Eating and Drinking
As you'd expect in a city that houses almost half the Greek population, Athens has the best and the most varied restaurants and tavernas in the country - and most places are sources not just of good food but of a good night out. Starting with breakfast , most Athenians survive on a thimbleful of coffee, but if you need a bit more to set you up for the day, you'll easily find a bakery, yogurt shop or fruit stall. Koukaki is particularly good for this, with the Nestoras Tzatsos bakery at Veikou 45, another at no. 75, and still another on pedestrianized Olymbiou, just off Platia Koukaki, offering excellent wholegrain bread and milk products. For a regular English breakfast , there are several options in and around Plaka. For a proper American or Continental breakfast, from croissants and pastries to multi-filling omelettes, head for Neon at Mitropoleos 3. Later in the day, a host of snack stalls and outlets get going. If your budget is low you can fill up at them exclusively, avoiding sit-down restaurants altogether. The standard snacks are souvlaki me pita (kebab in pitta bread), tyropites (cheese pies) and spanakopites (spinach pies), along with bougatses (cream pies) and a host of other speciality pastries. There is a cluster of good souvlaki stands around Exarhia square, while those in the immediate vicinity of Omonia are best avoided. At Omonia square 18, however, and at several other points in the city, such as Tsakalof 14, Kolonaki, look out for the Everest chain, which does a nice line in pastries, sandwiches and ice cream and stays open past midnight. Krinos at Eolou 87, an old-fashioned cafeteria operating since 1922 behind the central market, has delectable loukoumadhes (pastry puffs soaked in honey-citrus syrup and dusted in cinammon), tyropites and rizogalo (rice pudding). There is a Bagel Cafe at Karayeoryi Servias 9b, just below Syndagma, while the Ariston around the corner at Voulis 10 has been famous for years for its good, inexpensive tyropites . For main meals , Plaka's hills and lanes provide a pleasant evening setting, despite the aggressive touts and general tourist hype. But for good value and good quality, only a few of the quarter's restaurants and tavernas are these days worth a second glance. For quality Greek cooking, if you're staying any length of time in the city, it's better to strike out into the ring of neighbourhoods around: Mets, Pangrati, Exarhia/Neapoli, Koukaki, Ano Petralona or the more upmarket Kolonaki. None of these is more than a half-hour's walk, or a quick trolleybus or taxi ride, from the centre - effort well repaid by more authentic menus, and often a livelier atmosphere.
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