I did not go to Athens for fine dining. All I wanted was typical Athenian food without the tourist markup (see Iliad & Odyssey: Quest for the Best Athenian Gyros). Walking the streets, it seemed impossible to find. Each restaurant I passed looked like a variation of the Dancing Zorba’s. I will never understand the strategy behind putting someone out on the street to solicit people to come inside. How many times have you walked by after just having a meal only to hear, “Come inside for great food!”
The innkeeper at my friend’s hotel recommended En Iordani. While we were lucky enough to find the place, we found no luck in securing a table. Instead of being hounded to come in, we were ignored. We thought we were clever when we took the table of two women who had finished their meal. Instead of service, we were told, “You will wait for a long time.” I’m not sure if we were being reprimanded for this bold move or if he was setting our expectations based on how busy the restaurant was.
True to his word, we waited. And waited. Finally, the waiter told us to move to a different table. We waited there a bit longer. Ironically, another waiter came and said that we had to hurry up and order because the kitchen was about to close.
While I would have been happy with a simple gyros sandwich, I can’t complain about the quality and quantity of the food. The price was also reasonable at around 30 euros per person.
Documenting the restaurant for my blog, I could not help but wonder which attorney drafted the tagline for the restaurant.
Did they add another adjective to make the sign factually correct? Even if it is just the oldest, does being so in a small neighborhood in Athens make it impressive? Does anyone see where I’m going with this?
TPOL’s Tip: The Oldest Unoriginal Traditional Tavern was located next door. The address of the original is Ag. Anargiron Str. 3, Athens 10554 Greece.