Greek Taverna Poli Kala – Authentic, Modern Greek Flavors in Hiroshima

Hiroshima locals eat more than okonomiyaki. Greek Taverna Poli Kala has a Greek-styled Mediterranean menu by Albanian chef, Tomor Kochi. Fresh, local ingredients from Hiroshima and the Seto Inland Sea pair seamlessly with Greek cuisine’s love of bright, tangy and complex flavors. 

When asked which dish he recommended, Kochi said, “All the menu is recommended here!” There is nothing like it in the city. Poli Kala is one of only two Greek restaurants in Hiroshima and the only one in the city center. It brings a unique Greek-Mediterranean dining experience to Hiroshima where the pasta scene is overwhelmingly Italian in flavor profile. 

A look at the menu might initially make a Westerner suspicious of whether the restaurant is actually Greek. The main dishes—spaghetti and risotto—aren’t exactly traditional Greek pasta fare. However, in keeping with modern trends in Greek cooking, the original Italian dishes are reinterpreted through the lens of Greek flavors, creating a fusion that looks and sounds Italian but tastes Greek. 

Achieving this culinary alchemy is Kochi, who has the experience to bring the tastes of a  modern, Greek taverna to the City of Peace. He spent six years as a chef at Caffè Ponte—by Peace Park’s Motoyasu Bridge—one of the most iconic Italian restaurants in the city. Before that he cooked for 12 years in Greece and two years in Italy. He is a self described “Mediterranean” chef. And his dishes are like an epiphany for people bored with Italian cuisine. Pasta is good. But who knew pasta could be this good? 

The prices are on the higher side of affordable. The A Lunch Set, which includes soup, salad, bread, a beverage, a dessert and your choice of pasta or risotto, is a comfortable ¥1,980. On the other hand, the B Lunch Set will set you back ¥3,300 for the addition of a three part appetizer plate and a steak dish. The dishes on the lunch à-la-carte menu range from ¥220 to ¥1,600, with most dishes lying around the ¥1,000 to ¥1,400 range — about equal in price to a bowl of ramen or a plate of okonomiyaki but with only a side-dish or appetizer’s worth of food. At the same time, with dishes like dolmades, chicken juvechi and melitzano salata, the à-la-carte menu is the Greekest part of the menu apart from the Georgas Family Retsina and the Ouzo 12 — rare finds in Japan, let alone Hiroshima.

The lunch set menu is firmly set, says Kochi, but some elements change depending on what is available. For example, sometimes the lunch set’s “bread”—served with skordalia, a kind of potato spread—is sometimes switched out with tiropita, a rich, crispy, “cheese pie” made out of layers of buttery phyllo dough stuffed with feta cheese. The desert also changes, most recently between ice cream and panna cotta. 

Join for dinner and the ¥6,600, nine-course-meal includes choiriná païdákia—massive, Greek-style, pork spare ribs.

Poli Kala is relatively new in Hiroshima. Located a one minute walk from the south-west corner of Peace Park along the Honkawa riverside route to JMS Aster Plaza and Sumiyoshi Shrine, it started out as a Greek-styled okonomiyaki restaurant in 2022. However, it struggled in the pandemic economy. A year later, Akemi Ogasawara, the owner, hired Kochi and changed the restaurant into a modern Greek taverna. Today, Poli Kala owns 4.5 stars out of over 100 reviews on Google Maps.