The best street food by famous chefs – 4+1 of the most delicious food in Athens

These are great chefs with a background in fine dining and demanding haute cuisine who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty…and create mouthwatering dishes that are (mostly) eaten by hand at street food stalls and go viral.

Fine dining and first-line restaurants demand that the chef be at his best. Mastery, talent, creativity, flexibility, originality and great discipline are some of the qualities that a chef must possess not only to balance on the ever-stretching rope of haute cuisine, but also to make the leap required to write his own history in space.

It is no coincidence that the most famous chefs who monopolize awards and steal the spotlight with their creative moves, innovation and distinction, need from time to time to relax and go out into the street… playing with humor and light-heartedness with the food street.

So, this is what happens when a celebrity chef takes off the tight – often suffocating – apron of haute cuisine and opens the pressure relief valve, to make with his own hands from delicious burgers to delicious skewers.

Burger in Four Hands by Giorgos Papazakarias and Thanos Fiskos

In the context of the Athens Street Hub, a container yard in Kerameikos dedicated to creative street food, reminiscent of an urban taste festival, there is also the Four Hands canteen designed by Giorgos Papazacharias and Thanos Fescos, the two-Michelin-starred chefs of the fine-dining restaurant Delta.

Here, the two young and extremely talented chefs don’t sell creations (for which they’re known) or create edible sculptures like they do at the much-talked-about restaurant at SNFCC, but focus on the deliciousness of a good American burger.

At Four Hands, you’ll find 100% Black Angus burgers in just three versions – the Cheeseburger, Double Cheeseburger, and Oklahoma – and Spanish churro-style fries with salsa.
information: Keramico 111 / instagram.com/4hands.ath

Souvlaki in Capsa by Christophoros Pescia

Talented, creative and quick to react to new trends, Christoforos Piskias is not afraid of cheap food, because he knows how to upgrade it by combining the traditions of Greek and Cypriot cuisine with the innovations of modern gastronomy. He balances himself easily in the demanding Balthazar cuisine and in Dopios mezedo in the historical center of Athens, which he opened with the Pitesili brothers. Now, the same group has opened a new steakhouse, at 4 Scolinio Street, near Dopios.

At Capsa, as it’s called, Pescia’s deliciously juicy souvlaki is cooked only over charcoal, on specially made Turkish grills and ovens with vertical charcoal racks, which I got my inspiration from a recent trip to Istanbul.

With an emphasis on high-quality ingredients – like extra-virgin olive oil, handmade sauces, and hand-cut potatoes – Kapsa has really taken off, offering excellent street food that keeps prices as low as possible (€3.90 to €4.30).
information: 04 Scoliniou, Athens / Instagram.com/kapsa.souvlaki

Baked Chicken in Chicken Picnic by Pavlos Kyriakis

The talented young chef, whose work has been recognised with a Michelin star and who works in the kitchens of up-and-coming restaurants such as the much-discussed Galina in Koukaki by Philippos Tsagridis, plays with street food in his spare time from the demanding haute cuisine scene.

Specifically, in the special project of Chicken Picnic, the chef constant since 2020 bets on making the ultimate breaded chicken: the most juicy, tender and delicious in the (food) culture of the street, in different versions (from burgers and chicken bites, to grilled and flaked).

information:4 Gregorio Theologo, Caesariani and 59 Agios Sostis, Peristeri,
chickenpicnic.gr website | instagram.com/chickenpicnic.gr

Gourmet Burgers in Ortsag by Alexandros Tsiotini

When phenomenon Alexandros Tsiotinis isn’t creating delicious sculptures at the excellent CTC restaurant in Kerameikos, together with his close friends and partners Kostas Paroutis and Christos Rigas, he’s making juicy burgers in incredibly tasty and amazing dishes at Ortsag – a shop that opened this year very close to his famous restaurant.

The idea started as a zero waste practice in haute cuisine: everything that couldn’t be used in fine dining would become street food, so not a lot of good, premium quality raw materials would be wasted.

Thus, in Ortaş, in addition to the mashed burgers and chicken burgers, you will also find other versions, such as fish burgers, kontosofli burgers, vegetarian burgers with falafel, but also an original burger with veal patties baked in a grain mixture with soup sauce and truffle and chestnut mayonnaise.
information: Keramikou 93-95, Athens | Ortsage.com | instagram.com/ortsag_athens

Burger Crush in Ekiben by Aris Vizzini

Aris Vezenes who knows how to play on multiple boards, and gets impressions in everything he does, is famous for many things and one of them is the original Smash Burger.

With the American version of the flatbread becoming a craze in Athens, Ekiben in Syntagma has become a mini phenomenon!

Here one can eat, in addition to the king of street foods, katsu sand, as well as Japanese cuts of meat grilled in robata.

information:Skovo 15, Syntagma | instagram.com/ekibenathens