10 Best Restaurants in Kolonaki, Athens

An unassuming yet high-profile (and recently renovated) taverna-style restaurant, this restaurant has devotees (since 1923) who enjoy simple, traditional yet top-quality Greek food. From cabinet ministers, diplomats, and actors to intellectuals, its repertoire of loyal diners fills out the place at lunch and dinnertime. The appeal is simple: skillfully prepared, flavorsome Greek classics, mostly ladera (casseroles cooked in an olive oil and tomato sauce), moussaka (layered eggplant and ground beef in fluffy béchamel sauce), and memorable side dishes like succulent crayfish meat in a mayonnaise-based sauce. The menu adapts to what's fresh at the open-air produce market.

Enjoy a cappuccino and an Italian panini standing inside Caffe Da Capo, or if you have more time, watch the world go by at an outside table. This place is usually packed with trendsetters and stern policy makers.

Located on pedestrian Voukourestiou Street, where all the most luxurious fashion boutiques are, the Italian-style café serves freshly ground, high-quality espresso and cappuccino and a fresh daily platter of sandwiches and sweets. It is named after the 16th-century pope who gave his blessing to the then-exotic coffee bean.

As you are handed the menu, you'll find it nearly impossible to avert your eyes from the stunning view from the very top of verdant Lycabettus Hill, the highest point in Athens; the Acropolis glitters below, and beyond it, the metropolis unfolds like a map out to the Saronic Gulf. The restaurant centers on gourmet Mediterranean cuisine with bold French elements, but the chef also cooks up playful renditions of classic Greek dishes. The restaurant is reached by cable car or by foot only. Every season Orizontes offers very reasonably priced set menus for two.

Picture this: it's twilight and you're sitting under bitter-orange trees at one of Athens's best fish restaurants, in the heart of Kolonaki, overlooking the Parthenon as you sip a perfectly chilled glass of wine and wait for your order of succulent seafood to arrive. There's muted conversation at the gleaming white-tableclothed tables around you, where opinion makers, theater directors, and loyal customers relax. You may start with a bowl of thick and flavorsome kakavia fish soup that the elegant and attentive waitress pours out of a large silver teapot, and then progress to steamed mussels and chili-fried shrimp with feta, before digging into a beautifully baked fish like white grouper with summer truffles. Indoors, the cool-in-summer and cozy-in-winter interiors have walls covered by giant, colorful paintings and a silver wall sculpture of fish.

A Kolonaki institution, this bistro-style traditional restaurant is slightly fancier and more costly than the normal mezedopoleio, with cloth napkins, candles on the tables, and walls decorated with writings by its famous patrons. The menu centers on delicate Greek classics (such as lamb with lemon or roast suckling pig) but also some international fare. The service is warm and professional andhe clientele includes politicians and diplomats on their lunch break. For the freshest dishes, ask the waiter for the day's specials.