Shedia Home - Cafe, Restaurant & Giftshop — Restaurant in Athens

A very unique place, where your faith in humanity can be restored for a short while. The name 'shedia' means raft in Greece, and this is exactly what it is for the people working in this beautiful cafe-bar-restaurant: a life raft. Homeless men and women over 50 are given a second chance to live once again in dignity using the proceeds and offering them training by top professionals. The absolutely delicious dishes are all created by some of the most amazing Greek chefs, and the people have been trained to cook them to perfection. The cocktails are also out of this world - just try the Greek sangria and you'll know what I mean. If you visit at a non-busy time, you will be given a tour of the place, and the managers will tell you the heartwarming story of this place, and will also show you all the objects on sale; the homeless have created those, too, using the paper of the old magazines Shedia publishes - you may have seen some people selling them near the metro stations; those magazines also support the project. What kind of objects do they make with them? Anything from jewellery to beautiful decorative bowls. And every time a homeless person finds a home, a new paper lantern is hung on the ceiling of Shedia Home. When I visited and looked up, there were 45 of them. As if all this was not enough, the place is very tastefully decorated, and although small, it is child-friendly and spotlessly clean. Do visit....

We came as a family of five to eat and ordered from the menu. The coffee arrived quickly, but the food… we sat for over an hour and it never came. We asked the staff, and they said there was a problem in the kitchen and that it would be out soon. We asked again and were told “five more minutes,” but after five minutes the food still hadn’t arrived. We then asked to cancel the order, otherwise we would have missed our hotel checkout.

We waited for a very long time, and no one bothered to update us that there was a problem in the kitchen, nor did anyone mention when we entered the restaurant that the dishes would take so long. From a restaurant with such a high rating, we expected at least a warning about issues and delays.

It should be noted that we were not the only ones who left with this impression, and not the only ones who ended up canceling...

I stopped by with my mother for breakfast, drawn in from the street by the welcoming vibes and nice decor. I had some delicious scrambled eggs and my mother had a yogurt bowl, which she also loved. We were also invited to learn about the establishment, and were surprised and happy to learn that the Shedia is built around a social impact mission to support unhoused people in Athens. We had a lovely and enlightened conversation Antonios and Giorgos, who not only explained the mission, but made us feel very welcomed. It is clear that the staff are all passionate about the work of Shedia and the evidence of thier impact is aparent - symbolized by the art displayed around the restaurant. I am so glad to have stumbled in and absolutely love that a place creating solidarity with the unhoused exists...