Reputed to have some of the freshest seafood in town, Papadakis is currently considered one of the top restaurants in Athens. The interior of the restaurant is bright and warm, with a modern atmosphere, and the effect extends to the menu, on which every dish looks cheerful and promising. I jumped at the chance to try the langoustines in oil and lemon vinaigrette with langoustine roe, and it was my favorite dish of the meal: small pieces of cooked and deshelled langoustines soaking in the oil and lemon vinaigrette with langoustine roe sprinkled all over. The octopus is Papadakis’s signature dish, slow cooked in a sweet Santorini wine called Vinanto and honey, with sun-dried tomatoes, served over a bed of fried potato curls. The combination of flavors and textures were unexpected, but wonderful together: the octopus is tender and only slightly sweet, while the potatoes add a contrasting crunch. Sea urchin salad is a staple in Greece to which I quickly became accustomed and had to order wherever I could. To call it a salad is misleading; it’s fresh raw sea urchin in olive oil that is eaten with bread and a drizzle of lemon. This clean and simple preparation makes the complex flavor of the urchin easy to appreciate. The main course, unfortunately, did not live up to the high standard set by the starters. I tried the spaghetti with Trikalinos bottarga (cured and pressed fish roe) and olive oil, which was actually linguine with a cream sauce that was too rich to complement the bitterness and dryness of the chunks of bottarga. Papadakis is at the corner of Voukourestio and Fokylidou streets, which places it essentially at the top of a hill. At that very intersection, you have one of Athen’s most remarkable views of the Acropolis, an awe-inspiring complement to any meal!