Athens’ Best Italian Restaurants: 21 Essential Picks

Athens has been eating Italian for longer than you might think. Da Bruno opened in Palaio Faliro in 1985, and the tiramisu it served then is still on the menu. In the decades since, the city’s taste for Italian food has become far more particular. Pasta is made by hand, pizza dough is left to ferment for a day or more, and wine lists now reach deep into Italy.

Today, chefs from Bari, Sicily and Rome cook here next to Greek chefs who have made Italian cooking their own. Some stay close to tradition: Roman supplì, Neapolitan pies from a wood-fired oven, a porchetta roasted slowly. Others start with the Greek pantry, which gives you cacio e pepe finished with Aegina pistachio, linguine with prawns in avgolemono, and aged graviera and kefalotyri where you might expect pecorino.

Our guides usually stay close to the city center. This one doesn’t, because Athens’ appetite for Italian food doesn’t either. Nearly half of the restaurants below are outside downtown. You’ll find them along the leafy avenues of Neo Psychiko and Kifisia, in the family neighborhoods of Palaio Faliro and Ilioupoli, and down the coast to Glyfada, Vouliagmeni and Vari, where dinner comes with a sea breeze. Downtown still holds its own, from a vermouth bar in the historic center to a trattoria in Pangrati with tables out on a pedestrian street. These are the 21 worth crossing the city for.

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