During the tour we walked around the Psyri neighbourhood. Photo / Natasha Bazika
During the tour we walked around the Psyri neighbourhood. Photo / Natasha Bazika
Trade TikTok “must-eats” for a local’s insight if you want to experience Athens’ genuine food culture, writes Natasha Bazika
As someone who takes food research very seriously (like, spreadsheets and colour-coded pins on Google Maps seriously), Athens had me stumped. Every “hidden gem” I found online turned out tobe a tourist trap, with overpriced menus and waiters pushing ouzo shots on unsuspecting passersby. Fun? Sure. Authentic? Hardly.
So this time, I did something radical: I gave up control.
I joined a small group of eight on The Tour Guy’s Athens Local Food Tour and handed the reins to someone who actually lives here.
Anna, our guide, is Athenian, endlessly enthusiastic with the kind of persuasive charm that could probably get you to eat goat brain before noon. We didn’t. But I wouldn’t have argued.
The tour kicks off in Monastiraki Square, which at 10am is just beginning to stir. Nearby, an undercover market is slowly coming to life, as shopkeepers roll up their graffiti-tagged doors and wheel out racks of postcards and souvenir keyrings to catch the early browsers.
Anna leads our group to a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bakery that looks like it hasn’t changed in decades. We’re the only ones lingering. Locals breeze in, grab their spanakopita and vanish. We sit down and do the tourist thing while Anna fills us in on the cafe’s long-standing place in the neighbourhood.
Spanakopita is a traditional Greek savoury pie filled with spinach, fetta cheese, and herbs. Photo / Natasha Bazika
Our next stop is Anna’s favourite, and when we get to Krinos, I can see why. There’s just one thing in the glass case: loukoumades. I figured I knew what to expect. Doughy, sugary balls of fried stuff I’ve seen in hip cafes from Sydney to New York. Heavy. Sweet. Nothing new.
“The traditional ones are light. Crispy. They should float,” Anna says. “These are the loukoumades I grew up with.”
A traditional loukamade is crispy and airy, not dense and heavy like we see elsewhere. Photo / Natasha Bazika
She hands around a box of the golden, honey-soaked rings. Rings! Not balls! They look like the Greek cousin of a classic doughnut. Crunchy on the outside, sticky to the touch, but they melt the moment they hit your tongue. I’ll never see cafe loukoumades the same way again.
From there, things got messier (in the best way). We wandered into the chaos of Varvakios Agora, Athens’ central market and a place that’s equal parts sensory overload and cultural heartbeat. The air was thick with a mix of salty sea spray and raw meat. You don’t want to inhale too deeply here.
Fresh fish at Varvakios Agora market. Photo / Natasha Bazika
Fishermen were expertly gutting silver-scaled fish right in front of us, meanwhile, butchers shouted over one another, hawking mountains of lamb chops piled high.
We sidestepped puddles and ducked past swinging pig carcasses, and Anna kept the momentum going, pausing only to point out what a butcher or fisherman was doing. It was overwhelming and exhilarating. The kind of place you’d never find on your own, or because you’d take one look and decide to turn back.
Local butchers in Varvakios Agora market. Photo / Natasha Bazika
Over the course of three hours, we explored the Monastiraki neighbourhood, tasting olives fresh from the markets and nibbling on a variety of mezze. One of my personal favourites is Kolokithokeftedes, crispy fried zucchini balls served with cool, creamy tzatziki.
By this point, I couldn’t fit one more bite in. Those words in the “know before you go” email, “come hungry,” were no joke.
Sampling mezze including kolokithokeftedes, zucchini balls. Photo / Natasha Bazika
Our last stop was a century-old coffee roaster, where the barista gave us a fascinating demo of roasting beans in hot sand, the traditional method. While I usually shy away from coffee, I had to take a sip. The coffee is thick and served in tiny cups with a smooth layer of sediment at the bottom. It’s not a coffee you gulp.
We might have only walked through one neighbourhood, but the tour opened my eyes to a side of Athens I’d missed in my solo explorations. Instead of focusing on tourist spots, it was about seeing how food shapes the city’s story. A city moulded by ancient trade routes, Ottoman influences, post-war scarcity and modern immigration. You could read a book on it. Or you could just eat your way through it.
Gyros is served all over Athens, but some are better than others. Photo / Natasha Bazika
By the end of the tour, I was full in every sense of the word. Full of food, yes, but also stories. Context. The kind of texture you don’t get from a TripAdvisor rating or a TikTok list of “must-eats”.
The truth is, Athens doesn’t make it easy. It’s a city that’s equal parts magical and maddening. And sometimes, the best way to find it isn’t through research. It’s through someone like Anna, leading you into the loudest, smelliest corner of the market.
More Greek than Athens, even.
Details
The Athens Local Food Tour in Monastiraki with The Tour Guy costs €69 per person.
