Don’t get me wrong, I like Greek food as much as the next person, but that aphorism about variety being the spice of life caught on for a reason. The owners of Souk are adding their own seasoning to Athens’ diverse culinary pot with the opening of their Lebanese restaurant and food market in the Glyfada coastal region of the city. My extensive research for this article failed to reveal the size of Athens’ Lebanese diaspora (someone at Wikipedia is getting a strongly-worded e-mail later) but one can’t imagine it’s huge, so the venue is definitely going for a wide-ranging clientèle with its street food fare.

Cooking up the interior design was tasked to K-Studio, who eschewed a traditional Levantine look in favour of a clean, modern and gimmick-free environment. It’s always nice to see a space that hasn’t tried too hard to be ‘authentic’ while still looking the part; Souk is exactly that. There are some subtle streaks of Beirut in the design, an example being the honeycomb mosaic floor tiles, and they, along with the ceramic light fittings, are the modest yet standout features for us. No idea what the Manaoushi I’ve just ordered is, but since the food is made right in front of the customer, it promises to be as fresh as the restaurant itself.

Photography, Vangelis Paterakis