I don't remember exactly when 'Gia Mas' opened, but it was not many years ago. It opened as if was to emulate the success of the neighbouring Imerovigli, and then, it looks to have surpassed it. It is always full during weekends and quite popular even during weekdays. This photo was taken on a Sunday afternoon in December. There are always many cars parked in front.
This is the view from inside. It looks better in the summer, as there is no vinyl sheet, but the sea view is always highly valued in Piraeus.
When we arrived at around 3 o'clock in the Sunday afternoon, it was almost full except for already reserved several tables. It is highly recommended to book ahead if you are intended to come here during the weekend.
Apart from wine and bread, the first to arrive was horta (€4). It was OK, even though I prefer the green to be less boiled.
As vegetable dishes, apart from ubiquitous horiatiko (Greek) salad, they also serve more modern stuff, like Caesar salad.
Soon followed was a stuffed potato (&eyro;4.50).
It was stuffed with a blend of cheeses, sliced mushrooms, and bacon. It somehow remembered me of jacket potato, but, different from the authentic British one, I think that the potato was first boiled, then stuffed and baked in oven. Consequently the potato did not have that wonderful floury texture. But, obviously it is not fair to compare with something it is not intended to be. In itself, it was OK, but nothing special; I would make it at home easily.
After above two dishes, quite a long time passed. About 40 minutes according to the exif data of my photos. We complained at a certain point and were explained that it was because the kitchen was overloaded. It does not happen often to wait a long time in Greek restaurants and it was rather frustrating (but, to be fair, it was our third visit and it was fine on the previous two occasions).
One of the main dish was not worth the wait. It was Fileto Hirino Piperato (€9.50). I don't see this dish in Greece, but quite popular elsewhere; it was pork steak with mixed-papper cream sauce (here pepper means spice, not vegetable, - red, green, and black pepper). The major problem was that the meat was over-cooked and hard to chew and was slightly burnt that it had unintended smokey flavour. The second problem was the pepper sauce curiously lacked in pepperiness. If you want a nice pork dish, I recommend kleftikó which was excellent.
Garidomakaronada (€14) was quite fine instead. You cannot expect Italian style refined pasta, but this home-style linguini dish was pretty satisfactory with a plenty of small and big prawns.
But, if you like rice, what I recommend more is paella. I don't think it is so much of the famous Spanish rice dish, but it was excellent as seafood pilaf.
The bill came to €38.80 accompanied by a complimentary tsipouro. It is reasonable price for a restaurant in Piraeus with a sea view.
What I like about this place is that they try to distinguish their food from other restaurants. They often have a twist that I don't see elsewhere. The attempt succeeds sometimes and fails sometimes, but at least I don't get bored. We will surely return in near future.
(Visited on 6 December 2009)
Gia Mas
Akti Themistokleous 66
Tel. 210 4511260
Go to Piraeus Restaurant Index
