👤 Erhan's picks
31 Google Maps pins plus 9 later picks: a sharp list of cocktail bars, natural-wine spots, queer clubs, galleries and museums. 40 places.
Vibe: ● Alternative · ● Trendy · ● Classic · ● Posh · ● Must-see Price: € cheap · €€ mid · €€€ expensive (Google's per-person range) ⏸ = temporarily closed on Google
Psyri & Monastiraki
🍽️ 5Cafe Avissinia
🍽️ plate €13
An old-school taverna and mezedopoleio on the Monastiraki flea-market square, mainly a sit-down meal place, on three levels with an Acropolis-view rooftop terrace. There is live folk music (accordion, piano) at weekends from September to June. Ketty Koufonikola opened it in 1986, and the interior is cluttered with antiques.
🍸 6Wine is Fine
🍷 wine €6–9 · 🍽️ plate €10–13
A French-bistro-style natural-wine bar that works as a small restaurant, with a full seasonal menu of French-Greek small plates and white tablecloths on pedestrian Vissis St. It is walk-in only with a long waitlist. Two Frenchmen, Rafael Wallon-Brownstone and Thomas Brengou, run it with Greek chef Stavros Chrysafidis, in a 70s-chic interior.
🍸 8Cantina Social
🍸 cocktail €6.50–10
An unsigned courtyard and garden bar at the end of an alley off Leokoriou in Psyrri/Thiseio. It is a café by day and a dance bar at night with resident DJs (techno, indie, disco), cheap drinks and late hours. It is set in an old lodge and is a locals' hangout.
🛍️ 12Hyper Hypo
Independent bookstore for art, design, photography, architecture, fashion and pop culture, with a project space for talks, launches and exhibitions; also sells posters and prints.
Plaka, Syntagma & historic centre
☕ 15Anana Coffee & Food
A specialty coffee shop and vegan-vegetarian kitchen on the corner of Praxitelous and Chrysospiliotissis, opened in 2019 by Panagiotis Xylas, Katerina Manola and Valantis Fragkos. It roasts its own coffee and rotates single origins, and the bright, Scandinavian-meets-Bauhaus room is smoke-free. Banana bread is the signature bake; reviewers rave about the brunch, especially a French toast with salted caramel and berries.
🍸 16The Clumsies
🍸 cocktail €14
A cocktail bar in a townhouse, open all day across several floors but mainly a cocktail destination, with a small food menu. Vassilis Kyritsis and Nikos Bakoulis founded it in 2014. It has been on the World's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2015, peaking at No. 3 in 2020.
🍸 17Baba Au Rum
🍸 cocktail €11
A rum-focused cocktail bar in Psyrri with 400+ rums and tropical, retro decor. No reservations. Open for over 15 years, it is a regular on the World's 50 Best Bars list (No. 27 in 2025).
🍸 18Blue Bird
A tiny (about 23 m²) cocktail bar on pedestrian Ipitou street near Syntagma, open evenings and nights. At weekends it spills onto the street and square with resident DJs and a street-party crowd. It calls itself a 'bar for exotic birds' and started out serving only spirits.
Gazi, Kerameikos & Metaxourgeio
🍽️ 20Seychelles
🍽️ plate €12–18
Seychelles (Σεϋχέλλες) is a modern-Greek sharing-plates restaurant with outdoor tables on a lively pedestrian square in Metaxourgeio/Kerameikos. Booking is recommended. An early Athens 'bistronomy' spot, it serves ingredient-driven Greek 'soul food' with rustic-meets-urban cooking and is popular with locals and tourists.
🍸 21Beauty Killed the Beast
🍺 beer €6 · 🍽️ plate €9.5 · ☕ coffee €3.3
An all-day café-bar on the pedestrian part of Paramythias in Kerameikos: coffee and brunch by day, DJs and cocktails at night, with a garden. It is in a restored 1930s neoclassical mansion with King Kong art on the facade.
🪩 22SMUT Athens
An underground queer techno club at Vatsaxi 4, in an industrial space in Metaxourgeio, open on Saturday nights. There is a no-camera policy and a consent briefing at the door, as part of its safe-space approach. The look is raw, red-lit Berlin warehouse.
🪩 23Sodade2
A long-running LGBTQ+ dance club in Gazi with two dance floors, one for mainstream and Greek pop, one for house and progressive. It is weekend-focused, late and packed with a younger crowd. One of the first gay clubs in Gazi and still one of the most popular.
🪩 24S-Cape
A large, long-running two-level LGBTQ+ dance club in Gazi with pop and Greek music, drag shows, go-go dancers and themed nights. It has several bars and stages, cheap drinks and a young crowd.
🏛️ 25Alekos Fassianos Museum
The painter Alekos Fassianos's family home, an apartment block he remodelled with architect Kyriakos Krokos over two decades (finished 1996); opened as a museum to his work in 2023.
🖼️ 27The Breeder
Leading contemporary art gallery founded in 2002 by Stathis Panagoulis and George Vamvakidis, growing out of The Breeder magazine. It is in a converted 1970s ice-cream factory and shows Greek and international artists at major fairs.
Exarchia, Omonia & north centre
🍽️ 28To Rini
🍸 cocktail €8 · 🍺 beer €6 · 🍽️ plate €17 · ☕ coffee €2.3
A tiny chef-run all-day bistro by the National Archaeological Museum, with a quiet patio. Coffee and brunch from the morning, then modern takes on Greek comfort dishes from seasonal produce, with natural Greek wines, in the evening.
🍽️ 29Pharaoh
A lively wood-fire Greek restaurant and natural-wine bar (Michelin Bib Gourmand) with a vinyl DJ in the evenings, turning party-ish late at night. Chef Manolis Papoutsakis cooks without electricity, using wood stoves, charcoal and a wood oven. It sits behind a heavy curtain in edgy Exarchia.
🍽️ 30Lorda (Λόρδα)
🍺 beer €2.30–5.10 · 🍽️ plate €11.70–16.10
A souvlaki joint on Spyrou Trikoupi in Exarchia, built around skewers: pork, chicken, kebab, sausage, lamb, beef, plus halloumi and mushroom options for vegetarians. A skewer runs about €2.80–4.30, a pita wrap €4–5.20 and a plated portion from €11.70 (Wolt prices), with Greek beers alongside. Open from lunchtime until after midnight; Wolt customers rate it 9.0/10.
🍽️ 31I Kriti (Η Κρήτη)
A family-run Cretan taverna and rakadiko in an arcade (stoa) off Veranzerou, by Kaningos Sq. It serves home-style Cretan dishes such as apaki, Sfakian pies and liver with honey, with raki and a free dessert, using produce from Cretan cooperatives. Running for about 30 years, it is now seen as a classic.
🍽️ 32Ouzeri Lesvos
🍽️ plate €8
An unpretentious, old-fashioned Exarchia ouzeri serving fresh seafood and meze from Lesvos or cooked the Lesvos way, at modest prices. It is long-standing, crowded and mostly local.
🍽️ 33Zigoala (Ζιγκοάλα)
A modern taverna (mageirio) in Omonia by chef Vasilis Chammam, serving meze with Greek and Eastern Mediterranean cooking to laïko music. It was the hyped opening of the 2025-26 season, widely reviewed (Athinorama, Lifo, FNL) and credited with drawing food lovers to Omonia.
🍽️ 34Diporto
An unmarked basement taverna under an old neoclassical building by the Central Market, lunch only, with shared tables and cash payment. There is no menu: a few daily dishes such as legumes or chickpeas, stews, small fried fish and salad, with retsina from the barrel. It has run since 1887.
🍸 35Teleion (Τέλειον)
Telion occupies the old Τέλειον patisserie on Ithakis Street, a Kypseli landmark for about a century, and keeps its wooden display cases, marble floor and counters; you enter through an old lift door. It opened in June 2025 as an audiophile bar playing jazz, afro and disco from vinyl and CDs, with a DJ booth in the middle of the room and guest DJs mostly on Friday and Saturday nights, when the crowd dances between the two wooden bars. Popi Sevastou's short menu covers stirred classics, two gin and tonics and four signatures such as a 50/50 Martini and an apricot-sherry Negroni. Closed Sunday and Monday.
🍸 36The Mule & The Pig
A small bar at the junction of Zoodochou Pigis and Valtetsiou in Exarchia, described by in.gr as a 'kafeneio with a bar' run by a bohemian crew with deep ties to the neighbourhood; it has a sister bar on Anafi. It promises 'no fancy drinks': classic spirits in 70 ml pours, plus craft beer and wine, with DJ evenings announced on Instagram. Reviewers love the curated music, the staff and the open front onto street life; smoking is allowed indoors.
🍸 37Luxus Cocktail Bar
An Exarchia cocktail bar on the corner of Valtetsiou and Charilaou Trikoupi, open since 2011 and an early champion of mixology in Athens. Its list of about 75 cocktails, drawn from different eras and places, has not changed since opening day; signatures include the Brownskin Gal (aged rum, ginger, passion fruit), a chilli-infused Zombie and a house French 75. Inside is mid-war Bauhaus decor; outside are plenty of tables for people-watching. On Tuesdays and Thursdays happy hour runs all day with €6 cocktails. It also serves coffee and beer from the morning, and locals say it draws artists and actors.
🍸 38Bar Ideal
Bar Ideal opened in summer 2025 in the former Jarmusch on Kiafas Street's small pedestrian square; its sign says 'Not in Athens', which many people take for its name. The tiny room looks like a 1950s film set and works as a listening bar, with vinyl through a hi-fi system (funk, soul, jazz, rock and experimental house), guest DJs, and a Sunday 'Bootlegs' night of old hip hop; the crowd spills out onto the square. Drinks come from 2024 Greek World Class winner Hector Vezyrgiannis, with signatures like a Creamy Daiquiri with pastry cream and Purple Rain with rum, coconut and pineapple.
🍸 39Don't be a D!ck
An Exarchia 'soft clubbing' bar opened in autumn 2025, with 48-hour sourdough pizza from a wood-fired oven and clean cocktails early, then DJ sets (italo and space disco, funk). Downstairs is the pink-tiled 'Toilet Room' with a disco ball and a no-photo policy. The look is 70s-80s Fiorucci.
🖼️ 42Ninetto Gallery
Contemporary gallery co-founded by Romain Bitton and Fred de Schonen in a former apartment, so a visit feels like a collector's home; it shows international and Greece-based artists, often their first exhibitions.
Kolonaki & Lycabettus
☕ 46Prasini Tenta
🍺 beer €7 · 🍷 wine €8 · 🍽️ plate €17–23 · ☕ coffee €4.5
A café-restaurant on the lower slopes of Lycabettus, by the footpath, with a panoramic city view. Coffee and brunch by day, cocktails and wine at sunset, and a full menu of Greek, Mediterranean and international comfort food. It has operated since 1931.
☕ 47Philos Athens
A daytime brunch café with a concept store (fashion, homeware) and event space across three floors, serving farm-to-table brunch, bowls, eggs, pancakes and coffee. It reportedly will not seat coffee-only customers. The restored 1930s neoclassical townhouse once belonged to collector Evripidis Koutlidis.
☕ 49Queen Bee
🍽️ plate €8.50–13.50
A Kolonaki bakery-café serving all-day brunch, known for sourdough and croissants (a French baker consulted on them), such as a pistachio-praline one. It is from Panagiotis Kalyvas (of Capanna and Kolonaki Kalamaki) and busy with stylish Kolonaki locals.
🍸 50Jazz in Jazz
Jazz in Jazz started in Agia Galini, Crete, in 1978 and has been on Deinokratous at the foot of Lycabettus since the mid-1990s. It is a small jazz museum of a bar, with musician portraits, instruments, a wall of vinyl and a 'Sorry No Requests' sign. Recorded trad jazz and blues play at conversation volume while the bartenders pour from a long whisky and bourbon list or make classic cocktails such as the Old Fashioned. There are no DJ nights and no dance floor.
🏛️ 53Benaki Museum (main building)
The Benaki's flagship mansion, covering Greek art and culture from prehistory to the 20th century; its rooftop café looks over the National Garden.
🏛️ 54Museum of Cycladic Art
Museum built around the Goulandris collection of Cycladic figurines and ancient Greek and Cypriot art, also staging major contemporary art shows.
🖼️ 56Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery
Contemporary art gallery founded in 2013 that represents about 15 established and emerging, mostly Greek artists, with around seven solo shows a year.
Pangrati, Mets & Ilisia
🍽️ 61Cookoovaya
🍺 beer €9 · 🍷 wine €8 · 🍽️ plate €25
An upscale modern Greek restaurant near Evangelismos, a dinner destination with an open kitchen and a sommelier-led wine list. It opened in 2014 as a collaboration of five Greek chefs, including Periklis Koskinas, and serves generous Mediterranean dishes from small Greek suppliers. It is on Michelin and 50 Best Discovery lists.
🍽️ 63Mavro Provato
🍽️ plate €9–13
A very popular modern mezedopoleio ('black sheep') in Pangrati serving small plates, grills, home-style dishes and tsipouro at fair prices. Reservations recommended. A neighbourhood favourite, with a second branch in Melissia.
Acropolis, Koukaki, Thissio & Petralona
🍸 70Tarzan
Tarzan is a small bar on Agion Asomaton square in Thiseio, opened in March 2021 by childhood friends Giorgos and Nikos. Its own Instagram promises fine spirits, classic cocktails and 'a pure analog sound system. Only vinyls', with DJs behind the decks; it opens at 5pm and stays open until 3am most nights. Reviewers mention the cosy atmosphere, friendly staff, the square outside and snacks like corn dogs.
🍸 73Line
🍸 cocktail €10–11 · 🍺 beer €6–7.50 · 🍷 wine €6.50–7.50 · 🍽️ plate €9–15.50
Line is the Kato Petralona bar from The Clumsies' founders, opened in 2022 in a former art gallery and run around fermentation and zero waste, including its own grape-less fruit wines called Why-Ins. In 2026 it topped the first Europe's 50 Best Bars list. Cocktails are twisted classics, served with house beers, sourdough bread and a full food menu; no DJ nights are documented, so this is a place to drink and eat rather than to dance.
🏛️ 76Acropolis Museum
Bernard Tschumi-designed museum (opened 2009) for finds from the Acropolis, including the Parthenon gallery; glass floors show the excavations below.