GB Roof Garden is the restaurant and bar on the eighth floor of the Hotel Grande Bretagne in Athens, and from nearly every table the view carries the Acropolis and the Parthenon, Lycabettus hill and the Doric front of the Greek Parliament across Syntagma Square below. The terrace and the dining room both look that way. The address is 1A Vasileos Georgiou A’ street, Syntagma Square, Athens 105 64.
The hotel has stood on this corner of the square since 1874, when it moved to Syntagma Square as the first fully electrified hotel in Greece, with private bathrooms in its rooms. The floors the restaurant uses are newer. In 1957 the Dimitriou Mansion on the site was replaced by a larger building with a new entrance, a lobby, halls and an extension of 146 rooms, and the restaurant sits at the top of it.
The kitchen runs under Asterios Koustoudis, executive chef of both the Hotel Grande Bretagne and the King George next door. Giannis Rokanas is chef de cuisine, with a long fine-dining career behind him. The wine list is written by Evangelos Psofidis, on the cellar since 2009, for the restaurant and for GB Corner. He joined the hotel in 2006.
Dinner runs 17:00 to 02:00, last order 23:45. Elegant smart casual after 17:00 is the rule in the main dining and lounge area, and beachwear, sportswear, safari sandals and flip-flops are not admitted. A table is worth booking ahead, and more so for dinner and for the hour around sunset, when what is free moves with the season.
What the kitchen cooks
The cooking is Mediterranean, modern technique, Italian emphasis. Seasonal produce decides most of it, and Greek cheeses run through the menu: dry ‘anthotyro’ in a green bean salad with samphire and pistachio, feta P.D.O. in the Greek salad with capers and carob rusks, Volaki from Andros in the ravioli.
Pasta and risotto have a small section of their own. The ravioli of Volaki comes with roasted pepper sauce, ‘oxymeli’, herbs and olive at 32 euros. There is potato gnocchi with stracciatella, nduja and roasted pistachio, a lemon risotto with grilled scallops, green pea cream and bottarga, and spaghetti alla chitarra with shrimp tartare and a coral sauce. Among the appetisers a squid tagliatelle carries caviar, green peas and a fennel beurre blanc.
Fish is sold by the day’s catch at a stated weight: 220 grams, grilled, with steamed vegetables, olive oil and lemon, at 59 euros. Charcoal-grilled seabass comes with a green curry sauce and steamed mussels, and grilled Dover sole with charcoal-grilled green beans, almond and grape chutney. The grill runs from a 330-gram Black Angus ribeye at 65 euros, served with triple-cooked fries and mustard butter, to an 800-gram premium cut at 165 euros that is subject to market availability. Free-range chicken breast, at 45 euros, is subject to market availability and to the hotel’s own meat-maturing unit. Five desserts are 16 euros, among them a tiramisu soaked in espresso and lime syrup and a floating island made without gluten or sugar; ice cream and sorbet are 8 euros a scoop. Prices are those published in October 2026.
The rest of the floor
Two places share the eighth floor. The restaurant has its own bar and lounge, and Bar 8, open-air and separate, runs 19:00 to 02:00. Alongside the menu there are two standing arrangements. Three annual releases of The Macallan are poured against dishes Koustoudis composed for them, daily from 13:00 to 02:00. At Alexander’s Bar, elsewhere in the hotel, the bar team keeps a collection of five Martini-inspired cocktails, daily from 16:00 to 00:00.
Who is this for
GB Roof Garden suits a guest who would rather eat with the city in front of them. The rooftop setting takes a celebration, a dinner for two or a small private gathering, subject to availability. Lunch runs 13:00 to 17:00, and the same kitchen cooks it. The bar and lounge hold champagne, premium spirits and signature cocktails for anyone who wants the view without a table. Breakfast, 06:30 to 11:00, is for in-house guests only.
