Greek places in London used to have a map you carried in your head. You knew where the crowd went on a Sunday afternoon, where you ate after midnight and where you would bump into someone from home. If you have been in London for 20 years or more, you know exactly what we mean.
Ask anyone who arrived around 2003 and the list comes out in one breath. Evenings at St Christopher’s Place, hearing Greek, meeting Greeks and ending up as one big group. The trip to Earls Court for the first proper Greek souvlaki. Sunday afternoons at Eclipse, when the drink of the day was a Watermelon Martini and everyone waited to see which Greeks would walk in. Pizza on Beauchamp Place at Pomodoro. Nozomi, No5 Cavendish Place, the Café Royal, As Greek As It Gets and the Elysée before its renovation. Arizona, and then the early morning landing at Maroush.
There was no WhatsApp group and no Instagram. There was a basic Facebook, Hi5 if you remember it, and MSN. You simply knew where to go and who you would find there. It felt like a small family inside a very big city.
Earls Court: for years the unofficial first stop for Greeks new to London. Read the history of the area.
The venues did not disappear all at once, they spread out. Today the Greek community is across the whole city and the whole UK, and it lives in group chats instead of one street. That is good for connection and bad for the feeling of walking into a room where everyone speaks your language. That feeling is what many of us miss about Greek places in London.
So here is where it still exists. These are the Greek places in London that keep the old spirit, all of them Greek List members.
Greek stop nearby: Elysée at 13 Percy Street, Fitzrovia, London W1T 1DP. Greek and Cypriot cooking, live music nights and a rooftop terrace, and one of the places on that old list that is still going strong.
Greek stop nearby: The Life Goddess at 29 Store Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7QB. Greek deli, restaurant and wine shop, a ten minute walk from the Elysée.
Greek stop nearby: Nostimo at 9 Brunswick Centre, London WC1N 1LX. Greek food and coffee from 11:30 to 23:30, every day of the week.
Greek stop nearby: Halepi on Leinster Terrace, near Lancaster Gate, run by the Kazolides family since 1966. If you want a place with real history, start here.
The Greek List Halloween Party returns to the Elysée rooftop on Saturday 31 October, 22:30 to 03:30, at 13 Percy Street. On the decks are DJ Avgoustinos and Akamood, the same Greek hits and the same parea as in the old days. When Avgoustinos arrived in 2003 and 2004 he watched London celebrate Halloween and wondered what it was. Twenty years later Greece celebrates it too, so we are celebrating it at one of the best Greek places in London.
Looking for the Greek restaurants around the West End? Our guide to Greek restaurants near Oxford Street covers the Elysée and its neighbours. Planning something for a Greek weekend? See Greek nights and bouzoukia in London.
And tell us what we forgot. Which of the Greek places in London do you miss the most? Every venue you name goes on our list.
For the most complete list of Greek events in the UK, see the Greek List events page. Running an event? You can list it for free.
The places featured here are Greek List members. More than 100,000 Greeks and Cypriots in the UK read Greek List every month, on the site, in the newsletter and in the Ellines sto Londino Facebook group, and Greek List listings rank first on Google.
Which of the Greek places in London do you miss? Share it in the Facebook group Ellines sto Londino.
