ATHENS, SO HOT RIGHT NOW.

One of the world's oldest cities learns some new tricks.

Walk down a random narrow street lined with night-time souvlaki bars in Athens and look up. There it is, towering above the city: the Parthenon, as if it had just landed on the Acropolis like a Tardis. It’s that mix of the street level and the sublime that makes Athens, Athens.

Especially when it’s hot, and it’s very hot right now. People eat outside, on the street and on rooftops. They eat late, when it’s cooler. Horiatiki – the famous Greek salad - is a good coping strategy. A cold Fix, Mythos or the newly reborn Mamos (created in 1876 and re-born in 2017 by the Athenian Brewery), has also been known to work. A refreshing glass of assyrtiko, my favourite Greek varietal from Santorini. Even a sea-blue Aegean Negroni, at the excellent come-as-you-are bar Clumsies will help.

Yes, it’s crowded, but Athens has been crowded for centuries now. It’s a people place, an agora, a marketplace. And there are plenty of good times to go round. The last few years have seen a bunch of new eating houses spring up run by young industry professionals who want to do things their way. Their dining spaces are cleaner, more industrial, less fussy, and their cooking is along the same lines – straight from the market, licked by fire, left alone.

They say they want to develop a new, primary approach to taste and a more functional, unaffected way of engaging with dining. But the glorious thing is that even with their deliberate elevation from the cheap and cheerful, and their desire to be different to their forebears, they are still so proudly Greek.

MEET ME AT THE MEAT MARKET: MANARI TAVERNA

Manari is all about sheep and goat, a smart take on the traditional butcher taverna, or ‘xasapotaverna’. It’s serial restaurateur Ari Vezene’s idea of a grillhouse, sitting in a covered arcade and sprawling out across Agion Theodoron Square, just a toss of a lamb chop from the Varvakios Market.

Wander through the meat market first, with its long corridors of small kiosks, each butcher chopping and cleaving ruby-red carcasses in unison, and you’ll be primed ready to order. Go for anything off the grill here – especially the offal. Beef heart (middle) is grilled then finely sliced and reassembled; tough and livery and wonderful, served with grilled lettuce. Frigadeli (on the left) look just like meaty sausages but are pure lamb’s liver, wrapped in caul fat – just like eating barbecued foie gras.

In summer, have the platter of huge juicy tomatoes, streaked with sea fennel (rock samphire) which the Greeks know as kritamos. Lamb souvlaki comes on puffy smoky pita with yoghurt. If it isn’t 35 degrees, order linguine for 2 drowning in smoked meat broth – similar to the Italian idea of serving pasta doused with the juices of the Sunday roast, only better. Add a gigantic platter of lamb chops or chicken chops and it’s happy days.

I like this place a lot, because they still do what a taverna does and treat everyone equally, but they’ve taken it up a notch with service, tablecloths, shelter from the sun, and a good kitchen, with just the right amount of can-do bustle and barbecue sizzle. They’ve kept the prices real, too. Plateia Agion, Theodoron 3, Athens manaritaverna.com

THE NEW TAVERNA: PHARAOH

It’s a wine bar, a wood-fuelled taverna, a vinyl-stacked club, and a whole barrel of fun, with highly sought-after tables and great serving staff who keep things moving but always have time for a chat. Pharaoh is a very cool spot. The coolest. The one you’re most likely to go back to a second time.

Smoked herring sails across a zippy salad of cucumber, samphire and sesame. And the rooster! Big, tender joints, slow-roasted then served on a bed of brothy hilopites (Greek pasta) under a shawl of sweet cooked-down onion soubise and sage.

At one stage, sommelier Bradley Tomlinson poured me a glass of the Kotsifali 2023 from Aori (mountain) in Chania, Crete. “If you want to know anything about it, ask the winemaker,” he said. “He’s at the next table”.

Kotsifali is a rare red grape variety that Aimilios Andrei had searched for years to find, finally discovering ungrafted vines high in the mountains. It was as clear as a mountain brook, clean and zippy, and perfect with the rooster. So perfect, we suggested to him that he label his next vintage ‘Rooster Wine’. (He may not, so if you get there, ask Bradley for the ‘Rooster Wine’. Let’s make it happen.)

No wonder this place has a Bib Gourmand from Michy and was gonged in 2025’s Discovery list by Worlds 50 Best. Chef Manolis Papoutsakis also deserves a gong, just for the rooster. And the creamy bougatsa. As does the disc-spinner, for everything from The Doors to – hold the phone - Demis Roussos. Solomou 54, Athens pharoah.gr

SMASHING PLATES: LINOU SOUMPASIS & SIA

Athens does a big line in neo-tavernas, and this casual and contemporary space in the central Psiri district of the city is one of the best. The natural beeswax candles on your table reference the fact the site was a candle factory, and you can sit out on the street (breathe in when a car inches past your table), or inside with the simple terrazzo floors and metal furniture.

I like the food a lot – largely organic produce, lots of vegetables, good calves’ liver, and a great fish dish. Whole mackerel, flattened on the grill and salted, dished up on a bed of tomato, onion, capers. Great bread, Greek wines, good vibes. The sweetcorn ribs were on every table, deep-fried until they curled like calamari and were deeply nutty and sweet. A great place, easy and casual; perhaps they push you through a bit fast. 2 Melanthiou, Psiri, Athens linousoumpasis.gr

MEZE FOR MILES: SEYCHELLES

Another fun spot, with the air of a mezedopolio. Some lovely, simple, interesting ideas - the day’s salad was built on foot-long green string beans, which have a very short season, draped with touloumotiri (a creamy cheese made from sheep and goat milk, aged in goatskin) with grapes, mint and almonds.

Fennel sausages have a wild, feral, hand-chopped quality to them, resting on fava bean puree with soft, soft, soft fennel pieces through it; amazing. Ox tongue is tender, paired with smoked eggplant puree. A casual, easy lunch; good value, simple food, big servings. Gets crazy busy at night. 49 Keramikou, Keramikos www.seychellesathens.gr

FRESH FROM THE OVEN: ERGON BAKEHOUSE

I’ve never stayed in a hotel that is also a bakery. It means when you step into the lift first thing in the morning, all you can smell is cinnamon and vanilla, which is a pretty nice introduction to the breakfast offerings.

Just down from Syntagma Square, Ergon Bakehouse is a terrific new interpretation of an urban hotel, with lovely, minimalist rooms, and – of course, because Athens – a rooftop restaurant and wine bar called +2H. Just up the road is Ergon House, with more boutique accom and rooftop above a sprawling marketplace with butcher, fishmonger, fruit, gelato, bakery, etc.; all beautifully realised.

Breakfast for Bakehouse guests is in the sunny café downstairs and literally means you can order anything you like, as often as you like. The breads are great – crusty sourdough, even crustier Greek koulouri – and the cinnamon scrolls are big enough to live on for three days.

Even if you’re not staying here, you can grab a plump sandwich from the bakery window for lunch, or cruise upstairs for a surprisingly good meal of anchovy tarama with burrata and sourdough, and mullet bourdeto roofed with a cooked-down relish of tomato and onion. Got back late one night after a mediocre meal ( it happens), and shared a crab pasta that is now on my wish-list for all midnight suppers in future. 27 Mitropoleos, Athens houses.ergonfoods.com

CORFU FOR THE MANY: COOKOOVAYA

Directly opposite the Australian Embassy, and a block from the old Hilton Hotel (soon to be relaunched as The Ilisian, which will include the new Conrad Athens Hotel), Cookoovaya is a classy something-for-everyone sort of place. It’s like the Bistro Moncur of Athens, where you can get what you want without having to do stuff you don’t want to do, although I wasn’t overwhelmed by the exuberant friendliness of the floor team.

It's been around since 2014 and really honed its menu, to focus on raw fish dishes, pies, and whole fish and grills.

Owner/chef, Periklis Koskinas comes from Corfu, and so do many of the dishes on his menu, including the to-share Bourdeto, in which whole fish is cooked with onions and sweet and spicy peppers.

The Bourdeto Bianco is even better, I feel, with a whole monkfish coming boned (still with its bony, ugly head) in a rich lemony-garlic sauce thickened with potato, with long fingers of boiled potatoes floating like logs in a river. Such a good fish, monkfish; it’s like eating a muscle.

For dessert, nearly every table orders the ‘smashed bougatsa’, in which layers of crisp pastry are interleaved with custard and icing sugar and smashed flat at the table. They speak highly of it on Instagram, no doubt. More points for the house wines – all six Euros a glass (around $11), and all good, which means someone is really trying. Xatzigianni Mexi 2A, Athens cookoovaya.gr

On the streets of Athens, with my personal paparazza in the corner.

Time to wrap it up for June. Thanks for joining me, and big thanks to those who helped with where to eat, including Jonathan Barthelmess of Apollo and Olympus Dining, who has a great guide to Athens and Crete in AFR’s Fin Magazine, and my mate Kim Terakes, who always has highly opinionated recommendations.

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