[Aug. 2023] We spent our summer holiday in Greece this year.
When we went to Athens a long time ago, I didn’t have a very good impression of it, so I thought I’d never go there again, but my husband is more easygoing about Athens and said we did not need to avoid it, so we went there first to spend 3 nights.
We stayed at a hotel called ibis Styles Athens Routes, which was neither good or bad.
Oh, I did not like that all the towels were old there.
This holiday was different from usual, as we met up with a friend of ours from Japan and spent about two weeks together.
We met her at a restaurant on the first day.
The restaurant was Kolonaki branch of Barbounaki.
This was recommended by someone whom our friend knew.
It was in a nice area with many fashionable shops.
Since it was just before 8 o’clock, there were seats available, but after that, the place was full, including groups.
Here, we ordered and shared Taramasalata and Grilled Feta as starters.
The taramasalata was white instead of the familiar pink colour, but it had a strong flavour.
Feta has some kind of spicy flavour.
It was delicious, but we needed bread.
And the bread was charged unlike in Italy and itself had flavour and was oily.
For main, I ordered eel.
Since it was smoked eel, it had a strong smoked taste, hiding the original flavour of the eel.
As a side dish, it came with a small bean salad, which I didn’t like.
My husband had fried calamari and said, “It wasn’t bad, but it was average. The portion was too small.”
My friend had sardines.
It had lots of tomatoes on it, and when I tasted it a bit, it was delicious.
For dessert, we had Kaimaki ice cream, which is unique to Greece.
Apparently it’s an ice cream made from sheep’s milk.
It was sticky and had a chewy texture.
Adding the light and fruity house wine and service charge to the above, the total came to around €105 .
I wasn’t completely satisfied with the content, which was a mixture of good and bad, but overall, I think it was ok.
