(Visited in May 2009)
For those who know it, this place opened near Syntagma branch of Neon restaurant used to be. Having seen this new place open and read good reviews on Tripadvisor, I was keen to try it out.
It is modern and comfortable; non complaint on this front. In this photo, it looks totally empty, but the table next to us was occupied and while we were here, other 3 or 4 groups arrived. It was a Tuesday night, not exactly a busy day for any restaurant, I guess.
When we were seated, a waiter brought us a bottle of mineral water, which obviously an obligatory order; no problem as I would have ordered anyway (1.80 euro). After having placed the order, we were given freshly baked puff bread, accompanied by a small dish of chopped tomato, olive oil and sumac (a Middle eastern spice with sour fruity flavour).
It wasn't bad, but not particularly exciting apart from the look. "Bland" I think is the word to describe this starter (this was an obligatory order and costs €1.20 per person).
We shared a medium size lahmatzun: very thin pizza/pita topped with spiced minced meat (4.50 euros).
This was fine. Not an eye-opener, but probably the best thing we ate that evening.
I ordered Iskender Kebab (11.50 euros), as it was enthusiastically recommended by a few reviewers of Tripadvisor.
On the menu it is described as "Minced meat on warm pie with yoghurt and tomato sauce".
The "minced meat" - in Greek menu, it is described as "gyros" - turned out to be doner kebab (evidently I could have substituted it with chicken gyros). It was quite salty and with the salty ketchup-like sauce on top, it became far too salty to be pleasant, if not inedible. The white stuff on the side is just a blob of plain thick yogurt. I requested to make it hot, but I did not detect any chili. Did they put additional salt instead of spice? Who knows? The best thing on this plate was the bits of bread hidden under the doner kebab. They were heavenly, though probably unhealthy, because of melted butter, except that some pieces were too salty having soaked up the tomato sauce as well.
Sis kebab (10.50 euros) was somewhat better, as it wasn't too salty, but the meat was dry and I would rather have pork souvlaki in Greek grill restaurants.
It was really lacking in something moist, tzatziki perhaps. When we put some ketchap sauce from the Iskender kebab to the Sis kebab, actually it tasted better.
We did not have sweets, but were offered glasses of what they called 'limoncello' (free). Well, less alcoholic version of it, at least. It was more like liquid lemon sorbet.
The service in general was very good: the waiters were professional. Friendly, but not impolite.
With a bottle of beer, the total bill came to 33.70 euros. We did not eat much to tell you the truth, but it is hardly expensive in the central Athens. It might have been a nice place, if our main purpose were to chat with friends eating some nibbles, but only for the food, I would not go back.
Politi.co Anatolian Cuisine
Mitropoleos 3, Syntagma
Athens, Greece
Tel. 210-32.32.251
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