food. Fuga’s plates are all white and expansive but in a way that embraces each dish.

Kudos.

Athens Area: Centrally located, just above the Megaron Mousikis (Athens Concert Hall)

Décor: Expansive and uplifting, with a great view of the modern city below

Service: Excellent

Wine List: Italian, French and Greek wines dominate the list

Prices: 50-70 euro without wine. Our bill for two came to 171 euro with a bottle of Ktima Merkouri, one of the least expensive (Greek) reds on the list.

AddressL Vas. SOfias & Kokkali 1, Central Athens

Tel. 210 7242979

Open daily from 8 p.m. til midnight

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Jimmy and the Fish

Right after Easter and a week of languishing on the Island of Longevity (Ikaria) I came back to Athens still in vacation mode. I wanted to bask in the feeling of being a tourist in my adopted city, so, together with family freshly arrived from abroad, we headed to the trap of all tourists, Mikrolimano, and to an old standard bearer of sea-view cuisine, Jimmy and the Fish. This, of course, after driving past more than a few waiters with menus in their hand, out on the traffic-clogged quay, saying things like “Fis [sic] for giou]” and “kam een, ouee park.” The parking, it turns out, is a cooperative affair shared between all the restaurants along the water, since the guy who took my keys asked me which restaurant I’d be at. One thing I was glad for: we were the only “tourists” at Jimmy’s. Everyone else seemed as Greek as could be, folks who know the place, might be regulars, and come not only the view of docks and yachts but also for more than decent food in a place that’s survived the waves for nearly two decades.

Jimmy doesn’t serve up the most innovative fish cuisine in town (that’s the domain of stars like Varoulko and Milos); rather it serves up an accessible menu of greatest hits that pair well with gregarious conversation and a good bottle of Mantineia Tselepou, which is what we had with dinner. The menu is big and most of the fish offerings are frozen, but at least they are honest about it. The starters include a wide array of classics, such as marinated anchovies (gavros), sea urchin salad, seafood salad, grilled octopus, classic feta-stuffed squid and more. We tried the classic fried squid, which were fresh not frozen that day and very good—crunchy thanks to a thick batter coating and very tender within. They come served with remoulade. One non-fish thing we sampled was actually not that great, even though it’s simple enough to make: grilled pleurotus mushrooms. They had a slightly bitter aftertaste and were a little rubbery. But the grillman did a great job on the fresh sardines, butterflied and boned and served with a generous topping of slightly charred onions. I can eat that any time.

Two cooked dishes we tried were above average but far from haute: the risotto with saffron, salmon roe (brik) and langoustines was toothsome and too fluffy to be thought of as a proper risotto, more pilaf than risotto to these taste buds. The ravioli stuffed with seafood and ricotta was better and more comforting, recalling memories of fun meals in nonseaside locales like New York’s Little Italy. The portion was very generous, the filling tasty, the sauce a little too thick but not bad.

Here ended our cruise of Jimmy’s menu, without a dock stop at the panacotta, brownies, tarte tatin or crème brulee that are in the dessert section of the menu.

The service here is a little gruff, the waiters a little rough around the edges without being outright rude though, kind of like sailors on their best behavior in some exotic port of call.

Cuisine: Fish and Seafood

Athens Area: Mikrolimano, Piraeus, about 40 minutes from downtown

Decor: Maritime classic with a great view of the sea and fancy yachts

Service: A little rough around the edges

Wine list: Greek and reasonably priced

Prices: 45-55 euro a person

Address: Koumoundourou 46, Mikrolimano, Piraeus

Tel: 210 412 4417

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Kiku

I know it might seem out of sync with the times to be writing about one of the city’s most expensive restaurants, but I can justify it by saying that we ate very well and voted for treating ourselves during the holidays to something a little chicer than a neighborhood taverna.

A night out at Kiku, in the hands of master sushi chef Τανάκα Μινόρου, who has been with the restaurant since its inception more than a decade ago, is the guarantee a lovely meal, filled with classics and not-so-classics of Japanese cuisine.

The restaurant hasn’t changed much since it opened, despite a recent change of hands. The same pared down, minimalistic design in basic beiges and blacks characterizes the space. The sushi bar is still a favorite place to sit. Even the waitstaff is more or less the same. I hadn’t been here in years but recognized the waiter.

Everything we sampled was beautifully and artfully presented, starting with a simple plate of edamame (soy beans) and fleur de sel.  The miso soup had finesse, too. I loved the totally over-the-top Sino-French concoction known as Hakko Unagi Foie Gras, a delectable combination of smoked eel and seared foie gras in the form of pressed sushi. The lavraki with spicy mayonnaise won me over, too, especially since this is usually the kind of dish I avoid on sushi menus anywhere. The assortment of sashimi (riceless pieces of raw fish) was perfect and perfectly fresh. The rolls had flavor profiles you could actually discern. The dish that sparked my interest, especially since I love a version of it made by Greek chef Christoforos Peskias at P-Box, is the eggplant with miso. It was soft and pillowy—as close to comfort food Japanese style as you can get without serving a bowl of steaming noodles. Miso works incredibly well with grilled eggplant.

Blackened cod is a de riguer dish on high end Athens sushi menus as well as on a few non-sushi menus (like Kuzina’s in Thiseon). This was very simple, well-grilled, and tender. The miso sauce worked in subtle ways here. Next, just for fun (!), we ordered the grilled rib-eye with chili sauce and kolokythakia. Rare, juicy, beautifully plated, this was a dish after my American meat-eaters heart.

Desserts were delicious, even the cliché dish of fried ice cream, which here was delicate and light. My favorite was a toss up between the sesame crème brulee and the chili-spiced warm chocolate cake.

Kiku is definitely a treat, typically for steeper pockets than mine, but I relished every bite.

Cuisine: Japanese sushi and contemporary Japanese food

Atmosphere: Subtle, civilized, elegant

Service: Excellent

Wine List: Excellent, with a good selection of Sake

Prices: 60+ euro a person

12 Dimokritou Str., Kolonaki, Athens. +30 210 3647033

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Kollias Fish Taverna on Syngrou Ave.

Many fish-loving Athenians have been a fan of Tassos Kollias and his heartfelt taverna in the boondocks of Piraeus. Kollias was the place to venture to for a foodie excursion: the fish was always fresh (and Greek), the meze fare excellent and convivial, the atmosphere delightfully kitch with seafarers’ chatchkas everywhere, and every meal punctuated by the neighborhood’s roving accordion and clarinet players who kept Kollias on their must-go-to list. But Kollias has moved up in the world, to a neighborhood that is fast becoming a restaurant hotspot, thanks to the newly minted Onassis Cultural Center, on Syngrou Avenue. In the vicinity, three pricey fish tavernas already compete for business: Thalassinos, Kollias, and TTT. His move to a grander space was bold, especially in these hard economic times. Many of his signature elements are in tact here, just redesigned: an open kitchen, a display of mezedes, and an expanded display of all the fresh, wild fish he has built his reputation on over the years. He doesn’t work with farmed fish. So, you might find a large, wild red mullet, as we did the night we went; or a bowl full of spinialo, a unique, rare preserved shellfish from the Dodecanese island of Kalymnos, that was a sponge-fishermen’s staple in the months they spent at sea. His seafarers’ chatchkas are still around, there are just fewer of them in the new space, which is light and airy, pared down, but still infused with the owner’s warm and friendly energy. The fresh fish is amazing here. On our recent visit, about two months ago, we were privy to some rare species of Aegean fish: the tiny sparos, a kind of sea bream; Those oversized wild mullets I mentioned above, which he grilled to flaky nirvana, and a small snapper, sauteed perfectly. His meze fare is less elegant and far less elemental than the simply prepared fish. Here, Kollias loses a bit of restraint, confusing ingredients and getting stuck on a few motifs, such as rolls. Not sushi rolls, but rolled up eggplants stuffed with mussels and cheddar, hardly a Greek combo and one that detracts from what is basically a good idea. He rolls up strips of roasted red Florina peppers, stuffing them with crabmeat, the delicacy of which gets lost under the briny flavor of the peppers. He rolls up filleted sardines and anchovies, stuffing them with herbs and various other things; These work better, especially for ouzo and tsipouro (Greek eau de vie). I loved a plate that wasn’t all rolled up: squid ink orzo with cuttlefish and pomegranate seeds. The sepia (cuttlefish) was as soft as butter. Kollias dessert menu tends towad the overwrought, a common thread in many seafood restaurants in Athens. Syrup-infused seker pare biscuits with deliciously gummy mastiha-flavored ice cream are an all-time classic here. Kollias: Syngrou Avenue 303, right across the street from the Onassis Heart Center Tel: 21- 9408620 Service: Excellent Prices: 35-55 euro a person with wine Wine list: very good prices on a very large selection of Greek wines Atmosphere: homey and cozy despite the size Open for lunch on weekdays

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To Ouzeri tou Mitsou

Can misery be fun? That is the question when you set out for an Italian restaurant of some repute in downtown Halandri, a well-known suburb north of Athens, on a rainy Wednesday night, after having called just a few days earlier, only to discover that in the course of 72 hours said restaurant has gone out of business. Hmm. Where to go with two girlfriends for a final tipple and some tidbits before we all separate for Christmas? It was then that I remembered the lines, out the door, indeed, on most Saturdays when I happened to pass by a tiny hole in the wall right behind the main church on restaurant row in Halandri. The place: to Ouzeri tou Mitsou, a narrow, old-fashioned taverna with old-fashioned clientele: older guys with worry beads and retsina and cigarettes clustered in small groups, a few oddly modern couples, replete with pierced body parts and tatoos and chemical hair, and then us, three young-at-heart middle-aged ladies out for an easy meal and some wine-induced cheer.

I know this sounds strange, but this little ouzerie is, well, pleasantly miserable! I mean sooo simple and basic, with service and a menu to match, recalling the innocent, taverna-stuffed days of my youth. The food was fine. Decent fava (yellow split pea puree) come served warm (how to tell decent fava: it should be creamy and not pasty, and, yes, it is best served slightly warm). A classic plate of boiled zucchini came boiled to just the right point where al dente meets softness. The saganaki (fried cheese) was totally old-world style, encased in a thick batter before it hits the fryer, properly oozing within, with no extraneous “creative” additions that sometimes embellish but also sometimes mar the pure pleasure of indulging in artery-clogging food. Horta (greens) came as horta should: soft and pillowy and deep green, with a good dousing of our national treasure, olive oil, generously soaking it. Lemon on the side, of course.

We had the bakaliaro skordalia (fried cod with garlic dip), which was not an abridged version! Plenty of garlic in a dense, textural bread-based skordalia (garlic dip), the old-fashioned kind. A plate of fried small shrimp that were plucked out of the waters of Evia earlier in the day or week were more medium-sized than bite-sized and so needed to be purged of their heads before eating.

Mitso’s Ouzerie is a simple, rustic place, fitting, perhaps for these times, when we still want to go out, but just can’t afford to! I am beginning to long for the foamy days of yore when fava was infused with truffle oil and bakaliaros-skordalia was just a name open to interpretive cooking!

Cuisine: classics meze dishes to accompany with ouzo
Athens Area: northern suburbs
Decor: narrow, old-fashioned taverna, a bit rough around the edges but pleasantly retro
Service: ok
Prices: 12-15 euros a person
Address: 8, Eleftheroton square, Halandri, tel.: 210 6840229

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ManiMani

We had guests in town and wanted to go somewhere fashionably…inexpensive. ManiMani turned up on my radar screen, a place I’ve wanted to return to after visiting it when it first opened a few years ago. I am always interested in places that showcase the cuisine of a particular region, in this case the dry, majestic southern Peloponnese, known for its exquisite olive oil, meagre but essential cooking, and tough locals.

There is definitely a lot more from the Mani on the menu today than there was a few years back. Singlino (cured pork in olive oil), talagani (a lovely grilling cheese from Messinia, in the Pelop.), various local pastas, and more are among the ingredients that crop up all over the menu. Orange and lemon, so important in the flavor palette of the southern Peloponnese, grace many dishes. The space, an old house near the Acropolis Museum, is lovely, well preserved, and simply but pleasantly appointed, the kind of space most of us can easily fantasize living in.

Despite the numerous things in its favor, ManiMani disappointed us a little. The main reason has to do with where the emphasis is in the kitchen and on the menu: making the plates look impressive but not tending as carefully as possible to the actual flavors in each dish. A trilogy of cold dips (fava (yellow split pea puree), tyrokafteri (spicy cheese dip), melitzanosalata (eggplant salad)) comes in annoyingly small portions. Ditto on the trilogy of saganakis (fried cheese), one with haloumi cheese, one with talagani cheese, one with manouri cheese. There were four of us, and it wasn’t enough to go around. Looked good, though! The homemade ravioli filled with chard, myronia(wild chervil), kafkalithres (Mediterranean hartwort) and served with feta cheese sauce seemed anemic. I expected a really flavorful filling and a pungent sauce and what I got were a few insipid half-moons barely filled with greens and a sauce where the cheese had either been left out or was so little that it was indiscernible. The greens salad with a round of grilled manouri cheese, served as an upright cylinder, looked great and tasted fine.

We ordered three mains. The rooster with noodles was very salty, and that noted from a palate that adores salt. I liked the fried salt cod a lot, although I thought there was a little too much going on on the plate between the bed of greens and the various inter-flowing sauces in different colors. The lavraki (sea bass) with fennel cream was perfectly pan-seared, crisp and tender; the fennel cream could have had more personality.

We skipped dessert but indulged in two bottles of wine.

A little refinement is what ManiMani needs. If they achieve that, customers will come a-running, mani-mani (in greek this expression means quickly)…

Cuisine: Specialties and inspirations from the Southern Peloponnese

Athens Area: Athens neighborhood (Acropolis metro station)

Decor: simple, cozy, Greek

Service: good

Wine List: good

Prices: 25-35 euro a person

Address: 10, Falirou str., Koukaki, tel.: 2109218180

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Hatskar

Cheap but not chic, delicious but not beautiful. These are the words I’d use to describe Hatskar, a small family restaurant in the northern suburb of Maroussi that serves very good, homemade Armenian dishes.

The waiter calls out to the chef after I ask him a question: “Mama, what’s in the pasous dolma (bean-stuffed pickled cabbage)?” Mama, the chef, is a kerchief-clad, plump very good cook who personally brings over the dish. We enjoy every bit of it.

Hatskar refers to a cross carved into wood. The restaurant is small, bright, and very plain. If there were a few cozier touches and a little less light the space would be much more pleasant and would do the food, which is delicious, justice. If it looked better, I'd even recommend a taxi ride north, for those adventurous and curious diners who want to taste the ethnic places that local love.

The menu is filled with dishes that were new to me. For example, lahmatzoun, the paper-thin small round pies typically topped with spicy ground meat, here come in the well-known version but also in another with spinach. The hatzapouri is an open-faced cheese and yogurt pie, which was very good. I loved the garlicky ground-walnut-filled eggplant rolls, which were so filling it seemed they had meat in them. The pickled cabbage dolmades filled with mixed beans came as two large rolls in a light tomato sauce. They were very good. So was the Armenian chicken salad, with mushrooms, pomegranate seeds and walnuts, dressed in a mayonnaise sauce. It was surprisingly light. The Armenian kebab, ground meat pressed around a long skewer, came with ample raw onions and chopped tomatoes and a generous portion of the very thin flatbread that also came in the beginning, with a spicy red pepper dip.

I don’t know if I would come back here to enjoy a lingering meal but I’d certainly order out because the food is real, homemade, delicious, and cheap. The Armenian wine we tried, Areni, wasn’t exactly the Caucasus Cabernet, as our enthusiastic waiter promised! Sip a beer instead.

Cuisine: tasty homemade Armenian dishes
Athens Area: northern suburbs
Decor: small family restaurant, bright and plain
Service: ok, the waiter was very enthusiastic!
Cava: ok
Prices: 12-15 euros per person
Address: 40, Irinis Ave., Pefki, tel.: 210-8064770, 210-6126823

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Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino

If your'e near the Acropolis and wise enough to steer clear of most of the area's tourist traps, then head to this cozy little Italian place that local Athenians love. The last time I visited this restaurant was with a good girlfriend many years ago. It had just opened, she had just gotten back from Italy, and we were both in the mood for a long talk over something easy, with good wine to match. The most recent visit was also with a good girlfriend, neither of us having just returned from pasta land, but dreaming about going.

Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino, right around the corner from the Acropolis train stop, is the perfect restaurant for the times: very reasonably priced, warm and cozy, just the right size, relatively quiet, with a menu that is mostly pasta and other favorite Italian fare. Why doesn’t anyone every get tired of eating Italian food?

The waitress is also the owner, a sweet, enthusiastic guide to the best things on the menu. The service was a tad slow. “Everything is made to order,” was the excuse. Everything we ordered was worth waiting for: An interesting bruschetta (grilled bread) topped with mozzarella, anchovies, tomatoes, oregano and olive oil, worked, despite what I thought might be disparate ingredients; the curly red lettuce salad with fresh mushrooms came embellished deliciously with pine nuts, raisins, parmesan and a tasty dressing; The spaghetti with olive oil, garlic and pepper was perfectly seasoned, a simple dish that speaks tomes about the good Mediterranean Diet, with just the right amount of heat to satisfy this spice-loving palate. My dining companion went for one of the specials, spaghetti like me but with a delicious sauce made with salt cod and tomatoes. Dessert was a choice of classics like tiramisu and crème brulee and more. We opted for a light, lovely lemon cream, the perfect end to an easy, comfortable dinner. Wines: the list is small and well-priced, with a handful of good Italian wines, too, including a Valpolicella and a Barbera d’Alba. We went with the restaurant’s own bottled Nemea, a classic red from the Peloponnese, which was just fine. 

Cuisine: mostly pasta

Athens Area: downtown Athens (Acropolis metro station)

Décor: Cozy, a little dark

Service: Friendly but a little slow

Cava: Small but good

Prices: 25-35 euro a person

Would I come back: Si, si, si

Address: 13, Porinou str., Makrygianni, tel.: 2109211801

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