Top 10 Cheap Restaurants in Greece

Description:

This large restaurant with a pleasant outside veranda continues to attract locals, although it does a brisk business with tour groups as well. You'll find the usual grilled chops and souvlaki, stuffed tomatoes and dolmades, but the vegetable dishes are unusually good, as is the lamb stew with lots of garlic and oregano.

Our Local Expert Says:

Hands down best delivery food in Athens.

Description:

Located inside a small lobby (back and to the left) not far from Syntagma Square, you won't quite understand why a little place like this has been featured in the New York Times. This is not a place you go for atmosphere, though they do offer you a seat at the one table in the midst of the happy, busy buzz of the kitchen if you would like to dine there. It's a place you go for genuine, delicious food prepared with love and extreme attention to quality. The cheeses, olives, oil and bread all come from trusted producers in some of the best agricultural regions of Greece, including Amorgos Island, Kithera and the Macedonia. All of the food is prepared by award winning chef, Konstantinos Siopidis, though you would never know it by the prices. Even the most complicated dishes are not over twelve euros. The pastries and savory pies are made by his mother in law, Irini, who has given demonstrations of her cooking on television shows.

Description:

If you don't go there for the olive oil that's green as a freshly cut lawn, or the eggplant salad (melitzanosalata) that will make you stand up, pat your head and rub your tummy, the grilled calimari, plates of fresh red mullet or, most lethal, Bakaliaro" served with a vampire-destroyingly delicious sidekick called "Skodia." (garlic) ...if none of these things get you to go to Paradosiako tucked in the "foyer" of Plaka on Voulis street, just go to watch the owners fight. It is run by a husband and wife team in such a tight operation you wonder if there's enough oxygen on the sidewalk for everyone, and yet nowhere will you get a truer appreciation of Greek matrimony. Entertainment and fantastic food rarely come together at such a bargain.

Average meal: 10-15 euros a person. Excellent beer and ouzo selection.

Our Local Expert Says:

Highly recommended for seeing an incredible sunset in Philopappou and ending the day well off the beaten path.

Description:

Passing through the backroads of Philopappou, skirting the bluecollar neighborhood of Ana Petralona, you will pass a candy-colored taverna that looks like it's been made out of decoupage and leftover housing materials. To Koutouki has the most offbeat "roof garden" in Athens, home style food like deep fried zucchini, tzatziki and boiled greens with lemon and olive oil, and a staff that may be limited in their English but makes up for it in enthusiasm.

To find it, start from the Dora Stratou Theater parking lot and walk up the road, across the bridge. You'll see it then.

Our Local Expert Says:

Authentic home cooking and fresh fish. Gets crowded weekday evenings and weekends.

Description:

On the ground level of an office complex in Kolonaki is the site of an eatery dedicated to ouzo, a traditional Greek liquor that is accompanied by a variety of tidbits, usually seafood. This place features a very large selection of ouzo and other traditional spirits in Athens. The menu includes a variety of flavorful dishes that make a perfect fit to this drink of choice. Diners will find meat, fish and vegetarian dishes.

Description:

The ancient Greeks were not just good at science, philosophy and the arts. They also had a reputation for more mundane pleasures, such as good food and wine. Some 2,300 year old uncovered recipes are proof of their skills in preparing very sophisticated dishes which are not just tasty but also very healthy. These recipes (which were found in ancient books) can be savoured at the beautifully decorated Archaion Gefsis near Omonia Square (a short walk from the Metaxourgio metro stop). Enjoy a unique dining experience with a spoon and knife only! The restaurant does not serve potatoes, tomatoes, lemon, rice or sugar as they did not exist in Ancient Greece.

Our Local Expert Says:

The perfect place for trying a national dish: fried codfish and garlic sauce.

Description:

Saita has been dishing out bakaliaro and skourdaya, fried fish and pureed garlic, since 1970. This is a great dish to have throughout the winter months and is the official meal of March 25th, Independence Day for Greece. As with most traditional bakaliarzidikos, Saita (pronounced sy-EE'-ta) is tucked down into a cozy basement ringed by heavy wooden barrels; homemade white wine is served directly out of them. A little wine is the perfect thing to cut the intensity of the skourdaya, a dish that everyone should be in on if you plan to be within a few meters of each other for the rest of the night- if not including the day after.

Another thing to try is the saita salad, made up of small rusks, tomatoes, capers, onions and sardines. Oily, salty, fresh and delicious.
Average price per person is approximately €15 per person, including wine.

Description:

This simple, year-round restaurant attracts locals in the summer and skiers in the winter. The menu is typical Greek taverna fare (grills and stews), but there's usually a wide variety of mezedes, and wood paneling (just about everything in Delphi that can be wood-paneled is!) makes the room cozy.

Description:

Easily the best restaurant with a view in Delphi, with an astonishingly extensive and varied menu (including tasty veggie fritters, delicious local olives and formaella cheese, lamb with fresh tomato sauce, keftedes (grilled round meatballs) and sousoutakia (oval rice-and-meat-balls, stewed in tomato sauce) and, in season, wild boar, casseroled with tomatoes, onions, and herbs). If you come early, you may be one of few diners not with a tour group; come after 9pm and you may dine with Greek visitors and locals.

Description:

This small taverna gets many of its customers from the youth hostel. This means that the prices are very reasonable, the clientele casual, and the food basic (although they sometimes serve game in winter). The back room with its veranda has good views over Delphi, across the plain of olives, and to the Corinthian Gulf. The neighboring Taverna Lekaria, at 33 Apollonos, is a bit more ambitious and a bit more expensive and has a nice courtyard with flowering plants. The Lekaria usually has excellent local loukanika (sausages) and briam (a veggie stew steeped in olive oil) and sliced apple rounds sprinkled with cinnamon for a healthy dessert.