After completing my project of finding Athens’ best macarons I embarked on a new one. This time I want to discover the best croissants in Athens . This project was more difficult because I find it more challenging to rate a croissant. Still I looked for some criteria and guidance. The first one came from tips of a French pastry chef. The second was a handy checklist by A Hedgehog in the Kitchen. I took both into account when giving my overall scores.

To sum it up in the words of Duchêne: “A perfect croissant, it’s a very crispy croissant with a lot of puff pastry, and it smells a good taste of butter inside. A bad croissant is very soft, like a brioche, and you can’t have a very good smell of butter, it’s not creamy inside”.

To choose which places to check out I consulted 2 posts: one by travel.gr and one by gastronomos. I didn’t check them all out, but I made a selection of 7 places that I could reach from my office or home.

Overoll Croissanterie

Taste tried: Nutella Price: 2,80
Final score: 5/5

Overoll popped up on my Instagram feed early last year. I immediately added it to my “to-visit” list and visited it a couple of times. For this “project” I got the nutella croissant. It ticks all the boxes from the checklist linked above. To be honest I haven’t seen a more puffed up croissant before. The croissant is also very crispy and crumbly. I could definitely smell and taste the butter. The nutella filling was very nice without being overbearing!

Conclusion: I’ll definitely visit Overoll again (and again).

Queen Bee

Taste tried: Praline Price: 4€
Final score: 4,8/5

Queen Bee is an old favorite of mine. It’s also the first place I ate a real croissant in Athens. I usually go for their double baked almond croissant but this time I made an exception. I got a praline filled one.

From the first bite you can smell (and taste) the butter. The croissant is very puffy, has a lot of layers and is definitely crumbly. What I’d like in the particular croissant would be a better distribution of the filling. It’s right in the middle and becomes overwhelming.
Conclusion: I’ll definitely visit Queen Bee again.

Related: Queen Bee Athens

Kora

Taste tried: Chocolate Price: 2,70
Final score: 2,5

Kora offers two croissant tastes: butter and chocolate. I got the latter which contains Vahlrona chocolate and gianduja. It’s not very crispy, it doesn’t crumble when I bite into it. There is butter of course but the smell isn’t intense. What I liked was the chocolate to be honest. If you plan to eat the croissant right away (I didn’t) they will heat it for you. That might help a little bit with the overall experience.

Conclusion: Unfortunately I won’t be buying croissants from Kora again.

Fika

Taste tried: Almond Price: 2,40
Total score: 3,8/5

The smell of freshly baked croissants reached Syggrou avenue. At first bite it was very crunchy and I could smell the butter. But then the almond cream took over. The cream is light but watery and gets all over the place. It made a lot of mess trying to eat the croissant. To be honest the cream takes away a lot from the croissant taste and didn’t agree with my stomach

I came back and tried hazelnut and chocolate croissant. Like the almond one it has a nice crisp. The filling is pleasant but not overwhelming. What I didn’t like yet again is that the filling leaks. I lost ⅓ of the filling inside the paper bag and I was not happy with that.

Croissants should be crumbly and messy, I get that. But I cannot accept lost filling.

Conclusion: If I find myself in the neighborhood I’ll pop in Fika to try more. They are good quality croissants.

Tromero Paidi

Taste tried: Chocolate Price: 2,40
Total score: 3,2

I got the chocolate croissant because I like my croissant with some filling. The croissant was crispy and buttery. I made a slight mess while eating it which is a plus! The chocolate filling inside was perfect. The croissant was slightly overcooked, especially the outside layer.


Conclusion: If I find myself in the neighborhood I’d buy a croissant again (and try more of their offerings).

Dimitris Economides

Taste tried: Almond Price: 4,50€
Total score: 4,5/5


It is a boutique pastry shop which honestly reminds me of a jewelry store. The tastes available when I got there were plain butter, almond, chocolate and a savory one. I got the almond one as it was very fresh. The croissant is very crispy and I could definitely taste the butter. The almond cream was very tasty but I’m not going to lie. It was a bit overbearing and took away from the croissants crunchiness.

Conclusion: I’d definitely buy croissants from Dimitris Economides again. PS. They make gorgeous desserts as well.

Paul

Taste tried: Butter croissant Price: 1,60
Total score: 2/5

Paul offers the classic croissant tastes: butter, chocolate and raisin. From the first look I could tell that it’s not very crispy. The outer layer is, but inside the croissant is soft and doesn’t have many layers. It’s a basic croissant.

Conclusion: Unfortunately I won’t be buying croissants from Paul again.

Best Croissants in Athens?

This time I didn’t drag the testing a lot! It took me a month to try those croissants. After all trials I concluded with the top places for croissants in Athens. That would be Overoll Croissanterie followed by Queen Bee and Dimitris Economides. What I focused on and valued was the crumbliness and buttery-ness of the croissants. Fika is also a good choice if you find yourself in the neighborhood. I know I had some issues with their croissants but they are very tasty.

Let me know have you visited any of these places? Do you have another place I should visit?