Athena Restaurant

Breakfast, lunch or dinner; one favorite spot for locals and downtown visitors is George Chryssaidis’ Athena Restaurant located on the Plaza at 14 Cathedral Place. Athena is known for good service, a cozy atmosphere and some of the best authentic Greek cuisine in St. Augustine.

Today we decided to invest a dollar and a half for the privilege of parking on the street for an hour and we spent the time enjoying lunch and good conversation without a lot of noisy distractions in a comfortable and unhurried setting.

The Athena Dinner Menu is very complete with appetizers, soups, salads, side orders, gyros, a children’s menu, deserts, beverages, Greek specialties, parmesan dishes, steaks and chops, kebobs, pasta and sauteed dishes and seafood from the broiler.

We both had one of our “usuals”, Pastitsio and Mousaka. Each dinner was $11.95. My impression is that meals are a dollar or two more than average in some restaurants in town but I have yet to have a bad meal at Athena. The meals are consistent, as is the service, and that, to me, is as important as anything …. especially in a town like St. Augustine where we have so many dining choices.

Athena Restaurant and sister restaurant, Georgie’s Diner at 100 Malaga Street, is a great pick for a morning cup of coffee (complete with the opportunity to rub elbows with some of “the usual suspects”) a fast lunch or a dinner meal when you’re hungry for something different with home-cooked flavor at a fair price.