Ithaki

Ithaki sits on a rocky stretch of the Vouliagmeni coastline, twenty-five kilometres south of central Athens, and has been the Athens-Riviera summer fish lunch for forty years. The kitchen is whole-fish and grilled-octopus territory; the dining room opens to a stepped terrace cut into the rock face, and the swimming-from-the-cliff regulars are part of the ambient picture. The format is classical Greek fish taverna with the price level pulled up to the seaside-Vouliagmeni register. Regulars use Ithaki for the Riviera-axis lunch on a summer-week itinerary — Vouliagmeni Lake in the morning, Ithaki lunch, beach club afternoon, dinner back in town.