Athens, Greece

Ergon House Athens

Price per night from$232.08

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR220.30), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

A moveable feast

Setting

Above the agora

When good foodies go to heaven, we imagine it looks a lot like Ergon House in downtown Athens. This parthenon of produce dedicates the entire ground floor – a double-height, light-filled atrium replete with vertical orchard and 200-year-old olive tree – to food glorious Grecian food. There’s a greengrocer, a butcher, a fishmonger (no word on the candlestick maker), bakery, deli and roastery, plus two brilliant bars and a restaurant to write home about. And though it’s a hive of hip Athenians downstairs, you’ll find hushed calm and contemporary cool reigns in the boutique bedrooms upstairs – all muted greys, brushed brass and walnut wood.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A seasonal Greek delicacy (with written instructions) to prepare in your room

Facilities

Photos Ergon House Athens facilities

Need to know

Rooms

38, including four suites.

Check–Out

Check-in is from 3pm and check-out is at 11am. Both can be flexible, subject to availability.

More details

You won’t go hungry at Ergon House – an à la carte breakfast comes included. Choose from any-way eggs, smoked salmon, pancakes, Greek pies and other home-baked treats like tsoureki (a kind of brioche).

Also

Went mad on moussaka? There’s a fully equipped fitness centre on the third floor with treadmills, weights and TRX bands. Or if you're in a peckish mood, make a midnight feast of your minibar (it’s more of a mini deli) – they're stocked with Ergon delicacies: crackers, black olive tapenade, pre-mixed cocktails, breadsticks, Greek wine, olives, cheese and chocolate.

At the hotel

Gym, roof terrace, communal kitchens. In rooms: Minibars stocked with Ergon delicacies, free bottled water, free Wifi, air-conditioning, TV, custom espresso machine with compostable capsules.

Our favourite rooms

Though all the rooms are space-savvy and have more than a hint of ryokan romance about them, we recommend booking the Extra-Large for the priceless Parthenon views.

Packing tips

Realistically? An elasticated waistband. It’s not giving up, it’s just being practical.

Also

All public areas and a number of bedrooms are fully wheelchair accessible.

Children

All ages are welcome but the hotel is better suited to older children and teenagers. Cots and cribs are available on request and the restaurant is happy to adapt menu items for little Smiths.

Food and Drink

Photos Ergon House Athens food and drink

Top Table

Take a table next to the 200-year-old olive tree and you’ll have center-stage seats to the bustle (and the scent of freshly baked sourdough bread wafting from the wood-fired oven).

Dress Code

Embrace modern Athens’ revival by wearing chic Greek brands – Ancient Greek sandals, Zeus+Dione kaftans and Ileana Makri jewels.

Hotel restaurant

In ancient Greece, an agora was a market, meeting and gathering place. Ergon House proves the concept is alive and well with its capital-A Agora – the bustling ground-floor where you’ll find a constellation of market stalls, a restaurant and a bar. Chef Panagiotis Xanthis prepares Mediterranean and Greek dishes with the finest ingredients, all sourced according to Ergon’s rigorous standards (you’ll doubt whether you were raised with quite as much love and affection as these vegetables). Start with antipasti boards and homemade bread, followed by seafood orzo and Greek yogurt pavlova to finish. If you prefer to cook yourself, you can buy ingredients downstairs and then prepare them in the fully equipped kitchens – there are communal dining tables too, in case you feel like playing host for your fellow guests.

Hotel bar

The Agora bar on the ground floor has a sophisticated selection of Greek wines, artisanal beers and a wide range of classic cocktails – martinis, mojitos and margaritas. The rooftop bar (open from late March to Late October) is an unexpected oasis dotted with olive trees and sporting breathtaking views of Athens – it looks directly across to the Acropolis. There’s food up here as well (naturally): choose from a hotel-packed Ergon foods picnic or order anything from the full restaurant menu as you watch the light change over the classical citadel at dusk.

Last orders

The restaurant, bars and food hall are open from 7am until midnight and the rooftop bar is open from 5pm to 1am daily (last orders 12.30am).

Room service

Room service runs from 7am to midnight (last orders at 11.45pm).

Location

Photos Ergon House Athens location
Address
Ergon House Athens
23, Mitropoleos Street
Athens
105 57
Greece

Ergon House is right in the historical heart of downtown Athens, smack in the golden triangle of Monastiraki, Syntagma and the Acropolis.

Planes

Athens airport is a 40-minute drive away. The hotel can organise private transfers for €43 each way; Athens Metro also runs directly from the airport to the hotel’s doorstep (Syntagma square) and costs €10 per person.

Automobiles

On-site parking is available for €25 a night.

Other

Bus X95 also runs directly to Syntagma square – a one-way ticket costs €6.

Worth getting out of bed for

Don’t miss the hotel’s cooking classes – you’ll have the chance to learn the stories behind the products and producers as you hand-pick your ingredients in the vibrant food hall. Then, in the communal kitchens, the chefs will guide you through every step of prep and styling, so your finished product will look and taste professional – menus usually consist of mouth-watering filled pastries (kadaifi and peinirli) and dolmadakia (stuffed vine leaves). Finally, it’s time to relax, share and eat over a bottle of Assyrtiko (Greek white wine).

Once you’ve had your fill of foodie delights, you’ll be aching to explore Athens – you couldn’t be in a better spot to see both the modern and ancient sides of the city. Start with the ancient: it’s just a 15-minute walk to the Acropolis and its museum and 10 minutes to the Athens National Garden, a romantic public park with plenty of eucalyptus-scented shade. Explore pretty Plaka, a village within the city that’s one of the oldest inhabited neighbourhoods in the world. To land back in this century, visit the EMST, Athens’ answer to the Tate Modern, or dance until dawn in Psirri, the nightlife district.

Local restaurants

At trendy School Pizza Bar, nostalgia is the order of the day – you’ll sit at reclaimed school desks and the daily thin-crust pizza specials are written on a chalkboard. Melilotos, near Syntagma Square, serves excellent grills as well as specialties like wild-mushroom fricassee and salmon en papillote. Seafood restaurant Varoulko is set on the seafront at the Mikrolimano marina and Psaras is a pretty taverna with outdoor seating on the slopes of Plaka, where you can savour traditional Greek food washed down with a glass or two of retsina wine – it’s been open since 1898 and is still a favourite with locals.

Local bars

It may seem odd, but one of the hottest cocktail bars in Athens is… Christmas themed. Yep, despite the decor, Noel is happening all-year round (we’re not punking you, promise) and serves expertly made cocktails with nary an eggnog in sight. With three floors that draw in the crowds all day, The Clumsies has it all – from coffee to homey-but-refined Greek food to leading-edge cocktails.

Reviews

Photos Ergon House Athens reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this modern market hotel in Athens and unpacked their Messolonghi salt and fig marmalade, a full account of their epicurean city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Ergon House in Athens…

You may be in the heart of ancient Athens, but there’s a new temple in town: Ergon House, a marvellous market and boutique hotel dedicated to the worship of food. The Ergon name isn’t new (you may have heard of the deluxe delis started by two brothers from Thessaloniki, now scattered in 13 chic locales across the world) – but now there are rooms too, so you can spend the night in sated style. What rooms they are too: paeans to Grecian art, architecture and design, with a touch of Japanese asceticism (and double-glazed windows to keep out downstairs’ soundtrack). We need hardly mention that the food is fantastic; you’ll find the best and freshest of everything in the emporium, the restaurant and the two bars: from fresh pasta to taramasalata, marmalade to moussaka, every morsel has been hand-selected to represent the country’s very finest produce. Keen cooks can take their bounty upstairs and whip up dishes in the communal kitchens or just take a seat in the light-filled atrium (near the olive tree or vertical orchard, perhaps) and leave the preparation to the pros.

Book now

Price per night from $224.71