GB Roof Garden Restaurant: A ‘Grande’ Gastronomy Experience in Athens

Hotel Grande Bretagne, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Athens.

When one thinks of the Hotel Grande Bretagne in Athens there is one word that immediately comes to mind: luxury.

Located right in the heart of the city of Athens since 1874, the Hotel Grande Bretagne has been dominating Syntagma Square with its presence for years. The emblematic grande dame hotel of the Greek capital is a landmark of Athens’ luxury tourism offering and closely linked with the city’s history.

Where fine dining meets the history of Athens

And what would one expect from a luxury hotel besides luxurious rooms, stunning city views, upscale hospitality services, meticulous attention to detail and state-of-the-art facilities?

Surely, a luxurious dining experience.

This is exactly what residents, hotel guests and visitors to the city receive when they take a seat to dine at the multi-awarded 5-star Hotel Grande Bretagne.

A member of the Luxury Collection by Marriott International, the Hotel Grande Bretagne offers excellent food, impeccable service and a memorable experience at the impressive GB Roof Garden Restaurant and Bar on the 8th floor.

Unique in every way

The distinguishing feature of the restaurant’s interior is its discreet furnishing, which follows the classical decorative style of the hotel. Natural light enters unobstructed from the impressive floor-to-ceiling openings, while comfortable seats and luxury tableware compose a harmonious whole, allowing the visitor to feel the lavish comfort and lifestyle.

The Acropolis and the Parthenon, the masterpiece of classical Greece, are located just a breath away and can be admired from every corner, giving a touch of unmatched glamor to the classy GB Roof Garden Restaurant and Bar. The fascinating city, day or night; the picturesque Lycabettus Hill; and the Doric Greek Parliament at Syntagma Square, unfolds right in front of your eyes, offering a panoramic view.

The art of high-end gastronomy

Chef Koustoudis tells us:
“The restaurant’s cuisine reflects the Mediterranean culinary tradition. The recipes on our menu are based on local Greek products and several with the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).”

Chef Asterios Koustoudis

The menu of the GB Roof Garden Restaurant presents dishes that unfold the creative imagination and rich experience of Michelin awarded Executive Chef, Asterios Koustoudis. Together with Chef de Cuisine Nikos Mavrokostas and their dynamic team, they have inspired a year-round menu based on the Mediterranean culinary tradition and the application of modern haute cuisine techniques.

Premium fresh raw materials and inexhaustible inspiration are combined to compose a selection of mouthwatering dishes that tantalize the palates and satisfy from the first to the last bite.

“Through our dishes we try to present the wealth of our country to all visitors, while telling short stories from the place of origin of the products, the producers and perhaps the particularity of their processing and their uniqueness,” Chef Koustoudis tells GTP Headlines.

Sustainability vision

A fundamental priority of GB Roof Garden’s menu is its fine dining philosophy that sees the use of fresh seasonal ingredients. With this in mind, the chefs took a step towards domestic sourcing for the creation of the restaurant’s latest menu, exploring the bountiful harvest of the Greek countryside and sea.

Buffalo burrata from Kerkini, grilled vegetable salad and fig pie.

With absolute respect for seasonality, the chefs pay tribute to the Greek producers in an effort to support and honor their value. Fresh seasonal ingredients are used for the preparing the dishes with emphasis on organic locally sourced products of small producers and food provenance specially denoted on the menu card.

Risotto with saffron bio from Kozani, shrimp, smoked eel, dill and lemon.

Smoked eel from Arta, Messolonghi bottarga, Thessaloniki traditional pasta ‘couscousaki’, Kozani red saffron, San Mihali cheese from Syros, Greek rare lamb breed and organic Greek beef are only some of the local specialties of GB Roof Garden’s menu.

Chef Koustoudis highlights one dish that has been on the restaurant’s menu for several years: the seasonal fish marinated with citrus fruits and mastiha (a liqueur seasoned with mastic).

“This is a simple recipe that hides an exquisite taste with simple and pure ingredients – such as virgin olive oil and citrus fruits from the town of Argos – that make the difference,” he says, adding that guests are pleasantly surprised with the mastiha ingredient as a product as well as the uniqueness of its origin and its use in cooking.

Chef Koustoudis tells us:
“I generally feel that through the restaurant’s recipes and products, visitors create memories that they describe when they return home to their loved ones. This comes to confirm the vision we have to make the Greek culinary philosophy known around the world. Our culinary philosophy can play such an important role to complement the Greek term of hospitality in the best way.”

Each meal concludes with one of the restaurant’s many selections of desserts! Award-winning Chef Pâtissier Arnaud Larher has curated the restaurant’s dessert menu that is addressed to all four seasons and expresses his creativity, passion, knowledge, and imagination.

The chef recommends…

For the morning: Greek breakfast.
The restaurant’s Greek breakfast selections include pies of different origins with olive oil leaf and various fillings. For example, Sfakianopita (pie from Sfakia, Crete) with cream cheese. Selections also include spinach pie, bougatsa, various varieties of honey, cheeses from all over Greece and various strained yogurts produced from cow, sheep or goat milk, and much more.

“It is a fact that Greek breakfast in recent years has made a difference on the menu and we have included it on our hotel’s breakfast buffet and we are constantly evolving it,” Chef Koustoudis says.

Greek Breakfast

For lunch, guests can enjoy the Kakavia soup, cooked with shellfish of the day and vegetables, served with crispy sourdough bread and an olive oil sauce with garlic.

Kakavia Soup

For dinner, guests can start with a handmade pumpkin ravioli with sauce of ‘volaki’ cheese from Andros island and continue with a Greek black pork bio, roasted celeriac and gnocchi with raisins and black garlic.

Greek black pork bio, roasted celeriac and gnocchi with raisins and black garlic.

Wine & Cocktails

The restaurant’s menu is accompanied by a fully updated wine list curated by the Hotel Grande Bretagne’s Head Sommelier, Evaggelos Psofidis. The wine list includes bottles from Greek vineyards and labels from the international wine scene.

The GB Roof Garden Restaurant and Bar has been awarded by the Wine Spectator magazine since 2014 and has received the Toques d’ Or award for 3 consecutive years by Athinorama magazine.

GB Roof Garden Restaurant and Bar also has a number of signature cocktails that are really worth experiencing!

Highly recommended bartender’s signatures

• The GB Lady (Hendrick’s gin, elderflower liqueur, orange liqueur, lime juice, molasses, cucumber)

• Tears of Chios (vodka, mastiha, lime juice, agave, grapes, mint leaves)

• The Last Cocktail (gin, lemon juice, pear puree, rosemary infusion, prosecco)

The art of hospitality

Guests should know that at the GB Roof Garden Restaurant & Bar, the team of professionals play the leading role: hospitable, experienced, connoisseurs, and discreetly friendly.

The restaurant and bar team is the dynamic force that maintains and enhances communication with the visitor and masterfully unites the flavors, the environment and the people in an open invitation destined for pleasure.

The GB Roof Garden Restaurant and Bar is on the 8th floor of the Hotel Grande Bretagne, a Luxury Collection Hotel located right on Syntagma Square at 1 Vasileos Georgiou A street.

For reservations: +30 210 3330766 or +30 210 3330000 / email: grandebretagne.restaurants@luxurycollection.com

Visit the restaurant’s website here: https://www.gbroofgarden.gr/