Michelin-starred Spondi joins ranks of world’s top restaurants
Shortly after having its illustrious two-star Michelin Guide rating reaffirmed, Athenian restaurant Spondi has been treated to yet another international distinction: a place in the top 100 of the annual World’s 50 Best Restaurants List. The decision by an international jury to include the Greek establishment in the prestigious annual list means that the city’s leading gastronomy lab has been named one of the globe’s best both this year and last. Spondi currently holds 97th position on the list.
“We are extremely proud and honored to be among the world’s top restaurants,” noted Spondi’s owner and founder, Apostolos Trastelis. “It’s a testament to our team’s dedication and commitment to maintaining and consistently raising the bar in quality and service, even during challenging times.”
During the World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2013 ceremony at London’s Guildhall on April 29, the Best Restaurant award was handed for the first time to El Celler de Can Roca, in Girona, Spain, while the second prize went to Denmark’s Noma – the latter had been the recipient of the top distinction for the last three years. The evening’s Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed upon renowned French master Alain Ducasse, while Nadia Santini, of Dal Pescatore in Mantova, Italy, was named Best Female Chef. A new prize introduced this year, The Sustainable Restaurant Award, was awarded to Narisawa in Tokyo, Japan.
Organized by Britain’s Restaurant Magazine, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list is compiled based on votes garnered by the Diners Club World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, a group bringing together over 900 restaurant industry professionals around the globe.
Back in Athens, housed in a neoclassical building in the Pangrati neighborhood since 1996, Spondi falls under the highly creative gastronomy category, with Executive Chef Aggelos Lantos currently calling the shots in the kitchen. The restaurant was awarded its first Michelin star in 2002, before earning a second six years later.
For those visiting the restaurant these days there could be some tough choices to make: Starters include foie gras with orange and spicy xocopili chocolate or frog legs coated with peanuts and accompanied by a celery and coconut mousse, for instance, while in the main course department dishes include a platter of milk-fed lamb in a herb cocotte with lemon paste and eggplant-coriander polenta, as well as veal sweetbread with aromas of “Haiti Komet” Arabica coffee, Jerusalem artichoke and liquorice. Meanwhile, a selection of tapas offers another insight into Spondi’s table culture, while the six-course Discovery Menu provides diners with definitive proof as to why the Pangrati restaurant is considered one of the world’s finest.
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Spondi, 5 Pyrronos, tel 210.756.4021, www.spondi.gr
