One wine expert runs a critical eye (and palate) over the wine list (and menu) at the newly Michelin-starred restaurant in the Greek capital
Athens, eternally leaning on its elbows, breathes beneath the weight of its own mythology. The air is a heady balm of oregano, ozone and unfinished argument, echoed by graffiti as furious as footnotes. Down a discreet neoclassical backstreet in Thissio, opposite the Ancient Agora – where democracy was invented and promptly heckled – lies Makris.
Anointed with a Michelin star in December 2024, the restaurant occupies a storied building, mere steps from the Temple of Hephaestus and the Acropolis. Beneath its principal floor, the bones of history still stir: Makris is licensed to operate directly above archaeological ruins, believed to be a continuation of the Ancient Agora. In the Aktiki private dining room – named for the ancient word for Athens – diners can peer into the past through a suspended glass floor.
This is the flagship of Domes Resorts’ fine-dining portfolio, and the fourth Makris, following locations in Crete, Lake Algarve, and adults-only Milos. Designed by Makridis Associates, the interiors fuse myth with modernity, beginning with a ceiling festooned with the archaeological wreckage of smashed amphorae – a Bacchanalian heaven fallen upwards.
Chef-patron Petros Dimas was born in North Epirus, raised in Thissio, and fed by the same farm in ancient Corinth that now nourishes his guests. Run by his parents, it provides daily deliveries of fruit, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. His cooking is an expression of a life rooted in soil and sea.
Dimas trained at Athens’ Le Monde Institute and honed his craft at Varoulko Seaside, Hytra and The Dalliance House before joining Jason Atherton at Pollen Street Social in London, and later, King’s Social House in St. Moritz. A meeting with Domes CEO Dr George Spanos brought him back to Greece to launch the Makris project.
His culinary ethos is ingredients-first: fish from day boats, meat from small bio-organic farms and nothing travelling farther than necessary. A zero-waste mindset extends to the bar, where mixologist Christos Klouvatos ensures every peel and petal finds a second life. The wine programme champions typicity over trophies.
In the warmer months, guests may visit the family farm in Corinth to walk around its greenhouses, orchards and edible landscapes – the beating heart of the restaurant’s larder.
Dinner began, unconventionally, not with a Greek white but with Laherte Frères Rosé de Meunier – a grower champagne with a rich hue, poise and confidence. Then came an amuse-bouche garden: wild mushroom tartlet, a red fruit and quail egg “lollipop”, truffled deer tartare, and a mushroom “branch” so convincingly textural it seemed liable to splinter.
Next: a mushroom cappuccino of chestnut and truffle foam, paired with truffle brioche and a generous pour of 2023 Pouilly-Fuissé Clos from a monopole site. Sourdough – from ancient grains and a 13-year-old starter Dimas calls ‘my baby’ – was served warm with Kolymvari and Laurel & Flame oils, and a standout butter from a single Corfiot dairy, topped with marigold petals.
The wine list, curated by head sommelier, Michalis Kapranos, alongside master sommelier, Nikos Loukakis, features over 600 bottles housed in gleaming fridges, which also hold up to 30 bespoke olive oils. English wines are not yet listed, though a visit to Hundred Hills in Oxfordshire is scheduled. The emphasis is on structure, minerality and skin-contact styles.
A scallop arrived in fermented lamb jus with coral-coloured bisque, topped with a shell-shaped tuille. Its partner: Blanc des Côteaux Cuvée Amphora – a clean, saline blend of four Greek varieties. Then, an interlude as head waitress, Konstantina Farakou presented a video tour of the Corinth farm, iPad in hand – marigolds, greenhouses, goats. Not a gimmick, but a gentle backstage pass.
Red mullet followed, paired with a fish-skeleton biscuit made of celeriac and cuttlefish ink, the mullet’s edible scales crisped to bristling. Sweet raw shrimp glistened alongside. The 2023 Otskhanuri Rosé from Georgia, poured via Coravin, was nimble, bracing and wholly transportive.
The pork course comprised pepper-crusted loin, jamon-wrapped fillet, wild garlic, asparagus and a tasty morel resembling a fossil. Guests are invited to choose their knife from a glass-topped box – olive, oak or elm handles. The wine: Quinta do Crasto’s Douro Touriga Nacional – bold, though perhaps not nuanced. A Greek Cabernet Franc might have sung while also conveying international character for well-travelled palates.
From a station adorned with Michelin mascot Bibendum, pastry chef Virginia Michailidou served strawberries in balsamic with vanilla-fennel cream, and basil ice-cream on raw strawberry tartare, and a rare sun-dried Mavrodaphne: Mooxaros Piov-Taspul. Only 714 bottles exist.
Then came the sleight of hand: Dimas formed a goat’s milk caramel lolly using liquid nitrogen at the table, rolled it in nuts, and delivered it with a conjuror’s flourish. The final trick? Edible chess: chocolate kumquats, and white chocolate columns concealed in a hollowed Odyssey, scented faintly with mastiha.
The final pour: Niepoort 1997 Colheita – the sommelier’s birth year. A port with dusk in its corners.
Makris Athens is not just a restaurant. It is a reincarnation of personal mythology, a tasting menu of heritage, and a spectacular rebuttal to the idea that luxury must come at the expense of principle.
Where to stay in Athens
Athens 91 Riviera, under the same Domes Resorts umbrella, is a short taxi ride away from Makris. Designed by Chadios Architects, it blends architectural nous with olive-grove elegance, tennis courts, spa rituals and golden bottles of champagne. Vaulted cabanas, some with plunge pools, all with fine linens, sit among gravelled walkways. DJs and sushi appear later in the week. At the legendary Barbarossa, guests dine on oysters, whole fish and chargrilled meats.
