The holidays need glamour, liveliness and fun. They need special drinks and good food. If there’s a time in the year that we are more selective of flavours and more willing to spend more to enjoy the best of them, it’s during the holidays.
So, if you’re in search of something different, want to be pampered instead of pampering others, and want to live this holiday season to the max, check out some of the best hotel menus in Athens and Thessaloniki to decide where you want to go this year.
Athens
New Hotel
If you want to spend New Year’s Eve in a design space, then check out the festive menu of New Hotel, on Filellinon street. The New Year’s Eve menu is impressive, with celery root velouté, smoked shrimps tartare from Amvrakikos gulf, grouper with cauliflower couscous with sea urchin foam, followed by beef cheeks with Peruvian potatoes puree, lavender and green cardamom sauce. And it to finish it off, a chestnut Saint Honoré, as well as traditional vasilopita (a cake that families share after dinner on New Year’s Eve or on New Year’s, with one piece containing a coin. Whoever gets it is supposed to have good luck for the year) (€140/person).
Athens Capital Hotel-MGallery Collection
Athens Capital Hotel-MGallery Collection has prepared a high-end festive menu to satisfy even the more sophisticated palates. For New Year’s Eve, you’ll go to Mappemonde Restaurant Bar & Lounge on the 10th floor to welcome the new year with the fireworks, while you look at Athens’ decorations from above. A truffle cappuccino with cep mushrooms, parmesan, green apple pearls will start your meal, followed by scallop slices, Valley shrimp tartare, kalamansi and Ossetra caviar, deer ravioli with grilled foie gras, celeriac and white chocolate and a forest berries’ sauce, as well as lobster with cauliflower, mandarin, ginger, lemongrass and coconut bisque sauce. The main is beef tenderloin with grilled onion stuffed with parmesan, potato foam with truffle, and bordelaise sauce. You’ll finish off your meal with a delicious citrus and honey parfait, mandarin confit and crunchy pistachios (€260/person and a bottle of wine per pair).
athenscapitalhotel-mgallery.gr
Grand Bretagne
For those in search of something more glamourous, overlooking Syntagma square, Grand Bretagne’s GB Roof Garden is the ideal choice. DJ and live music will make your night more pleasant throughout dinner. On New Year’s Eve, a live singing duet will keep you company while you enjoy king crab with Beluga caviar, broccoli and bergamot, steamed langoustines and shellfish in their broth with lemon scented oil and turmeric sourdough bread, handmade ravioli filled with duck confit, grilled foie gras, Jerusalem artichokes and fermented blueberries, and beef tenderloin with pumpkin puree with chestnut and mushroom pudding. You’ll finish off your meal with a dessert of crispy almond biscuit, airy yogurt-honey mousse and lemon cream. (€495/person) Prices include a bottle of wine per pair.
Hilton Athens
Restaurant Byzantino at Hilton has been a meeting point for politicians, artists and businessmen since 1963. An elegant space that is a household name for the festive period. For New Year’s Eve, choose Galaxy Restaurant with the great view of Athens and all the fireworks. Forget the traditional menus, here you’ll start with an amuse bouche of salmon Balik and avocado mousse in a crispy roll, langouste consommé with edamame beans, glazed baby fennel and charcoaled onion, Wagyu tataki with Parisien potato salad and black caviar, lobster with fricassee cream, baby gem, trumpet mushroom and hartwort, pineapple and rum sorbet, prime US beef tenderloin, with duchess potatoes, glazed chestnuts, spinach and basil cream, morel mushrooms and red wine redaction. Warm terrine with lightly spicy Cretan graviera and tomato and quince marmalade, ruby chocolate half-shell with champagne cream, Valhrona dark chocolate coulis and caramel tuile. (€90/person).
Four Seasons Athens – Astir Palace
If you want to be near the sea, in a festive, elegant ambience, then choose Pelagos restaurant in Asteras, Vouliagmeni. Each dish has been paired with a wine to make dinner a unique culinary experience. The New Year’s Eve menu is very impressive, with red prawns, terrine foie gras paired with 2015 Gewürztraminer wine, seafood carbonara, langoustine, turbot, Wagyu paired with the 2017 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape (€450/person +€200€ for the wine pairing).
Divani Caravel
At Divani Caravel, and in particular at Juju Bar & Restaurant, for New Year’s Eve, the chef welcomes you with sea bass ceviche on fresh salad with mango, radish and green apple. The soup is sweet potato velouté with duck prosciutto, onion chips, chives oil and sour cream, followed by shrimps marinated with yuzu, avocado cream, fennel pickles and citrus fruit gel. The main is grilled beef fillet with topinambur purée, purple potato gnocchi, goat cheese, mavrodafni wine sauce and black truffle dust. The dessert follows, Russian tale with salted caramel and praline biscuit, while vasilopita and a glass of champagne will also be served at midnight. (€110/person +€55 for children)
Electra Metropolis
At the Roof Garden of the Electra Metropolis hotel, you will be welcomed with champagne and canapés, followed by parsnip soup with scorched scallop, beef carpaccio from Kerkini with fresh truffle, root chips and San Michali cheese from Syros. The fresh Greek mozzarella with wild arugula, hazelnuts and forest berries dressing is followed by the main that is Black Angus beef ribeye with celeriac purée and caramelized vegetables, while the dessert is Mont blanc with chestnut cream, milk chocolate mousse, toasted hazelnut meringue and citrus sorbet. The menu is paired with Techni Alypias Sauvignon Blanc-Assyrtiko, P.G.I. Drama and the Gi ke Ouranos, Thimiopoulos Estate, Naoussa PDO (€250/person). There is a special kid’s menu.
Theoxenia
If you want to spend New Year’s Eve somewhere more quiet but still luxurious and festive, Theoxenia Palace hotel in Kefalari is the best choice, also ideal for families, as they offer a kid’s menu. Children will enjoy the sweet pumpkin velouté with ginger and orange, the grilled beef fillet medallion with fries and the New York cheesecake with forest fruit sauce (€33/person). The adult menu is the same for the soup and dessert, but the second course and the main is different, with mixed salad with Parma prosciutto, pomegranate seeds and balsamic vinaigrette, and beef medallions in sweet wine sauce served with risotto with smoked cheese from Metsovo. (€49/person).
Thessaloniki
Hyatt Regency
Hyatt Regency is surrounded by lovely verdant gardens that make you feel like you’re in the countryside and it’s ideal for New Year’s Eve, away from the busy city. On New Year’s Eve, the feast will take place in the hotel’s grand ballroom with live singing by the lovely Thomais Apergi, and there will also be a DJ. The menu includes green apple velouté with scallops, caviar and speck chips, followed by shrimp and smoked salmon with wasabi tarama quail egg & bergamot, lobster with tobinabour cream, vegetables and champagne sauce, while the main is beef fillet with chestnut purée mushrooms and truffle sauce. To top it all off, a chocolate pomegranate will be served together with vasilopita . (€168/person, including a select list of wines from Vivlia Chora Estate).
Daios Luxury Living
Daios hotel on the Thessaloniki promenade has a lovely menu prepared for the New Year’s Eve. The menu includes a chestnut velouté with foie gras gratiné and cocoa grains, sea bream ceviche with hazelnut praline, fresh truffle, homemade yuzu mayonnaise and roasted hazelnuts, pumpkin ravioli with smoked pork sauté, roasted hazelnuts and parmesan foam, beef fillet with wild forest mushroom ragout, bordelaise sauce and potato mousseline with burnt butter, and for dessert chocolate pudding with chestnut ganache, homemade chestnut praline and bourbon ice cream (€110/person).
The Excelsior
In the centre of Thessaloniki, the lovely The Excelsior, member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, has also prepared a delectable menu. On New Year’s Eve, the menu includes small pies with Roquefort cheese, pear and pecans; shrimp with foie gras in melon gazpacho with dried capers; soup with asparagus cream, smoked cod flakes and buttered focaccia bruschetta; beef fillet with foie gras and Café de Paris butter, with Jerusalem artichokes and Madera sauce; and for dessert, Armenonville with crunchy caramelized almonds, chocolate soil and yogurt ice cream, and, of course, vasilopita (€100/person).
Nikopolis
For those of you who don’t want to be in the city centre but want to spend the holidays in luxurious atmosphere, hotel Nikopolis is the best solution. For New Year’s Eve, the hotel has planned a menu that combines flavours from around the world with Greek touches. Steamed mussels and Greek caviar with potato soup with caramelized leeks and sour cream; lobster salad with mayonnaise, steamed collards, chili and mango; tataki with Prespa bean cream, bean noodles with soya and tahini; Thracian vasilopita with duck confit, wild wheat, chestnut, raisins, pumpkin purée and kale in pomegranate glaze; and grilled Wagyu with fried parsnip, wild mushrooms and black truffle. While for dessert, Gianduja chocolate, hazelnuts and forest fruit, together with the traditional Christmas desserts and vasilopita (€125/person).
