Balcony Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Athens

It's our first night in Athens and decided to have some fancy Greek food. Found this place on Google which wasn't too far from where our hotel was. You got to make a reservation! We were lucky to get ourselves a seat @ 9pm on a Saturday. It was still a little empty when we arrived, but the crowd started pouring it at 10pm.

There are two floors. First floor is a restaurant type setting with a tiny balcony which is only suitable for a couple. The second floor is where you want to be on a good day. There's a large outdoor balcony (hence the Restaurant's name) and full bar. When making your reservation, be sure to tell them exactly where you want to be. Otherwise you'll be placed inside on the first floor.

Here's what we ordered. Starters: Fresh Goat Cheese with sunflower seeds, pollen, beetroot and ginger marmalade sauce €7 (recommended) you need to get this! It's worth it, the cheese is so good and the added sunflower seeds adds texture to the cheese. The cheese comes warm, and it is very rich! Quite a generous portion, very filling too

Fresh pasta stuff with prawns, shrimp and vegetables €9 this reminded me of Chinese dumplings, they're quite big dumplings with fancy pasta. It's accompanied with a citrusy type of sauce at the base of the plate. I didn't mind this, but being Chinese and having dumplings like these for most part of my life.. I wouldn't say I was a big fan. My German partner however, loved it. Mm.. I would have tried the bone marrow and sea urchin roe instead

Main Course: Pasta with oxtail €13 (recommended) I really enjoyed the pasta! It wasn't too heavy and just nice with the ratio between the meat vs sauce. Especially after having the goat's cheese, I was worried I'd be overwhelmed with this, but this went down really well. Be sure to accompany with a glass of red!

Chicken crispy with carrot purée €12 this was the reason why i gave them four instead of five stars. Although the chicken and carrots were very well seasoned, and it tastes great. I couldn't help but feel like it was a microwave oven dish. Something about the look of the chicken, you know when you've had pre-cooked chicken that went into the microwave. It didn't look that fresh. It was a slight disappointment.

We paid a total of £47++ for two, including a glass of red and sparkling water. They threw in a complimentary dessert for us. It's not a bad place to come for dinner and drinks. Staff serving us was very friendly and attentive, made us feel very comfortable. The only disappointment really was the microwave looking chicken, the rest was great. No regrets!

P/s: If you're not in a rush and really like to take things slow, this place is for you. They're very chilled and no rush kind of environment. Doesn't mean they're not attentive. We were in there for more than 2 hours. My partner and I had a lot to talk about so we didn't realise how time flew by. So we're not complaining! However I can understand how this would frustrate someone who needs to be somewhere at a...

Went here as a suggestion from our hotel concierge as my partner is vegetarian and we hadn't seen alot of vegetarian options around. We were hoping to get a seat on the rooftop garden patio but alas we needed reservations. So we went downstairs and were lucky enough to get one of the two tables on the second floor patio. We ordered our drinks and appetizer right away and our mains when our server came by next (somehow he came back without drinks). We got out appetizer after about 15 min, we got the Cheese Pies which were delicious. This is when trouble started. We originally got to the restaurant at around 930 and apps by about 9:50-9:55. By 10:30 there was still no sign of our mains but shortly after a member of the staff came out to offer my partner another glass of wine on the house, which she said no to as she didn't quite understand that it was free for such a long wait. About 2 min later we got another free appetizer, the trio of deep fried Greek cheeses which were incredible, again for free based on the long wait. We finally got our food, however, I did not get the chicken I ordered I received the steak. I explained that I had not ordered this and they said no problem you will only be charged for the chicken. We finished our meals and somehow were able to move after all that good to go and pay. The staff member at the bar whom I can only assume was a manager told us to go and sit and he would bring us a few free shots to apologize which we kindly said no to as we were so full and just wanted to go lay down.

Over all the food was amazing!! The service was a bit lacking and, obviously, the food wait times were abysmal, but they did go above and beyond to apologize and make up for that which I highly commend.

I would say this is a great place to eat, if you can get a seat upstairs or on lower patio especially, if you make reservations that helps. Also, don't go on a Greek holiday, it doesn't help...

"A successful take on modern Greek cuisine"!

Balcony is amongst the rare remaining restaurants who still focus solely on Greek cuisine. Indeed, every dish figured on the menu pays hommage to Greek classics. But most importantly, the chef has succeded in adapting his dishes , to please the new, evolving tastes of the population. From the lamb carapaccio and the Athinaiki to the cooked lamb and fish (in avgolemono), these dishes set an exemple of the vast, unique and always suprising Greek gastronomy!. Behind all the dishes, one understands the true passion of the chef and his desire for reasearch and originality. Balcony has also succesfully managed to recreate the greek culture we all love, with its hospitable service! Last but not least, our overall experience was taken to the next level with their top notch professionalism! Edit of my last visit: Unfortunately, my last visit was rather disappointing. Indeed, while the food was just as excellent, the quality of the service was on the verge of shocking. When you pay for such high standards of food, you don't excpect the food and the wine to be literraly thown at your table! (wine was poured aggresively and even went off the glass:dishes were served very harshly). I understand that sometimes service can be stressing but rare are the times i experienced such an unprofesional behaviour! I hope that unpleasant experience was just a unique exception as it is a shame for such good food to be ruined by the quality of the...