Papadakis - Fokilidou 15

A restaurant set up on the hills overlooking the Acropolis although it’s some way off. The restaurant is more like someones front room and the staff are charming and helpful. They also have some incredible paintings which unfortunately are not for sale. They have a number of daily specials as well as a set menu. Carpaccio and deep fried baby squid for the starters were of a very high quality. Linguine with prawns also. The standout dish was grouper perfectly cooked and smothered in local truffles. No wafer thin slice here. As with almost all Greek restaurants we have visited the portions are enormous and the bill incredibly low for the quality of food and wine.

Excelent food but beware of service as there is preference for usual costumers over non regular.. our orders were taken before but we waited forty minutes for the main course after starters as a table of six that arrived after were promptly attended by the lady owner who certainly passed their orders in front of ours At the end they offered us dessert to compensate

We had the Sea bass ceviche, fried baby squid with honey and pepper sauce, Linguini with tomato sauce and shrimps, the whole grilled fish which was a grouper and the sorbet of the day, which was mandarin. As for the appetizers the ceviche was bright, fresh and flavorful, the fried baby squid dish was crunchy and a nice balance between sweet and savory. As the main dish the linguini was flavorful and the tomato-bisque sauce was tasty. Unfortunately the biggest disappointment of the night was the Grouper (see photo for reference) which was way too dry and flaky leaving it 3/4 uneaten. We ordered the mandarin sorbet as dessert expecting a fresh and light pallet cleanser to balance the linguini with tomato bisque sauce (eating a bisque-tomato sauce pasta dish always accumulates saltiness on your tongue) to conclude our dinner on a fresh, light and bright note; albeit, the sorbet was very sweet and almost felt like an ice cream rather than a sorbet. Although our dinner was off to a good start we left unsatisfied. The main reason is that the whole grilled fish (Grouper) cost 80eu per 1kg (the grouper was 1.03kg and 55-60% of our bill), and when you are paying this kind of money for a dish, you expect perfection, if not a grilled moist fish to say the least. When I informed the waitress about the dry fish the reply was, “I don’t know what to say” shrugging off my concerns without any apology or acknowledgement; which leaves me to question whether the chef even tasted the whole fish (Grouper). The silver lining was that they gave us the sorbet on the house (8eu). Lastly, my girlfriend whom I had dinner with was very shocked that the service didn’t say anything to the table next to us which was smoking cigarettes having the smoke blown on us while we were eating, even though it was clear that we are non-smokers, I find this unacceptable in a high class a la carte restaurant. Maybe this is normal in Greece however, we are an international couple having lived in Czech Republic, Canada, Netherlands, Vietnam and visited many 9more; this is the only country where we experienced this in a fine dining establishment. Under normal circumstances, disregarding the Grouper I would still rate this restaurant at ~4.5 even though I found the sorbet too sweet. However after reviewing the photo of the fish again, I noticed that pieces of the whole fish were missing when it was served (see photo), this leaves me thinking that the chef overcooked the fish and took out the burnt parts which gives me the impression that the chef knowingly served an overcooked dry fish (I think its very clear from the photo). Combined with the fact that the fish itself was 60% of the bill, a complementary 8eu sorbet with no verbal apology of admittance of a fundamental technical mistake for overcooking a fish makes me leave the restaurant with a bitter feeling.

Very fine place. All details looked after. Greek salad was excellent. Also, a complimentary home-made limoncello was provided, in a luxury silver tray. Recommend!

This restaurant was recommended to us by the Academia Hotel we stayed at and we were happy with the recommendation. We tried quite a few dishes and they were all to our taste. We sat outside. It was a very peaceful afternoon. The service was quite slow but friendly. We definitely come back. Thank you!

Wow! Excellent service, exquisite food. It was recommended by one of the locals. Don’t miss it and thank me later.

Fantastic, tasteful food. Had the chickpea stew and the seabass and both were perfectly cooked and seasoned. Both their white and red wine recommendations were spot on. Friendly and attentive service, too, and the prices completely fair. Highly recommended!

Surprisingly, the food amazingly prepared, one of the highlights is the Spicy prawn linguine. Is very good but very hot and spicy, I just love it!