Cardinale Athens — Restaurant in Athens

We picked this place before looking at the rating because we didn't want to hunt around. Then we decided to avoid looking at the rating until after we had eaten.

4.2??? Are you kidding me? We had guessed it would have been a minimum of 4.7 or 4.8. This place is firing on all cylinders! The greeting was immediate and friendly and we were permitted to choose our own table. Service was prompt, professional and friendly. Our two servers were both excellent (Sofia and Vasilis).

Prices are reasonable, especially considering the large portion sizes, at least for what we ordered and saw others order.

My wife ordered a favourite, cacio e pepe, and it rivaled a great version we had had in Rome. We shared the funghi e spinaci salad and a very generous serving of focaccia with a basil marinara and Kalamata olives. I only needed the trilogia de funghi, an appetizer, as my main.

Our plan for our remaining days in Athens: enjoy Greek grilled meats at lunch and then explore more of the menu here for dinner, as we are staying nearby.

We rarely just walk into a place. Here, we struck gold. We had no expectations and that always helps. But come here with high...

We ate at Cardinale in Oct., 2022, and were extremely pleased with the food. We had a burrata and avocado appetizer that was decadent and super yummy. I had the cacio e pepe pasta dish and my husband had the Diavolo pizza. We both kept eating past the point of fullness because it was so delicious. The wine I had (a red blend with Cabernet Sauvignon… it was the last one of their list of wines by the glass) was fabulous, I was very impressed! The restaurant itself is very pretty inside, too, and the young woman bartender who was helping serve us was super nice. The only drawback was that, when we got to the restaurant, there were a fair number of open tables but we were told we could only sit at the tight bar because we did not have a reservation. We were there for at least 1.5 hours, if not longer, and the tables that were open when we first arrived were never occupied during that time. The bar was totally fine but a table would have been more comfortable… I figured they were all reserved and just didn’t have diners yet when we showed up but apparently that was not the case. I guess make a reservation if you want to sit at a table. But the food...

I visited the place yesterday for the first time. It is located at a very interesting gastronomic street (the back "yard" is at petraki street). The place offers italian food with interesting choices in the menu ie pasta, pizza, salads and antipasti. We tried the salmon rigatoni, the shrimp risotto and the arancini, plus 2 negronis and 1 aperol. The total price was 69,00 euro (43 for the courses), which is a normal price for a restaurant down town Athens, though I am not a fan of paying money for pasta etc. The plates were well made, they tasted refined, though we were searching the shrimps and the salmon in the plates, ie normal portion of macaroni, but a little of the main ingredient. Arancini was tasty. Negroni was nice, too, though many ice cubes. I asked to remove some of them and the drink was two fingers tall :-/ Service was kind and smiley. The atmosphere was nice, both the outdoor seating as well as the indoor. Overally, tasty food, expensive for what it offers (macaroni), but normal prices for the city center with a...