I just finished a tour of Berlin and Athens.  I traveled with a friend and his 11-year-old daughter.  Which reminded me how intriguing it was when that was the age of my children (ranging back from more than 15 years to more than 30 years ago). And, over the next few days (probably interspersed with other topics), I will share my observations, along with pictures.

But, today,  I am going to start my discussions with a restaurant.  This wasn’t any of the restaurants that we had found during our trip preparation.  (At least one of those restaurants was too busy to bother letting us make a reservation, but I have since found out that the one I’m going to discuss today is far better.)

Let me first start out by telling you that my choices of restaurants always have to have at least one great vegetarian option, as well as a fish (NOT seafood option), unless it is a bona fide kosher facility.  My friend has no such limitations- while his daughter prefers the fare of teenagers- hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, pasta.

Now, this restaurant was pretty close to our apartment.  And, as you can see, our apartment had glorious views of the Acropolis.  So, the vistas available on a balcony restaurant would be nice, but would never seal the deal for us.

But, this place had an intriguing menu.  Because it was only available in Greek. But, being the intrepid traveler that I am, I had no problems translating the menu to English.

Oh, wait.  You do know there are limitations to the translations you can effect on the web, right?

Well, one of the choices (about which we wondered) was the offering of wild racoon.   Except, when we got to the restaurant, Vasilis offered us menus in English.  Which detailed the choice properly as buffalo meat.

Getting to the restaurant was intriguing.  Sure, the street numbers are always in order.  Either ascending or descending, depending upon which direction one travels.  BUT….   The odd numbers proceed in order- with no relationship to the numbers of the buildings across the street, since they, too, progress, linearly.  But, there are spaces where there are no buildings, alleyways that appear on one side or the other.  So, this building’s address, “1”,  appeared opposite the “12” on the corresponding other side of the street.

When we reached the Balcony Restaurant & Bar (we elected to eat on the top balcony, but the restaurant has a lower floor- habituating the top two floors of the building on Veikou).    And, I think that’s why we had to wait a few minutes for our table.  But, it was no matter, the host (turns out he was the owner) proffered us all refreshments as we waited.

I chose the fish, Dennis chose the lamb, and Ruby Lynn- pasta, of course.

And, the wine choices were sublime.  We chose a Greek Viognier (Domaine Skouras) and a Greek Syrah (not the Domain Skouras this time, but Karadimos  Hilia Stafilia.  The prices were VERY reasonable and the flavors were out of this world.  (So much so that we bought a bottle of each to savor on our balcony with fresh fruit and cheeses.)

The restaurant did not have live jazz that night, but the music over the sound system was absolutely complementary, to enhance our experience.  With service to match.

When I told the relatively young owner (guessing he just reach 40) that I was going to write about his restaurant, he brought out the chef (Georges Trebickes), ensuring he would get credit for our wonderful meal as well.  (How do you not love an entrepreneur that wants to share the credit with the staff that makes his success possible?????)

By now, we were ready for dessert.  And, we all got the 3 chocolate ice cream desert.  Simply sublime.  (And extremely satisfying for this chocoholic.)

With tip, the two extra bottles of wine, the total dinner bill was under $ 150 Euros.  (Removing the extra wine would have kept the total closer to $ 100 Euros- we tipped for the wine we took home, too.)

We thought about going back there again, but we really wanted to sample some other restaurants.

They, too, were outstanding.  God’s Restaurant  [come on, you knew that would intrigue me], and the Sense.   God’s Restaurant was populated with a bunch of characters.  ( I believe they were all part of an extended family. )  After our wonderful Greek salad, Dennis and I opted for the fresh grilled bream- which was skinned and deboned for us, right in front of us.   (Of course, RubyLynn opted for the pasta.)  For our libations, we wanted the Mouvedre-Syrah, which was out of stock, so we settled for plain Syrah, which was acceptable.

The Sense was also a balcony restaurant, atop the Athens Was hotel, also with piped in jazz.   Dennis and I started with a Greek salad (with figs and apricots!).  Dennis chose the lamb for his main course.   (He’d been dying to sample the entire time we were in Greece- this was his second take at the apple.) I opted for the grouper (which I love- and will savor when in Ann Arbor for the art fair, next week), simply to avoid the potatoes that were on top of the cod they served.  RubyLynn?  Risotta with vegetables (unhappy that there was no pasta- but at least we did feed her a hot dog for lunch that afternoon).

All in all, the food in Athens was superb.  The crowning end to our 8 day holiday.