Athens food guide - Our top picks on where to eat in the Greek Capital!

One of my personal highlights from my travels in Greece, especially Athens, was the FOOD! Affordable, fresh, tasty and made with care. Check out below some tips and some personal recommendations, tried and tasted by yours truly, so you can eat up a storm on your next trip to Athens! 

Eating out in Athens 
First things first. We expected Athens to be more affordable than Western Europe but didn’t realise just how much. Honestly, we stayed in the main areas of the city where most tourists are and even there you can still get a hearty filling dinner for under 10 euros - so I imagine the deals would be even better further out. 

We found traditional Greek food to be very meat heavy yet we always found plenty of decent vego options on most menus. If you go to areas like Koukaki as well, you will find a lot more good options offering more variety in the types of cuisine - Italian, Chinese, vegetarian, Indian. After all, you don’t have to eat local cuisine for every meal.!

Home style Greek Food
Our favourite restaurant by far was Opos Palia in Koukaki (pictured above) - so much so that we went back multiple times! We stumbled across it as it was just a few steps from our AirBnB and realised later it has quite a following. That said, we were always able to grab a table quite quickly. The food is very rustic and traditional. It’s affordable for the quality, the atmosphere is always pumping and the portions were HUGE. For 25 euros you could split a total feast between two with dips, bread, and meats! Was it the best food we had in Athens - no. BUT it was the best value food of a good standard (the wine was a bit dodgy though tbh!). 

Tzitzikas kai Mermigas was another affordable traditional Greek style restaurant we also enjoyed. It’s not quite as cheap as Opos but definitely still good value by Western standards. What we also loved here was the friendly service. The staff took time to explain things, made recommendations and we also got a free taster drink while we waited for them to take orders. It was truly a lovely dining experience for the price. 

Still greek but a little fancier…
We dined at Thespis and loved it! Thespis is found in the cobblestoned winding hill streets of Plaka just under the gaze of the Acropolis. This is a true tourist hub which is no surprise as it offers amazing views of the city, but this also means you can expect the prices to match. The food quality was top notch - we LOVED the potato chips (below), reasonable price for the area and it’s the perfect spot for sunset.

Sweet Treats
You can’t come to Athens and not try their traditional donuts AKA loukoumades. We tried them at “LUKUMAΔΕ” in the city centre and were not disappointed. They have lots of flavours but honey cinnamon is the OG and most traditional. It’s a simple fast food but you could see real care went into them. We have lots of loukoumades here in Australia too but they’re often a bit stale, small, not fluffy whereas these were spot on. I found this with lots of street food in Athens actually - even though it’s cheap and quick, they still had standards which I appreciated. 

Something a little different 
You may eventually crave something other than Greek food like eventually like we did. Luckily, we were based in the Koukaki neighbourhood which was perfect to meet this need! We ended up choosing Tuk Tuk Thai Street Food after noting the delicious smells wafting out and the atmosphere inside which seemed buzzing. We were actually super impressed by the food as well. My husband said it was the best satay he’s ever had!

Want more Greece inspo? Here you go! Questions? Comment below!