On the Menu

On the Menu

The best of Athens's restaurants have made enormous strides in quality and style since about 2002, thanks to Greek chefs who have studied at international culinary institutes. They returned home with a renewed interest in high-quality native ingredients combined with foreign techniques, particularly French and Asian. Indeed, you may have a hard time finding a traditional taramosalata (roe dip), as many chefs are eager to tweak Aegean-inspired cuisine into new forms. Expect newer-than-now house specialties at upscale restaurants, but remember: traditional Greek food can be sensational. You'll find out how sensational if you taste iman bayildi ("the cleric fainted" -- presumably because the dish of eggplant with garlic and tomato was so delicious). Do try the hima, the house barrel wine; it's inexpensive and often quite good.

If you can't understand the menu, just go to the kitchen and point at what looks most appealing, especially in tavernas, where not everything on the menu may be available at the time you order. In most cases, you don't need to ask -- just walk to the kitchen (some places have food displayed in a glass case right at the kitchen's doorway), or point to your eye and then the kitchen; the truly ambitious can say (Bo-ro na dtho tee eh-he-teh steen koo-zee-na?), or "May I see what's in the kitchen?" When ordering fish, which is priced by the kilo, you will often go to the kitchen to pick out your fish, which is then weighed and billed accordingly. At some rustic places, like Margaro in Piraeus, you may wind up in the kitchen for another reason: when it's crowded, the staff asks you to prepare your own salad.