Restaurant in Athens, Greece
Two Michelin Bib awards. Accessible price. Book it.
Two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards at €€ pricing make Cerdo Negro 1985 the clearest value proposition in Athens' awarded dining scene. Chef Buncharas "Yai" Kaewwattanabunwong brings a cross-cultural precision to Mediterranean cuisine in Gazi. Easy to book and worth it for food-focused visitors who want quality without the fine-dining spend.
Getting a table here is easier than at most Michelin-recognised restaurants in Athens, and that accessibility is part of the appeal. Cerdo Negro 1985 holds back-to-back Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024 and 2025), which is the guide's explicit endorsement of high quality at a fair price. At €€, this is not a difficult financial decision. The harder question is whether it fits your evening: this is a neighbourhood-anchored Mediterranean kitchen in Gazi, not a grand dining room, and the experience should be measured accordingly. For food and wine enthusiasts who want Michelin-calibre cooking without committing to a €€€€ tasting menu, Cerdo Negro 1985 is the clearest argument Athens currently offers.
Cerdo Negro 1985 sits at Vitonos 5 in Gazi, one of Athens' most active dining and nightlife districts. The name nods to a specific culinary tradition — the Iberian black pig, whose cured and slow-cooked expressions define a style of Mediterranean cooking that values fat, time, and simplicity over technique for its own sake. Chef Buncharas "Yai" Kaewwattanabunwong works within that framework, bringing a cross-cultural sensibility to a cuisine rooted in the western Mediterranean. That combination is what Michelin's Bib Gourmand inspectors have recognised consecutively: not spectacle, but precision and value working together.
The €€ price positioning places Cerdo Negro 1985 in a category that is genuinely rare for awarded restaurants in Athens. Most venues with Michelin recognition in this city sit at €€€ or above. At this price tier, the comparison set shifts: you are not choosing between Cerdo Negro and Spondi — you are choosing between Cerdo Negro and a good taverna. On that comparison, the Bib Gourmand is a meaningful signal. Michelin awards it only when the quality-to-price ratio is demonstrably strong, not merely adequate.
The database does not list specific wine details for Cerdo Negro 1985, and Pearl does not fabricate wine lists. What the editorial angle warrants here is a practical note: at €€ price positioning, Greek restaurants at this level typically draw from domestic producers, which matters for the food-pairing logic. Mediterranean cuisine in this style , pork-forward, fat-rich, herb-inflected , aligns naturally with indigenous Greek varieties: Xinomavro from Naoussa, Agiorgitiko from Nemea, or the skin-contact whites from Santorini and the Peloponnese that carry enough texture to hold against cured meat. If wine is central to your visit, ask about the list before ordering. A Bib Gourmand kitchen at this price bracket will not typically carry a deep cellar, but it should carry thoughtful, regionally coherent selections. For a deeper wine experience paired with food at this level in Athens, our Athens wineries guide covers options worth adding to the same trip.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy. At €€ with no noted seat scarcity, Cerdo Negro 1985 does not require the advance planning of Athens' higher-end rooms. For weekend evenings, a few days' notice is sensible given the Michelin recognition, which drives consistent demand. For a weeknight visit, same-week booking should present no problems. The address at Vitonos 5 in Gazi puts it within reach of the central city, and the area has strong public transport access. No specific booking method is listed in the venue data; checking directly via a search for the restaurant name is the practical approach given no website is recorded.
For explorers building a broader Athens itinerary around food, Cerdo Negro 1985 pairs logistically with a number of nearby options. Okio and Aneton are worth mapping against your schedule. If you are building a multi-day Athens food trip, our full Athens restaurants guide covers the city's full range, and our Athens hotels guide has accommodation options across price tiers. The Gazi area also supports a strong bar scene; our Athens bars guide is useful for the same evening.
Cerdo Negro 1985 occupies a specific and defensible position in Athens' awarded dining scene. The closest peer in terms of price access is Aleria at €€€, which offers a more formal Greek dining experience but at a higher price point and without consecutive Bib Gourmand status. If your priority is value, Cerdo Negro wins outright. Hytra at €€€ delivers a more polished modern Greek experience and carries stronger prestige, but the price gap is real and the format is different. Spondi and Tudor Hall at €€€€ are full fine-dining propositions for different occasions entirely. Botrini's at €€€€ brings a Mediterranean-influenced contemporary Greek approach but again at a price tier where the decision calculus changes.
If Mediterranean cuisine is your focus beyond Athens, these Pearl-listed venues are worth the research. Aktaion in Firostefani and Koukoumavlos in Fira bring Santorini's distinct ingredient palette to a similar culinary conversation. Lycabettus in Oia is worth considering for the Cyclades leg of any Greek trip. For broader Mediterranean reference points, La Brezza in Ascona and Arnaud Donckele & Maxime Frédéric at Louis Vuitton in Saint-Tropez represent the higher end of the same cuisine tradition. Elsewhere in Greece, Almiriki in Mykonos, Etrusco in Kato Korakiana, and Avaton Luxury Beach Resort in Halkidiki offer strong regional alternatives. For day-trip or same-city dining, Dolli's, GB Roof Garden, and Delta (Creative) round out the Athens picture at different price tiers. Our Athens experiences guide covers non-dining options worth pairing with your visit.
Two consecutive Bib Gourmand awards at €€ pricing in a city where Michelin recognition usually means a significant spend: Cerdo Negro 1985 is among the clearest value-to-quality propositions in Athens right now. Book it for a mid-week dinner when you want cooking that has been validated externally but does not require a formal occasion to justify. It is not the right choice if you are after the grand Athens fine-dining experience , go to Spondi or Hytra for that. But if you are an informed diner who wants Michelin-calibre Mediterranean food without the ceremony or the price, this is where you should be eating.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cerdo Negro 1985 | Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025); Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) | €€ | — |
| Botrini's | Michelin 1 Star | €€€€ | — |
| Hytra | Michelin 1 Star | €€€ | — |
| Spondi | Michelin 1 Star | €€€€ | — |
| Tudor Hall | Michelin 1 Star | €€€€ | — |
| Aleria | €€€ | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
The venue database does not list specific dishes, so Pearl won't fabricate a menu. What the two consecutive Bib Gourmand awards do confirm is that the kitchen is operating at a level where the chef's own selections are likely your safest call. If there's a daily special or a signature the server mentions first, take it seriously. At €€ pricing, the risk of a wrong order is low.
Bar seating details are not in the venue record. At €€ Bib Gourmand-level spots in Athens' Gazi district, counter or bar seating is common but not universal. check the venue's official channels via their address at Vitonos 5 to confirm before showing up and hoping for a spot.
No dietary policy is documented for Cerdo Negro 1985. As a general rule with smaller Mediterranean kitchens in this price tier, flagging restrictions at booking rather than arrival gives the kitchen the best chance to accommodate. The €€ format suggests a focused menu rather than a broad one, so advance notice matters more here than at a large-format restaurant.
Menu format details are not available in the venue data. If a tasting menu exists, two consecutive Bib Gourmand awards at €€ pricing make it a low-risk commitment by Athens standards. For comparison, Spondi's tasting menu operates at a significantly higher price point with two Michelin stars behind it — Cerdo Negro 1985 is the better call if you want awarded cooking without the corresponding spend.
Yes, at €€ with back-to-back Bib Gourmand recognition in 2024 and 2025, Cerdo Negro 1985 offers Michelin-validated cooking at a price point most visitors to Athens can absorb without planning around it. Bib Gourmand is specifically Michelin's designation for quality-to-price ratio, so the award is directly answering this question. It is one of the stronger value arguments in Athens' awarded dining scene.
Aleria is the closest peer on value and accessibility, also operating in Athens' awarded mid-range tier. If you want to spend more for a step up in formal ambition, Hytra and Tudor Hall both operate at higher price points with corresponding prestige. Spondi and Botrini's sit at the top of the Athens hierarchy in terms of Michelin recognition and price. Cerdo Negro 1985 is the call when awarded cooking at accessible pricing is the priority.
It depends on your definition of the occasion. If the goal is a memorable dinner without a high-spend commitment, the Bib Gourmand credential gives it enough legitimacy to carry the evening. For a milestone where the setting and formality need to match the moment, Tudor Hall or Spondi will feel more appropriate. Cerdo Negro 1985 is better framed as a confident, awarded dinner than a formal celebration venue.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
