What's the food culture in Athens?

Athens runs 3 hours behind what Northern European stomachs expect. Formal breakfast does not exist here in the way it does in London or Berlin. Greeks grab a koulouri, the sesame-crusted bread ring sold from yellow carts on every major corner for about €1, and a freddo espresso from one of the hundreds of coffee shops around Syntagma and Monastiraki. That's it until 2pm. The tiropita from Ariston on Voulis Street, a flaky feta pie baked at that location since 1910, is the best €2.50 you'll spend before noon. Don't sit down for a €15 hotel breakfast buffet. You'll be full when the real eating starts and hungry when everything has closed. Lunch runs from 2pm to 4pm. Dinner starts at 9pm at the earliest, peaks around 10:30pm, and many tavernas still seat walk-ins at midnight on weekends.

Varvakios Agora on Athinas Street is the city's main food market, open since 1886, and it smells like a Mediterranean fish-and-meat hall at full tilt. The Varvakios fish hall is better for visitors than the meat side. Point at whatever looks fresh, and the vendor fillets it in under 2 minutes. Across Athinas, the open-air vegetable stalls sell June tomatoes that taste the way you forgot tomatoes could taste. For lunch, walk past the market to Diporto on Sokratous Street. Diporto has no sign. You climb down a short staircase into a basement with barrel wine and two choices, chickpea stew or grilled fish, both under €8. The kitchen decides what's on. You eat what arrives. Diporto has operated this way since the 1880s, and the retsina tastes like it might be that old too. Mind you, that's the appeal.

The souvlaki question in Athens comes down to pork or chicken. Pork wins at every counter from Exarchia to Koukaki. Kostas, a counter barely 2 metres wide near Plateia Agia Irini, wraps pork souvlaki in warm pita with tomato, raw onion, and thick tzatziki for about €3. The queue at 1pm on a Saturday reaches across the square. O Thanasis on Mitropoleos Street in Monastiraki does a spiced beef kebab in thicker pita, around €3.50, with a side of grilled bread. Neither Kostas nor Thanasis has an English menu because neither needs one. You point, you pay, you eat over a napkin. Bairaktaris on Monastiraki Square draws more tourists, and to be fair, it's still decent. Take the gyros pita to go for €3.80 and skip the sit-down menu. Loukoumades from Lukumades on Aiolou Street, fried dough balls drizzled with honey and cinnamon, €4 for a bowl of 8, fill the mid-afternoon slot.

For dinner, leave the Plaka. Every second restaurant on Adrianou Street, below the Acropolis, stations a man outside with a laminated menu and a 20% discount offer. The grilled octopus costs €16 and arrives lukewarm. Walk 15 minutes southeast to Pangrati instead. Tavernas along Archimedous and Empedokleous streets serve slow-roasted lamb for €14, warm fava puree that spreads thick and grainy across the bread, and barrel wine by the carafe for €5. Tables spill onto the pavement in June. In Psyrri, Karamanlidika tou Fani on Sokratous Street doubles as a deli and a sit-down restaurant. The pastourma, cured beef spiced with fenugreek, comes with small plates of smoked sausage and pork loin for about €18 a head. Koukaki, the residential neighbourhood south of the Acropolis, has tavernas on Veikou Street where the menu changes by what the kitchen found at Varvakios that morning. Expect €15-20 per person with wine.

After midnight, patsas shops still operate near Omonia Square. Patsas is tripe soup, thick and sour from vinegar, with heavy black pepper on top. It's the traditional post-drinking meal in Athens, and the 24-hour patsas shop on Evripidou Street serves it for about €5 with bread. Strong taste. Worth trying once. On food safety, Athens taverna kitchens tend to be cleaner than they look, and stomach trouble from cooked food is rare. Souvlaki turnover at Athens street counters is fast enough that meat sits on the spit for minutes, not hours. Tap water in Athens is drinkable and comes from the Mornos reservoir 200km northwest. Reservations are seldom needed outside the newer restaurants in Kolonaki and Keramikos. For those, a booking through e-table.gr works in English. Athens tavernas seat walk-ins until they're full. On Friday and Saturday nights in summer, outdoor tables in Psyrri and Pangrati fill by 10pm.