Most Spanish restaurants abroad try to look as if they had been lifted out of Madrid or Seville. Topa in Athens doesn't. It calls itself a Basque-Cretan tapas bar, "a tapas bar with a Greek heart", and the pairing is the whole point of the place.
Where it is
Topa is at 43 Fokionos Negri in Kypseli, a residential neighbourhood just north of central Athens. Fokionos Negri is the long pedestrian street that runs through the middle of it, lined with cafés and bars. The restaurant's own description of Kypseli is a lively area where different cultures and traditions meet, and that fits the concept.
The name comes from Basque: topa means "cheers". The bar says the word sums up what it's after, which is sharing food and drink around a table. It's a better description of how tapas actually work than most mission statements manage.
What the menu draws on
The kitchen is inspired mainly by regional Spanish cooking, and two regions in particular: the Basque Country and Catalonia. Topa's record names the parts of those traditions it borrows: tapas culture itself, vermouth, and traditional cider, all of which are drunk right across Spain.
If you haven't met them before:
- Vermouth in Spain is a pre-lunch ritual, usually served over ice with an olive or a slice of orange. We covered it in more depth in our post on la hora del vermut.
- Sidra, natural cider, belongs to the Basque Country and Asturias, where it's poured from a height to wake it up. Our Spanish cider guide explains how.
Crete meets the Basque Country
Topa frames the idea with two pairs. In Crete you sit down with dakos and tsikoudia. In the Basque Country it's jamón and txakoli. The bar's stated aim is to bring the two together "with honesty and care".
The comparison holds up better than you might expect. Dakos is a Cretan barley rusk softened with grated tomato, topped with soft white cheese and dressed with olive oil. Anyone who has eaten Catalan pan con tomate will recognise the logic: dry bread, ripe tomato, good oil, salt. Tsikoudia is Crete's clear grape-pomace spirit, the kind of drink poured at the end of a meal or with a few small plates.
On the Spanish side, jamón needs no introduction. Txakoli is the Basque Country's own wine. Most of it is a sharp, dry white, often with a light prickle, and in bars it's traditionally poured from a height into short tumblers, though rosé and red versions exist too. Our txakoli guide goes through the three Basque denominations that make it.
Both regions build their eating around small plates, bread, olive oil and a drink in hand. Topa's bet is that a guest from Kypseli and a guest from San Sebastián would recognise the same table.
What to expect on a visit
Topa's directory record doesn't list individual dishes or set prices, so we won't invent a menu for it. Here is what the record does support:
- The format is a tapas bar: small plates for sharing, ordered with drinks.
- The drinks side leans on Spanish vermouth, traditional cider, and, going by the bar's own framing, Basque txakoli and Cretan tsikoudia.
- It sits in the directory's lowest price band, so it's a casual bar and not a special-occasion dinner.
If you're new to ordering this way, our tapas etiquette guide and pintxos vs tapas explainer are a good warm-up.
More Basque-leaning bars in Europe
Topa is the only Greek venue in our directory so far, listed under Athens. If its Basque angle is what draws you, two other European bars in the directory work the same seam:
- Pintxo Budapest describes its cooking as rooted in Spanish tradition with strong Basque influences, with decor drawing on Basque and Catalan design.
- Don Pintxos in Brno is a Basque-style wine and tapas bar serving pintxos, cured ham and Manchego, with a wine list of more than 150 references.
