Sourav Ghosh

Gambrinus feels like a time capsule back to the 1930s, but in a good way! The food is delicious (strongly recommend the pork cooked with chestnuts and the prawn in garlic oil). Very good service as well, with many practices you really don’t see in restaurants any more. Perfect place for a leisurely meal where you can forget the time (or the decade).

I’m a sucker for playful, tasty small-ish plates and Bala Baya delivers! The menu is quite interesting, and surprisingly heavy on vegetarian dishes. We started with light snacks, but the bigger sharing plates were the showstoppers. The pink carpaccio was probably the single best dish, with the baklava prawns being a close second. Among the meat dishes, kebab dumplings were delectable. The brisket doughnut was the only thing we tried that wasn’t particularly memorable. They also have a small but respectable selection of mostly Israeli themed cocktails and wines. TBH, my only complaint about the food is that some of the plates were a bit small for the prices.

The space itself is quite cool, nestled under a railway arch and with cool industrial chic interiors. We sat on the upper floor, which unlike many other places had respectable space between the tables.

Cosy, little neighbourhood bar with extremely friendly service. They are open conveniently late enough to grab post dinner drinks. And the cocktails are on par with those at any of the bigger, more famous bars in Athens.

They stick to the classics and do them really well. The meatballs were among the better ones I ate in Stockholm, and the langoustine soup is probably in the top three of best soups I have ever tasted. Pretty good bread too, and served in a neat little stacked tower. Pretty good service, though there was a minor incident with a plate being served and then whisked away (more amusing than annoying tbh). Overall, definitely worth trying for good food with a whiff of nostalgia.

Worth wondering in just to take a look at the beautifully preserved interiors (a couple did that while I was there, and the staff were very pleasant about it). Good food too (don’t miss the traditional desserts). They have multiple sections with different kinds of seating, including a long bar for fresh seafood.