Impressions from the Acropolis Museum Restaurant

Acropolis Museum Restaurant

Address – Area: 15 Dionysiou Areopagitou Promenade, 2^nd floor of the Acropolis Museum, Athens

Tel: 210-90.00.915. Reservation needed for Friday night only.

Date: 2011-06-20

Cuisine: Greek modern

Overall Opinion: Positive

Methods of payment: cash / Visa, Mastercard only

Working hours: Sat-Thu: 08:00-20:00, Fri:08:00-24:00

Website: http://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/default.php?pname=Cafe&la=2#

Accessibility: Yes. Fully accessible just like the rest of the museum

Our order (2 persons):

1 Wild greens w/ goat cheese (appetizer)

1 Grilled filet with potato puree

1 fresh sea-bass in salt-crust w/ steamed vegetables

1 330ml bottle of Piraiki Bio Pils beer

1 lemon sorbet w/ ice-cream

Price: 50€

Presentation / Ambience:

The restaurant is “isolated” from the rest of the museum, on the 2^nd floor, with the bookstore right next to it. It has the style of an upscale cafeteria but don’t let that give you the wrong impression as everything seems to be in top form here. Yet, no strict dress code, as the place caters to tourists. You get a great view of the Acropolis Hill w/ the Parthenon and, if you sit in the huge outdoor balcony (smoking permitted outdoors), you also get a great view of the Hills of Lykavittos and Philopappos (and the neo-classical house of Vangelis between you and the Acropolis J ). Combined with excellent food and reasonable prices the restaurant of the Acropolis Museum seems to offer one of the best values for money in Athens.

On Friday nights (and special nights announced in advance), the restaurant stays open till midnight and offers an expanded menu, including the 3 dishes mentioned on its site (fresh sea-bass, pasta w/ shrimps and rooster w/ noodles). The rest of the week they offer traditional Greek appetizers (salad, octopus, fava beans puree, eggplants) and a dish of the day. Friday or not, I highly suggest you put the restaurant (and museum!) on your itinerary.

Food / Drinks:

Overall, the restaurant has a small menu and tries to incorporate Greek ingredients in its dishes or to present traditional Greek tastes in a modernized version (read above).

The fresh sea-bass was brought by our waiter on a portable table and then de-crusted, deboned and served for me, so if you worry about cleaning the fish this is a non-issue. The taste was to die for, as it was sea-fresh and as tender as it gets. I also very much liked the, slightly bitter, wild greens which in this case were armyrikia. The dish was accompanied by 2 sauces: béarnaise and ladolemono (olive oil and lemon).

The grilled filet was very tender but not really tasty on its own (the sauce made it much better); the puree on the other hand was  excellent.

The lemon sorbet w/ ice cream was also great and they were nice enough to bring us two spoons [although I was going to have it on my own, but then I had to act like a knight and share…J ]

Service:

We went on a special night (“European Day of Music” – 1^st day of summer) when the museum offered a cheaper ticket, there was music playing outdoors and there were throngs of people coming in till late at night. The tables leave plenty of room to move around and the staff was all very efficient; they only messed up a bit at the end when they forgot about our desert and we had to re-order it, but it was real panic that night so I won’t hold that against them.

Location / Getting there: Athens center, below the Acropolis and on the grand walking promenade (Dionysiou Areopagitou). Acropolis Metro Station is right next door.

See map of Athens restaurants at the bottom of this page.

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