Tudor Hall is the restaurant of the King George in Athens, on the seventh floor, and its outdoor area looks across Syntagma Square to the Acropolis. The full address is 3 Vasileos Georgiou A, Athens 10564. The cooking is contemporary, Greek in its identity and led by what the season gives, and the restaurant carries one MICHELIN star, held since 2023.
Two chefs hold the kitchen: Asterios Koustoudis, executive chef; Nikos Livadias, chef de cuisine. They compose the dishes together from the raw materials the season makes available. Koustoudis is executive chef of both the King George and the Hotel Grande Bretagne. The list of Greek and international wines is kept by Evangelos Psofidis, head sommelier.
The à la carte list is short, three fish dishes and three meat dishes behind the appetisers, with wagyu beef sirloin at 65 euro the dearest of them. The degustation menu is 165 euro a person, and a wine pairing chosen by Psofidis adds 110 euro.
Dinner is served daily from 18:00 to 23:00, and the kitchen closes at 22:30. The bar runs from 17:00 to 01:00. An evening dress code applies after 17:00 in the main dining and lounge area, elegant and smart casual: beachwear, sportswear, safari sandals and flip-flops are not admitted, and shorts are accepted only with closed shoes.
The kitchen
Koustoudis grew up in Thessaloniki, where the spices of Constantinople, the pickling and drying of Pontic cooking and the wild herbs of the Epirot pies all meet. He came to the trade late, in his late 20s, after working alongside his father, a builder, and considering training as a police officer. He learned to cook in the kitchen of a Thessaloniki hotel, then moved to Athens and began the experimental use of ingredients that became his signature.
He is plain about what a plate has to carry. “It’s very important that a dish carries a Greek identity,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be strictly Athenian, but it should reflect our culture.” He takes the method from traditional cooking: slow cooking, heavy utensils that retain heat, and raw ingredients kept as whole as a recipe allows. “That’s the golden rule for everything,” he says.
Butter comes from Grevena, Almades olives from Halkidiki, where he was born, figs from Evia and nuts from the Thessalian plain. He describes walking the fields of Nikos, who grows the restaurant’s tomatoes, and being given a bowl of cherry tomatoes with the Greek coffee afterwards instead of the usual biscuit.
At the table
A tomato bavaroise opens the appetisers, with a crisp croissant, green olive, caper, Katiki Domokos P.D.O. ice cream and tomato consommé. Charcoal-grilled fresh beans come with lemon cream, stracciatella, caviar and a herb sabayon. Langoustine is served both grilled and as tartare, with nasturtium, ginger and a kimchi sauce.
Among the fish, steamed cod comes with scallops, ginger, tamarisk and a beurre blanc with yuzu kosho, and Dover sole with tuna, courgette purée, Aegina pistachio P.D.O. and a mustard-leaf aioli. The meat is charcoal-grilled saddle of lamb in caul fat, served with sweetbreads, yoghurt and potato chips; guinea fowl breast with beetroot purée, raspberries, amaranth and a praline sauce with juniper berry; and the wagyu sirloin with red pepper, tosazu sauce and an aubergine and tomato crust.
The degustation menu follows the same cooking over more courses. It opens on the tomato bavaroise, then an oyster with pickled cucumber, a shiso granita and ginger foam, works through the langoustine, the cod and the lamb, pauses at brie from Argolida with brioche, red fruit glaze and summer truffle, and comes to a soft almond biscuit with cherry confit, thyme honey mousse and almond milk ice cream before the mignardises. The pairing crosses a Xinomavro sparkling rosé from Amyndeo, Assyrtiko, Muscat from Samos, a Puligny-Montrachet, a Barbaresco riserva and a Tokaji Aszú.
Who is this for
Tudor Hall suits a guest who wants the evening to be the dinner, in the centre of Athens. The décor mirrors the King George’s own, elegant and comfortable, and the menu is updated through the year to follow the seasonal produce, so a return a few months later is a different dinner. Reservations are recommended for dinner and for an occasion. It fits a first night in the city, an anniversary or a dinner where the table has to carry the conversation.
