The Greek Meal Between the Airport and the Islands
City Grill has two locations on Athens’ eastern coast: one a few minutes’ walk from Rafina port and another beside the beach in Artemida. Both are within easy reach of the airport, making them convenient for a meal before a ferry, after a flight or during an overnight stay.
The food is unmistakably Greek and Mediterranean: freshly prepared ingredients, handmade pita, juicy pork and chicken souvlaki, gyros carved straight from the spit, grilled kebab, colourful salads and dishes designed for the whole table.
In Rafina, travellers can enjoy a proper Greek meal before boarding their boat rather than settling for a quick port snack. In Artemida, guests can dine overlooking the sea or order directly to their apartment, hotel or Airbnb.
For travellers passing between Athens, the airport and the islands, City Grill turns a practical stop into a genuine taste of Greece.
ΜΗΝ ΧΑΣΕΙΣ!
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The port is compact enough to walk end to end. The grill is closer than you think. Find it here.
Rafina: the one you eat before the boat — or during your stay
City Grill sits around four hundred metres from Rafina port, close enough to walk there before boarding and still return comfortably to the ferry terminal. Step inside and the first thing you notice is the smell of the grill. The space is bright, modern and relaxed, with none of the predictable taverna clichés.
This is where City Grill began, and from its first days it quickly became part of everyday life in Rafina. It is not only a convenient stop for travellers heading to the Cyclades, but also a popular choice for anyone spending a few days in the area.
Souvlaki is one of the meals people come to Greece to experience properly: handmade pita, meat prepared with care and the unmistakable flavour of the grill. City Grill serves pork and chicken souvlaki, gyros carved directly from the spit and kebab made with a carefully developed blend of spices.
One of the signature dishes is the kebab giaourtlou, slowly grilled until lightly charred on the outside and juicy in the centre, then served over pita with yoghurt. For something more traditional, choose handmade pita filled with freshly carved gyros or marinated pork and chicken.
The menu also goes beyond the grill. Fresh vegetables are used throughout the salads and Mediterranean dishes, creating the kind of complete Greek meal that is meant to be shared around the table.
And you do not need to be catching a ferry to enjoy it. Guests staying in Rafina can visit the restaurant or order delivery directly to their hotel, apartment or holiday home.
The kebab that started the reputation, and the actors who couldn’t stop talking about it. See the full menu.
Artemida: the one you eat after the beach
Ten to fifteen minutes down the coast from the airport, the same grill runs at a completely different frequency.
Artemida, and if you ask anyone who lives here, it’s Loutsa, which is the name you’ll actually hear, is a long sandy beach on the east coast, and the second City Grill sits directly on it. Sea view straight off the table, horizon running flat out to the Aegean. The restaurant has its own sunbeds on the sand in front, so the day has a shape to it: coffee in the morning, a swim off the beach whenever you feel like it, back to the lounger to dry off, and when hunger arrives your table is two steps away. There’s a play area for kids, too, which is the difference between a meal you rush and one you actually sit through. Morning coffee, afternoon in the water, dinner on the grill, all in the same spot. This is the Greek day you pictured before you booked the flight — and it’s happening in the place you were only ever going to drive past.
It’s also the closest real meal to the airport, which matters more than it sounds. Early flight out, late flight in, a day to kill before departure — this is where you kill it.
For beach hours, the Crispy Chicken Salad does the job the grill can’t: fresh vegetables, light, and not a compromise. The smashed burgers are there for when it isn’t — seven signature builds to choose from, each one a fresh, 100% beef patty, not a frozen disc thawed to order.
And there’s a children’s menu that isn’t an afterthought, which, after a full day in the water, is worth more than it sounds.
Sunbeds in front, sea view from the table, grill behind you. The full day in one address. Book your table here.
What the stone oven does
Both kitchens are built around a stone oven, and it’s the reason for the two things you should not leave without trying.
The first is the skepasti, a filled half-moon flatbread, and the one thing here you should not leave without trying. Hand-kneaded from a premium flour blend, baked directly on the stone minutes before it reaches you, and loaded until it’s a full meal for two. The crust cracks, the inside stays soft, and the whole thing holds together even fully loaded, which is harder than it looks and the reason it’s the menu’s best seller. If you order one thing off this whole guide, make it the City Grill skepasti.
The second is the pizza, and this is where it gets unlikely for a Greek grill house. It’s genuinely Neapolitan, made by Angelo Genovese, an Italian who started in his family’s trattoria at fourteen, worked in Kolonaki, Glyfada, Mykonos and Sifnos, and has been in Greece since 1996. His dough gets 48 hours. His signature pizza carries a honey sauce he built himself that exists nowhere else. Ordering a proper Neapolitan pizza and a proper souvlaki from the same counter shouldn’t work. Here it does, and neither one is the compromise.
48-hour dough, a stone oven, and an Italian who takes it personally. See what comes out of it.
If you’d rather not move.
Rented an apartment in Artemida for the week? Airbnb near the port before an early boat? Delivery covers both, midday to midnight, every day, and ordering online takes ten percent off — which is less a discount than the answer to the reasonable question of why you’d phone in Greek when you can tap in English.
And you don’t leave empty-handed
Here’s the part that stays with people. After the meal, everyone gets a gift. Not a promotion, not a stamp card — something from the Greek hospitality tradition no travel guide bothered to teach you. Something small that comes with the bill and changes depending on when you show up. Nobody announces it, nobody makes a production out of it, and it doesn’t appear anywhere on the menu.
It’s the oldest instinct in Greek hospitality, and it’s the one thing on the entire list you can’t order. You’ll find out what it is when you get there. That’s the whole idea.
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More Info:
City Grill Rafina: Chrysostomou Smyrnis 8 & Christou Mantika, Rafina 19009 · +30 2294 306000
City Grill Artemida: Leof. Artemidos 121, Artemida 19016 (sea view) · +30 2294 306200
Open: Daily, 12:00–00:00
Order: citygrill.gr
Instagram: @citygrill_restaurant