This funky restaurant’s name was inspired by its address, on one of the main streets in the Athens district known as Neos Kosmos, or New World. It could just as well be called Terra Incognita, so distant is it from the usual areas frequented by locals and foreigners alike for entertainment and good food. And yet, geographically, it’s just a short walk from a new institution that has already claimed its rightful place among the “must sees” of the Big Olive: the National Museum of Contemporary Art.

Ilioupoli may be an unassuming residential suburb southeast of Athens, but this neighborhood, whose name means “Sun City,” has at least one shining culinary star: Mikres Kyklades (Small Cyclades). Opened by Antonis Kovaios in 2005, the seafood restaurant is named after the most remote group of islands in the Cyclades, which includes such heavyweights as Santorini and Mykonos. Clustered south of Naxos, the Small Cyclades are what you imagine islands in Greece to be – clean blue sea, natural beauty and an abundance of fresh fish and seafood ¬– minus the crowds.

For the average visitor to Athens, the culinary scene remains captive to a number of clichés. The cobblestone streets of Plaka are still lined with tavernas and restaurants ready to cater to a rather outdated and make-believe idea of Greek eating: drinking retsina and eating moussaka under the moonlit Parthenon with the occasional bouzouki playing in the background, or going for souvlaki (the most famous Greek street food) near Monastiraki Square among a throng of tourists. These experiences are, unfortunately, still the norm for the majority of travelers to Athens.