‹Psyri & Monastiraki›
Flea-market lanes, street art, tavernas and bars packed into the old commercial centre.
Vibe: ● Alternative · ● Trendy · ● Classic · ● Posh · ● Must-see Price: € cheap · €€ mid · €€€ expensive (Google's per-person range) ⏸ = temporarily closed on Google
🏘️ Neighbourhoods
🏘️ 1Psiri (Psyrri)
A former craftsmen's quarter next to Monastiraki, now packed with tavernas, bars, street art and late-night music. It is fairly alternative and gritty-bohemian (but busy with visitors), with no poshness at all.
🏘️ 2Monastiraki
The busy square, metro hub and flea market below the Acropolis, full of souvenir and vintage stalls and rooftop bars with views. Lively and mainstream-touristy, with a slightly scruffy edge. Not posh.
🍽️ Eat: tavernas & restaurants
🍽️ 3Ta Karamanlidika tou Fani
🍺 beer €4.5 · 🍷 wine €4–6.50 · 🍽️ plate €6.50–8.50
A deli and charcuterie shop with a busy meze restaurant attached, serving pastirma, soutzouki, cured meats, cheeses and Anatolian-Greek small plates with ouzo, tsipouro and wine. It is built on the cured-meat traditions of the Karamanlides, Anatolian Greek-Orthodox refugees. Fanis Theodoropoulos continues his family's 1920s pastirma trade, and the restaurant has occupied its corner neoclassical building since 2014.
🍽️ 4Linou Soumpasis & Sia (LS & SIA)
A hyped modern-Greek neo-taverna and bistro in a former candle shop in Psyrri. It is dinner-focused with a natural-wine list and no cocktail menu, reservations needed, Michelin Plate 2024-2025. Opened in December 2021 by Myrsini Linou and George Soumpasis, it is also a shop, natural-candle maker and creative office, and hosts exhibitions and record launches.
🍽️ 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.
🍸 Bars: cocktails & wine
🍸 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.
🍸 7Booze Cooperativa (K.O.T.E.S.)
🍺 beer €8
A multi-level arty bar and cultural space with galleries and a performance basement, open from late morning. By day people come for coffee, chess and backgammon, and at night it turns into a loud bar with indoor smoking. Founded in 1989 in a neoclassical building, it has also been the headquarters of K.O.T.E.S., a tongue-in-cheek smokers' party, since 2018.
🍸 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.
🍸 9Couleur Locale
🍸 cocktail €12 · 🍺 beer €6
An all-day rooftop bar and bistro in a Monastiraki arcade by the flea market, with a direct Acropolis view. Coffee and brunch by day, then a cocktail bar with DJs and jazz, soul and rock at night, plus light food. It opened in 2014 on the top floor of a shabby-looking building.
🍸 10TAF - The Art Foundation
A courtyard café-bar in an art complex with galleries and a shop, in 1870s residential buildings around a tree-filled courtyard. Coffee by day, beers and simple cocktails at night, with an arty young crowd and underground music. It has run since about 2014.
🍸 11Retiré (at Ergon House)
🍸 cocktail €13 · 🍺 beer €6
A seasonal (April to October) third-floor rooftop bar on the Ergon House food hall and hotel, with Acropolis views. Cocktails by The Clumsies come from a cocktail truck, with Greek wines, beers and light bites. Casual and walk-in only.
🛍️ Shops & books
🛍️ 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.