‹Kolonaki & Lycabettus›
The poshest district: museums, galleries, boutiques and smart cafés, with Lycabettus hill rising above.
Vibe: ● Alternative · ● Trendy · ● Classic · ● Posh · ● Must-see Price: € cheap · €€ mid · €€€ expensive (Google's per-person range) ⏸ = temporarily closed on Google
🏘️ Neighbourhoods
🏘️ 44Kolonaki
The upscale district on the lower slopes of Lycabettus, with designer boutiques, galleries, embassies and people-watching cafés around Kolonaki Square (Plateia Filikis Etaireias). The poshest neighbourhood in central Athens: establishment and chic, the opposite of alternative.
🍽️ Eat: tavernas & restaurants
🍽️ 45Filippou (Taverna Filippou)
🍽️ plate €10
A classic Kolonaki taverna for lunch or dinner, not a bar, with daily-changing home-cooked dishes (mageirefta) from an open kitchen. It is a third-generation family business founded in 1923 as a basement wine shop, at its current ground-floor site since 1968.
☕ Cafés & brunch
☕ 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.
☕ 48Dexameni (café-ouzeri)
A historic open-air kafeneio under the trees of Dexameni Square: coffee in the morning, then ouzo or beer with small meze plates through the evening. It is very local. The square is named after Hadrian's 2nd-century reservoir, was a haunt of writers like Papadiamantis and Varnalis, and has a summer open-air cinema (Cine Dexameni).
☕ 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.
🍸 Bars: cocktails & wine
🍸 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.
🪩 Clubs & late night
🪩 51Rock'n'Roll
A bar-restaurant by day and early evening (burgers, pizza, tacos), then a crowded late party bar with DJs, party nights and live acts. A Kolonaki institution since 1987, with a mixed-age crowd from the smart Kolonaki set.
🏛️ Museums
🏛️ 52Benaki Museum - Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika Gallery
The former home and studio of modernist painter Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (1906-94), now a Benaki branch showing his work and that of his circle, with views from the upper floors.
🏛️ 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.
🏛️ 55Byzantine & Christian Museum
A national museum of Byzantine and post-Byzantine art (icons, mosaics, frescoes, manuscripts) in the 1840s Villa Ilissia, built for the Duchess of Plaisance, with a large modern underground extension and gardens.
🖼️ Galleries & art spaces
🖼️ 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.
🛍️ Shops & books
🛍️ 57Indigo (@indigo_ath)
A small lifestyle and gift boutique (Indigo Atelier) selling handmade jewellery, ceramics and macramé. Co-owned by Niki Protopapa and Maya Simou, which matches Giulia's 'friend Maya'.
🛍️ 58Benaki Museum Shop
Founded about 40 years ago as the first museum shop in Greece, it sells replicas, jewellery, prints, books and pieces by Greek designers. There are five branches across the Benaki buildings plus an online shop.
⛰️ Walks, views & activities
⛰️ 59Lycabettus Hill walk
At 277 m, the highest hill in central Athens, with the chapel of Agios Georgios on top and 360° views over the city to the sea. You can walk up through pines in about 20-30 minutes, or take the funicular from Aristippou St.