Two of us visited this place on 10.12.2009 (Thursday).
It was a rather cold day. I looked into some of attractive places, but from outside, they looked all smokey. Smokey because of cigarettes. Six months on from the ban on smorking in public closed places, the Athenians and even the law-keepers seem to forget about it.
So we ended up in a place where there was no one else inside.
Maybe because it was a weekday evening. Or maybe because the place was new. I don't know. But the place looked pretty cool and actually quite comfortable to be, besides being smoke-free (I cannot tell how it will be when there are more people, but at least there was no ash-tray on table). I went to wash hands in toilet: it was new, clean and had even eau-de-toilet!
Notice also that they have real cloth tablecloth, not paper or vinyl one, as is usual in cheap tavernes.
The menu isn't very long. 22 mezedes (mainly €3.50-€8), 7 salads, 1 dish of the day, and 1 risotto. As animal protain, there is only meat and there is no fish/seafood. Some of the dishes have a Cretan influence.
The bread was served warm accompanied with nice black olive paste. It costs only €0.50 per a head.
First to arrive were Pantzarosalata (boiled beetroot) with balsamico vinegar (€4.50) and hot tyrosalata also known as tyrokafteri (€3.50).
Tyrokafteri was nicely creamy and mildly hot with fresh and dry chili. It went down well with bread and with beetroot.
Then arrived fried potatoes (€3.50) and something called 'Chaniá".
Fried potatoes were slightly burnt as can be seen in the photo, but fortunately tasted less bitter than they looked. Even so, I cannot help admiring their courage to serve customers dark brown chips.
'Chani´a' is, according to the menu description, chicken morsels with various vegetables in white wine sauce. It is easier to understand, if they named it 'Chichen Tiganiá'. Tasted all right, but nothing exceptional, except for the naming.
As you could have seen above, the prices of individual dishes are not cheap, but, with a litter of water (€1.20) and 1/4 littre of wine (€2), the bill came only to €23.70. It is true that we did not order anything expensive or many dishes, but still, for a place with real tablecloth and eau-de-toilet in toilet, it is not bad.
In short, the décor and value are pretty good, and what I wanted to see was some more character in cuisine.
ENLARGE
Koukouvagia
Elasidon 17, Gazi
Athens
Tel. 210. 34 55 222
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