Athens Central Market

Halfway up Athinas street, the Varvakios market has been feeding Athens since the 1880s, and it remains gloriously unsanitised: a cast-iron hall where fishmongers build glistening sculptures of octopus and sardines over shaved ice and shout prices like auctioneers, a meat hall of hanging carcasses and cheerful butchers that vegetarians should route around, and surrounding streets stacked with olives in barrels, pyramids of spice, mountain tea, cheese and pistachios. Deep inside hide the market tavernas - open since dawn, serving patsas soup and grilled fish to porters, night owls and chefs - and eating at one, elbow to elbow at a paper-covered table while the market roars, is one of the truest food experiences in the city.

What you actually see

• The fish hall - the ice sculptures of the Aegean catch at full morning voice.
• The market tavernas - dawn-to-afternoon institutions hidden between the stalls.
• Evripidou street - the spice and cheese merchants around the pastourma shops.
• The olive and herb stalls - barrels of every Greek olive plus mountain tea and oregano by the armful.

When to go

A weekday morning is the full performance - the earlier the better for the fish hall's theatre; by mid-afternoon the ice melts and the shouting stops. Saturdays add crowds; Sundays the halls rest. December fills the meat hall to capacity in the pre-feast frenzy.

Honest expectations

This is a real working market: floors are wet, smells are honest, and the meat hall is emphatically not for the squeamish - sensitive visitors can keep to the fish, olive and spice streets and lose little. Keep bags zipped in the crush. The tavernas are simple, cash-friendly and unpolished; that is their entire point. Souvenir hunters should buy olives, herbs and pistachios here at half the price of the airport.

Nearby

Monastiraki's flea market, Psiri's lanes and the Ancient Agora are all a short walk down Athinas street.