Table for One: 9 Great Places to Eat in Athens

Everything faces the counter here: a narrow, warmly lit room built around a charcoal grill, with stools set tight to the bar, which makes it a natural choice for a solo dinner. Start with chicken yakitori, from crispy skin to liver, then add a selection of beef nigiri.

Restaurant owner and chef Ari Vezené modeled the room on a Tokyo listening bar, and a hi-fi turntable plays Japanese jazz, Nigerian funk and Salsoul disco. Drinks run to natural wine, craft beer, clear-ice cocktails and sake. Expect a compact, social room rather than a hushed one; the company is the cooks and the records.

Voulis 35, Syntagma

A counter wraps the open kitchen like an island in a home kitchen, so a solo guest sits close enough to talk with the cooks, and the mood is informal and communal. Guitars hang on the walls of the high-ceilinged room, a nod to chef Vaggelis Veis’s love of classic rock and to Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas, who gave the place its name.

Veis and his partner Virginia Christoforidi keep the menu short and change it often, bringing restaurant technique to comforting plates. Cod is a recurring favorite on the changing menu and seasonal specials give regulars a reason to return. It is a relaxed neighborhood address on a pedestrian street.

Agias Zonis 38, Kypseli

A central counter with 12 stools is the whole room, and a solo guest is its natural occupant: no table to fill, no menu to decode. Chef-owner Antonis Drakoularakos serves omakase, which means he chooses the sequence from the best ingredients of the day and prepares sashimi and shapes nigiri in front of guests, explaining as he goes.

The cooking rests on seafood quality, knife skills and correctly prepared rice, with sauces and garnishes used sparingly, and a nose-to-tail fish presentation takes the meal beyond sushi. Service follows the chef’s pace, with a concise wine list and a carefully chosen sake selection. Book ahead, as seatings run at fixed times and the counter fills.

Skoufou 6, Syntagma

Seats at the bar counter give the closest view of the kitchen, and the large bar is the heart of the room, so one diner is never far from the action. Manolis Papoutsakis holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand for a menu rooted in traditional Greek cooking, minimal ingredients treated with care: sourdough from the wood-fired oven, “orphan” dolmades, which are meatless stuffed vine leaves, in a cream of cabbage, olive oil and lemon, and a chestnut stifado that makes the meat version a distant memory.

The popular wine list sticks to minimal-intervention producers working organic or biodynamic vineyards, and produce comes directly from small Greek suppliers. Most guests come for dinner, but the bar stays busy late, when vinyl DJ sets take over.

Solomou 54, Exarcheia

A horseshoe-shaped bar anchors the room and puts every stool in the conversation, which suits a solo visit at almost any hour: the doors open in the morning and stay open until 2 am, and the neighborhood crowd shifts from coffee to cocktails. Drinks rework familiar classics, among them a house Negroni, a Garibaldi variation with coconut and pineapple and a whisky sour built on fruit and spice, and some come in smaller pours, so one drinker can taste several.

Food is meant to be eaten by hand: corn ribs, chicken karaage, broccoli with miso and pumpkin seed, fish and chips, mini burgers and a trio of chicken skewers. Guest DJs play several nights a week without overtaking conversation.

Laskaridou 7, Ampelokipi

Table for One

The next four places trade the counter for a table, and the pace slows. These are calmer, homelike rooms where a single diner draws no attention, and menus built around small plates let one person range across the kitchen.

Arrive early for the calmest hour, as the room fills quickly once it gets going. The cozy, rustic dining room is the winter choice, with sidewalk tables on warm evenings, on a steep residential street climbing from Kolonaki toward Lycabettus.

The name means homey, and the menu, which changes daily, leans on giant beans in tomato, peas with potato, stuffed tomatoes and peppers, a generous Greek salad. Moussaka, sardines and octopus in vinegar sit alongside, cooked with organic olive oil and a light contemporary touch. The wine list includes affordable Greek labels.

Ploutarchou 15, Kolonaki

A table for one here is a plain square under a white tablecloth, in a low-key but elegant classic dining room, with photographs of old Athens on the walls and a largely local clientele. Outdoor tables are set in good weather.

Three generations of one family, that started as a wine shop, have run the kitchen since 1936, cooking from the pot: stuffed vine leaves and cabbage, vegetable stews, soups, casseroles, grilled meat and fish. Small dishes assemble easily into a meal for one, from small meatballs and baked giant beans to saganaki with pastourma, a spiced cured beef. Nothing is styled for effect.

Xenokratous 19, Kolonaki

Dinner begins at 7 pm, and arriving at the start is the way to claim the quietest hour. The dining area is calm with a light buzz, with small side tables perfect for solo dining, polished floors and glistening white-tiled walls with gold details, and the large open kitchen full of action. Chef Stefanos Rizos applies French technique to beef cooked over open fire and coal.

The menu opens with its own section of meat-forward starters, a natural fit for one diner who would rather not commit to a large steak: a 40-day dry-aged tartare on thin crispy sourdough crackers, Wagyu carpaccio, then a choice of cuts ideal for one. The wine list, built around leading producing regions, is priced thoughtfully. The restaurant ranks 72nd among the World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants in 2026, its second year on the list.

Leventi 3, Kolonaki

On the pedestrian crossroad of Aiolou and Miltiadou, in a restored neoclassical building, a deli and concept store fills the ground floor all day while the restaurant occupies the first floor, a bright, homely room that recalls an urban Athenian house. Tables spread onto the pavement in summer. Chef Nikos Karathanos describes the cooking as Greek DNA with a modern approach, built on small producers, legacy recipes and seasonal produce, and all the charcuterie comes from Metameat, mostly from indigenous Greek breeds.

A solo guest can also dine at the bar, a seat that lets one diner build a meal from several plates: a tomato salad with cucumber broth, Cretan barley rusks and feta cream, braised rooster with calamari and trahana foam, and his reworked stuffed tomatoes and peppers, the star of the menu. Lemon meringue ice cream or a fruit sorbet closes the meal. The cellar is overseen by Jim Minadakis and Master of Wine Yannis Karakasis and the team recommends pairings. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 1 pm.

Aiolou 52, Monastiraki

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