In recent years, the streets around Mitropoleos have hosted new restaurants that cover a wide range of tastes—from Japanese and Latin American to Mediterranean and Greek—elevating the historical centre to a top culinary destination in the city.
One such arrival, at the junction of Nikis and Admiral Nikodimos streets, was Okio. The establishment opened its doors in the fall of 2021 and soon entered the Michelin Guide list of recommended restaurants in Athens.
The mezzanine is particularly cozy and private, offering the possibility of dining with the restaurant's cellar as a background. In the warm months, tables are also on the spacious sidewalks.
The cuisine follows international fusion paths, with balanced mixes of Greek and foreign raw materials and an artistic marriage of Mediterranean and Asian flavours.
The menu is signed by the award-winning chef Panagiotis Giakalis and his long-time partners Petros Fotinis and Giwrgos Tsolkas, who perform head chef duties.
The menu changes almost twice a year, and daily dishes are often featured.
On the current menu, the aromatic beluga lentils with coconut cream, curry, sweet potatoes and herb gremolata, as well as the buttery Beef tartare Black Angus, gruyere, fried potatoes and arugula, are special.
The lamb, cream with Greek Kalathaki Cheese from Lemnos, florina peppers, semi-dry olives, and the delicious Flap Black Angus, maitake mushroom, topinambur, truffle, and miso.
It is also possible to close the dinner curtain with delicious desserts, including fried bananas with cream of roasted bananas, milk chocolate, and caramel-banana ice cream.
The wine list features selections from international and Greek vineyards, while the cool cocktails by Angelos Zeibekis are also interesting. Several of them use ingredients from the kitchen that cannot be added to the dishes, such as beetroot skins, which are used as the base for the beautifully sweet El Jimador beetroot raspberry milk whey.
Okio is undoubtedly one of the most worthy international cuisine restaurants in the centre of the Greek capital. Its progress so far is an assurance of the positive development that we will definitely see in its flavours.
Info: 33 Nikis & 3 Navarchou Nikodimou, Syntagma, tel. 210 3311436
Eleanna Gousi is a columnist for Olive Magazine. Translated by Paul Antonopoulos.
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