Finding an appropriate restaurant for a Saturday family lunch is a common topic of discussion among parents with young children, especially if child care options are not available. Restauranteurs have catered to this family need in recent years, offering options that also keep children happy, interested and away from their tablets at restaurants and cafes.
Restaurants shaped to fill this market void are managing to combine a good culinary experience with safe places keeping children constructively preoccupied for many hours. Such spots have not only emerged as relief for parents wanting to enjoy a meal without having to get up and attend to the situations of young ones every few minutes, but also represent a mecca of entertainment and games for youngsters. Restaurants in this category are the type of places kids can’t wait to go to and meet up with friends for play, creativity, discovery, new experiences and knowledge.
These new family-oriented restaurants are far more innovative than customary indoor playgrounds and, as any parent will admit, more necessary than can be imagined.
Oliver Family House
It is widely said that if there is one industry that will always concern millions of people around the world it is the multifaceted sector covering children-related needs.
The management at the bright and colorful Oliver Family House in Glyfada, southern Athens, is definitely well aware of this, along with another even more important fact, this being that young children are, without a doubt, the most demanding customers. Even the hardest to please of young customers will find true interest at this lovely and innovative complex, enabling parents to relax with their friends.
A specially designed space at this Oliver Family House offers an enjoyable, educational and creative experience for children. The offering includes theatrical games, painting, gardening and environmental activities, ensuring a constructive time for all members of the family.
The food, a bonus to the overall experience, includes an extensive children’s menu bound to interest even the most food-resistant of children.
39 Dim. Aggelou Metaxa Ave, Plaza shopping centre, Glyfada, tel. +30 210.8986066
Piu Verde
For Papagou residents, especially ones raised in this quiet northern suburb of Athens, the café-restaurant Piu Verde is significant and, in the cases of the latter, a part of their childhood, a sweet memory from times of adolescence. Crepes topped with chocolate spread and banana were a regular sight on the trays of waiters, always moving swiftly to deal with the customer flow. Piu Verde was also renowned for preparing Athens’ best club sandwich. The spot remains a meeting point for friends. Older Papagou locals, who, in their youthful past, would sit under the dense greenery for a quick coffee before their weekend visit to the cinema with friends, nowadays nod greetings to old school acquaintances while taking relaxed strolls along the wide footpath crossing the entire park.
In a city where eateries seem to have all market needs covered, few places are better suited and appropriate for the entire family than Piu Verde. Adults can enjoy refreshing salads and delicious pasta or risotto dishes accompanied by a wine selection, while younger visitors can escape to the park’s new, ultra-modern playground, a very large space for endless activities and interactive games that push the facility beyond conventional playground standards. For even younger visitors, the artificial lake next to the café-restaurant is a favourite attraction, at once fascinating and intriguing.
Stratigou Alexandrou Papagou & Pentelis, Papagou Park (Alsos), tel. +30 210 6546185
Bella Vespa
One of Athens’ first and best-known places that sought to combine a good restaurant with an entertaining children’s playground, Bella Vespa, in Glyfada, southern Athens, is a favourite meeting point for parents wanting to enjoy a good meal or cup of coffee in the company of their children. This cosy spot resolves problems faced by parents either unable or unwilling to leave their children elsewhere to go out for a meal. Youngsters are offered themed activities, keeping them busy and happy for hours. Every weekend, Bella Vespa, ideally designed for children, hosts events bound to entertain and also educate on interesting subjects. Games linked to the concept of weather, or change of seasons, are combined with cooking activities, including pasta games. Families can also hold birthday parties here with the help of trained party planners who will enhance the fun factor for youngters.
11 Kyprou, Glyfada, tel. +30 2108982880
Buba
Upon entering the carefully designed space at Buba in Kifissia, northern Athens, guests are made to feel as if they are entering an entirely new universe. This luxury restaurant may not immediately seem like it has incorporated the needs of youngsters into its overall offering, but it does offer some of the most entertaining and unique activities kids could wish for. The cuisine is Far East in style, based on Vietnamese and Thai culinary traditions and techniques. This gastronomic journey, alone, helps arouse the curiosity of children on the wider world and new experiences.
At Buba, thick and warm rugs are laid out over the floor for children to participate in games organised by trained children’s party planners capable of bringing kids closer to creativity and, of course, travel.
4 Papadiamanti, Kifissia, tel. +30 2106231151
Wagamama – Golden Hall
Anybody who has children knows how difficult an outing to the shops can be if the kids are taken along. Golden Hall, one of the capital’s biggest and most impressive shopping malls, does offer one spot where you can take a break for shopping with your kids and keep them interested. At the well-known restaurant Wagamama, Asian food dominates while children are kept preoccupied by smart activities swiftly brought to them at the table. Youngsters are given building blocks and drawing tools to spend their time, while an Asian food menu designed especially for kids, including fresh juices and ice cream, is available. Keep in mind, the Golden Hall shopping mall offers a children’s play area as well as very clean baby care facilities.
Golden Hall, 37A Kifissias Ave, Marousi, tel. +30 2106803450
Telis
Childhood is filled with carefree Sundays out with parents, relaxed lunches at favourite eateries serving comfort food such as quality steak and fried potato chips, fun with new friends from the adjacent table, and a sweet snooze in the car on the way back home. Telis, a restaurant at a lush setting in Palaia Penteli, northern Athens, serves meat dishes and a range of other selections. Children can have a carefree time at the restaurant’s playground with swings, slides and a roundabout, all by the tables at which delicious food is served.
Agiou Timotheou square, opposite the monastery, Palaia Penteli, tel. +30 2108040484
