Kozi's, temple of meat eating!

Kozi's was on my "restaurants to visit" list for a long time now. The distance, i need to drive 50km both ways, and the fact that they dont take reservations was always keeping me back. The place is packed all evenings and arriving late might make you wait for 60-90 minutes to get a table. Things get worse, and dangerous for other customers, when you see those delicious plates arriving and you are hungry.

The party started with a salad named Shambalala which was simply amazing. The mixed greens with beef fillet strips,pamagranate,parmesan and a perfectly balanced sweet orange chilli dressing was mouthwatering, add to that the huge portion that was more then enough for 4 people and the ball was allready on the field ready for kick off.

When the main dishes arrived the table started smelling like heaven. At this point i must tell you that the owner of the restaurant came back to Greece after he worked many years  in South africa and he is using some amazing spices that is the big bonus in all kinds of meat he cooks.

We tried four different main dishes and the winner of the night among equals was kokobongo, 500kg of chicken perfection in a skewer. Juicy meat, perfectly grilled with intensive spices in a huge portion that luckilly for me my wife couldn't eat all. 

My main was chakalaka, a beef rib eye cooked medium in perfection, with herb butter to melt slowly on the delicious crust. I feel the need to thank the south african culture and their spices for this amazing food experience i had. Once we finished the dinner i felt i need to do this review asap and try to spread it to the world. My dear reader you need to visit this grill temple before you die.

Wait a minute was everything that perfect? unfortunately not.

This is not a place you can relax and enjoy the food as it deserves, its more like a fast food experience. First of all the biggest problem is our legs were cold. Its unacceptable a restaurant that warms your heart with such delicious food not to be able to warm your legs. The tables are really close to eachother and small while the decoration was so boring that reminded me of base grill. Maybe thats the explantion why the prices are so good for this quality. People dont spend too much time on the table and he can serve lots of customers per day.

Wine list was really small without any interesting choices so i decided to get a beer for change.

With our stomach making happy noises and our heart full of happy emotions we payed and tried to find a place warm our legs.

Cuisine: 8,5/10
Wine List: 2/10
Service: 9/10
Atmosphere: 3/10

Best of wines 2014

Actually this is not a best of but the wines i enjoyed the most in 2014. The joy a bottle of wine can bring is a matter of many factors like the occasion of a dinner or the group of friends you can share it with. So for now this is the list of the wines that impressed me the most in 2014...

1) 2006 Castelgiocondo (Marchesi de' Frescobaldi) Brunello di Montalcino
This was one of the wines we choose for the new years eve dinner and it was actually the last one i tried for 2014. Silky texture with soft tannins and lots of fruit. Sagniovese at its best! 93/100

2) 2003 Dougos Methistanes red
The wine was part of a dinner i had in Paradiso restaurant and it was sugested to me by the good friend and owner of the restaurant Grigoris Michailos. It was love at first smell, certainly on the top 5 of Greek wines i ever tried. 93/100

3) 2009 Markus Molitor Wehlener Klosterberg Riesling Spätlese
If you hear people talking about minerality in wine and you have no clue what they talk about, you need to try this wine or any other riesling from the mosel river. 92/100

4) 2013 Karipidis Sauvignon blanc fume
I love Sauvignon blanc and this was the wine in enjoyed the most from the variety in 2014 91/100

5) 2006 Lykos Syrah
A nicely made Syrah from this family winery from evoia. Spicy, with back pepper and blackberry conquering nose and mouth.  91/100

6) 2013 grevenon ghi kalyvia 
This rose was a huge surprise for me. It comes from an unknown winery from Grevena and delivers a really nice rose from xinomavro-syrah blend. Food pairing wise, it has this crispy acidity that would be ideal for all the olive oil based Greek dishes or pizza. 87/100

7) 2013 Avantis Estate Charisma Ghis Evia
With our country in the middle of the crisis producers need to find a way to make more value for money wines like this one.  A really nicely made malagousia- trebbiano blend with polished texture and perfectly balanced acidity. 86/100

Chez Violette, bringing Paris to Athens!

Here I am after a long time with a new post. In the meantime between my last posts I visited Prague and the amazing small village in Germany called Dittigheim. I had some pretty descent culinary experiences but no time to write about it.

Before few months a friend of mine who runs Rozalia restaurant in Athens told me about a new opening he did. He took me there to check it out and I was left with my mouth open. Restaurants are located in an amazing old building that previously was an elementary school. In the upper floor and the backyard of the building they run a Greek meze restaurant and after you walk some stairs to the down floor you reach the amazing entrance of a small French Bistro called “ Chez Violette”.

In my opinion Chez Violette is the most beautiful restaurant in Athens now and it’s the closest you can get to the Parisian atmosphere. The owner of the restaurant  is French for real and made a place where you can get the actual daily flavor of what residents in Paris can get. The huge surprise was the prices in the menu, I couldn’t believe my eyes! Need example? Salads starting from 4 euro, appetizers 3-4 euro, Main dishes 8-9 euro and a small wine list starting from 10 euro a 750ml bottle or 2,5 euro by glass. For some reason everyone involved to bring the french cuisine to Athens was approaching the food in the fancy, expensive way. Nobody tried to make an honest, comfort French restaurant and this is the gap the Chez Violette came to fill in.

We had a Green salad with crème dressing and cod croquettes with pineapple sauce for starters. Both where really fresh and had unique taste. My main dish was duck confit in layers with mashed potatoes au gratin, my wife’s main was chicken with avocado curry sauce. Everything we tried was really honest French kitchen with good ingredients and you get this sense that your mother is cooking.

What I really liked was the timings of Service. They bring appetizers within 3-4 minutes and they let you enjoy them before they go on with the mains unlike other restaurants that fill you table with everything and you don’t know what to eat first.

When you finish your dinner they immediately pick up empty plates and they don’t ask all the time if you want dessert. I think I found a place to spend the hot summer nights in Athens, If you are going there Friday or saturday night make sure you reserve a table.
Kalidromeiou 69, Methwnis 66 exarchia.
tel 0030 2103845974

Cuisine: 7/10
Wine List: 6/10
Service: 10/10
Atmosphere: 10/10

PARADISO, WINE LOVERS SANCTUARY IN CHALANDRI!

Back in action with my third visit to one of the longest running restaurants in Athens, open since 1978!!! Paradiso is family run Italian restaurant in Chalandri with the presence of the second generation owner Gregory being reason on its own to visit it. Greg respects and knows the wine better than any other restaurant owner in Athens.  Paradiso is one of the few restaurants in Athens that you can get a flight of 5 wines for 10 euro to match your dinner, Greg will spend time to explain and give every possible info on each wine you will try. The wine list changes every month including both rare and mainstream choices really fairly priced.

The Decoration is really minimal and not dinner friendly, but this is certainly something you will forget once the dishes start coming.

We started our dinner with the prosciutto salad which was really good with really fresh ingredients and a perfectly balanced sweet-sour dressing.  The two appetizers were eggplant croquets and some really delicious brouschettes. The wine suggestion of Greg was the amazingly crispy Chardonnay from katsarou winery which we really enjoyed.

 

We got 4 different main courses and everything was really well cooked, my tagliata di manzo was simply astonishing.  The meat had this amazing buttery texture and it was perfectly medium grilled. Top notch quality bio meat which I really enjoyed. My only small complain was the side lettuce instead of the standard baby rucolla.

 

 

The highlight of the night though was the wine Greg chose for our main course. Methistanes from dougos winery 2003 is probably the best Greek wine I have ever tried alongside with La tour melas 2008. Unfortunately Greg informed me the vintage is totally sold out so it will be really difficult for me to try it again.

The nose of the wine is fruity with aromas of dried cherry and strawberry. Body was full with round tannins and long finish. An 93/100 for me, just imagine i didnt even tried the desserts not to lose the taste i had in mouth!

All in all this is a restaurant for people who love wine and not only with great service and great food. Highly suggested!

Cuisine: 7/10
Wine List: 9/10
Service: 10/10
Atmosphere: 3/10

Moouu, new restaurant dedicated to beef

This strange name for a restaurant comes from the sound the beef makes, which is not a really smart and helpful name if you ask me. Imagine trying to tell you friends “hey I found a new restaurant we should go, its called moouu”. Probably they will think you are trying to make fun of them.

The owner’s of this new restaurant run already a nearby fish food restaurant called “sardelaki” for which I have heard many good words and it is considered a really successful project.

Moouu is trying to offer a cheaper solution then it’s competitors in different cuts of beef. The menu is really small and straight to the point. It consists of few appetizers, 3-4 salads, chicken fillet(thank god because my wife would have issues finding something to eat) and 10 different cuts of beef! Their meat is supposed to be Grass fed from breeds like wagyu, black angus and Hereford. The first big mistake I found on the menu is that they don’t identify which type of breed is each cut.  When you advertise the importance of the raw material you should be able to provide all the info through the menu or at least through the waiter, who had no idea what types of breed they use.

The wine list is small but it is very good! Most of their choices come from small unknown producers, some of them I didn’t even know, and thanks to them I found a new amazing merlot from Migas Estate!

The chef's welcome was a potato soup shot with truffle oil which was ok.

 We started our dinner with steak tartar and fried potatoes.  The tartar came with the classic poached egg and the waiter old us we should break it so as the croquet will mix with the meat. Unfortunately the egg was over boiled so we missed that.  The quality of the meat though was very good and well spiced.

Main dishes was chicken fillet with side salad, which was very good but then what can go wrong with a chicken fillet when you use good materials.My unknown cut that was suggested to me by the waitress but she didn’t remember the name because it was new  the menu. Anyhow this dish was my main reason for visiting the restaurant and it was really good tastewise, from my small experience i believe it was flat iron.  The meat had this butter texture, perfectly medium grilled accompanied by the classic three types of salt and grilled vegetables.

The key question here is if the restaurant can stand next to Vezene or Base grill and at the same time be 30% cheaper. Well… no. It can be though a nice choice for an alternative when you want to have a well grilled steak from nice materials as long as they will improve their service.  I will not mention all the problems the service had because the restaurant is brand new and I am sure they will take care of them.

The reason I never mention desserts is that I rarely have space for them and I am not even a big fan of them at all. 

  

Cuisine: 7/10
Wine List: 7/10
Service: 3/10
Atmosphere: 5/10

L'abbuffata, Tasty Discovery at Trikala Korinthias!

L’abbuffata opened in 2011 and it’s located at Trikala Korinthias which is the closest winter destination in Athens. The last years many people invested in the area with new hotels openings and luxurious Chalets. Gastronomy wise though the location still suffers a lot, most of the dining options are old style Greek tavernas with very bad approach in what a restaurant should offer to its clients. Sorry but I’ve had enough of Chicken fillet, pork steak, tzatziki and house wine, do you have anything new to propose? When I found out through my favorite Food and Leisure guide (http://www.fnl-guide.com/) there was a new opening of an Italian restaurant I knew this was my next thing to do when I visit the area.

The restaurant is dominated by mrs Despoina who is the heart and the soul of it. She welcomes you and makes you feel like home immediately. Menu is small and changing everyday based on what’s fresh. The hall of the restaurant is really warm and cozy with a big fireplace. Once you enter there is a small table with free Italian Cheeses like Parmigiano regiano and Pecorino accompanied by a fruit glace. You can cut the amount you want and put it in a small plate. Can you really think a better way to start or maybe finish a dinner?

We started with a smooth Sicilian Caponata with Katiki Cheese and a really fresh vegetable salad with a perfectly balanced Balsamic dressing.

I was happy to see they were serving the real Carbonara and since it is so difficult to find it in Greece I decided to go with it as my main dish. Pasta was perfectly boiled and the result was exactly what you get in Italy. We also tried a Rigatoni with chicken and sun dried tomato which was also really well cooked.

The wine list is the only problem as it lucks choices especially in the white wines.

We will be back for sure and try more dishes!

Cuisine: 7/10
Wine List: 4/10
Service: 6/10
Atmosphere: 9/10

www.labbuffata.gr

Garden of eden (for wine lovers)

Yesterday I visited with some friends the restaurant “Gefseis me onomasia proeleyshs”. Last time I was there 2 years ago and dined in the inside building of this 19^th century mansion. We had a really fancy dinner but it was way overpriced despite the 50% discount we had through a wine magazine. Lately I was reading more and more bad reviews about their prices and this probably made them rethink so I decided to give it one more chance when I saw they changed their policy. This time we decided to try the newly added tapas menu in their lovely garden and the first shock was the wine list. Most of the white wines were charged for 13-15 euro while buying them from a wine merchant it would cost around 8-9 euro!!! On top of that we had a 20% discount due to the athinorama club card!!! On the 200 wine choices of the list you can still find bottles like a chateau Petrus 1986, residues of golden age I guess, for almost 2000 euro but I guess this will stay there for while.We accompanied the 2 bottles of wine with 7 different tapas, all were big portions and really fresh ingredients. The total amount for 4 persons was 57 euro (3 bottles of mineral water, bread and dip included in the price)! Before Crisis this would be the amount required for the 2 bottles of wine alone. That’s what I call a bargain, a must for all wine lovers!

Cuisine: 7/10
Wine List: 10/10
Service: 8/10
Atmosphere: 9/10

www.gefseis.gr