Our Exceptional Dining Enhanced our Stay!

(This is the review I have written for TripAdvisor as well)

We celebrated my birthday at one of the most elegant Roof Gardens of Athens .

The Ioannis Restaurant is on the highest spot of the Royal Olympic Hotel where we are staying.

The highlight of this Roof Garden is the amazing view of the Acropolis footlight making it standing out throughout the city of Athens. In the far distance the Lycabettus Hill with the chapel of Saint George on the top, and very close the stunning Columns of the Temple of Zeus. What more could one want?

And yet, I did want more and expected the best service as well. It is not only the beautiful view the demanding customer wants to experience as this can also be found all around here, but the quality of the food, the taste and the gourmet dishes one expects to taste here. We were not disappointed at all and we even returned the second evening as well because we found the menu tempting.



I cannot say that the Restaurant is the cheapest in Athens, and some of the dishes are a bit pricy however you forget about the price the moment you start tasting everything.



The Restaurant is popular not only to the elite class of Athenians but I noticed that one of the two nights the Restaurant had three or four groups of youngsters who did not seem to belong to the elite class . They seemed to enjoy their outing. Greeks come either in couples or in groups of friends or relatives and they dine usually late at night between 10:00 and sometimes midnight! Of course since we were staying in the hotel we came a bit earlier as we wanted to enjoy our dinner without hurry and take advantage of the stunning view and beautiful warm night.



The staff is professional, and the Grand Master was telling us about the freshness of the products and the quality of the ingredients used. We had white wine even though we had meat dishes because I find it lighter and we chose a Greek Sauvignion Blanc from Drama.



The first night we had the potato salad with sea rover and mayonnaise as a starter together with Profiteroles of salt cod grilled tomato flavored with goat cheese, and the smoked grilled octopus.

The main dish the first night was a veal fricassee which was kind of peculiar but nice, and the Veal tail with potatoes and mushrooms .



The second night we had roasted baby calf heart with vinaigrette, spicy radish and yoghurt, and we had the open sea labrus with veggies and wild mushrooms. Besides the excellent taste each dish looked like a piece of art.

Our main dish the second evening was truly outstanding, so delicious and I highly recommend it. It was the Roasted kiddling (risotto) and instead of rice it was made of pine cones, onion syrup and grilled aubergine. If I had tasted it the previous evening I would have asked to have the same dish once again.

We finished our dinner with some mousse chocolate cake and caramel cream.



From the style and ambience of the elegant Roof Garden, to the delivery of unparalleled service, dedication to detail made our dining outing experience one that we shall always cherish. The Gourmet Greek cuisine we tasted here had surely the French flair.