Eat Athens: This downtown Italian restaurant option offers two tickets to mushroom heaven

Whether it's over spaghetti and meatballs or baked into lasagna or manicotti, red sauce is an ingredient folks typically associate with Italian cuisine. And even when it comes to alfredo or béchamel, the overall cheesy gooey-ness is going to stand firmly in front of anything that might be featured for the sake of texture or appearance.

When the Banner-Herald visited Osteria Athena, mushrooms weren't necessarily on our minds. As a rule, Eat Athens articles are almost always going to involve variety and adventure, but a frivolous decision to sample two dishes that put fungi in the driver's seat yielded outstanding results.

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Located at 323 E. Broad St., Osteria Athena has been in operation since late 2019, when long-running Italian eatery Dolce Vita updated its business model to include expanded beverage options and a menu that mixed new dishes with customer favorites. What hasn't changed is that the restaurant is on the second floor and is only accessible by staircase, which places a limit on its clientele.

For a classic downtown Athens dining experience, the atmosphere at Osteria Athena is tough to beat, as the interior design incorporates the building's historic structure right down to holes in the walls that expose the original bricks. The candlelit vibe would lend itself well to a date night or a get-together with old friends, and the attentive table service and bar seating make Osteria Athens a great place to park for awhile.

Four courses are available at Osteria Athena, with appetizers that start at $6.50 for half salads and first dishes starting at $21. The linguine with meatballs we tried had a very homemade taste, with a red marinara that was pasty rather than saucy. Options for the second dish ranged from $25 to $28, and the portions would be enough for two with an appetizer. For dessert, the panna cotta (eggless custard with salted caramel) we tried was more delicate than flan and had a mild tartness that reminded us of key lime pie.

Without question, the star of the show at our Osteria Athena meal was the one-two punch of mushroom bruschetta and mushroom pasta. The bread was just the right balance of soft and crunchy, and the garlic didn't overpower the grilled mushrooms topped with feta cheese crumbles. (The idea of ever eating regular bruschetta again was a tad depressing.) The tagliatelle pasta used in the main dish worked like a nice blanket to hold the shiitake buttons, and the porcini cream sauce was light enough to coat the wide noodles without drowning everything.

Our only critique of Athena Osteria was the lack of alcohol-free drink options on the two-page menu of wines and cocktails. Though it might seem an odd request to make at a wine-forward Italian restaurant, many places we've visited in Athens carry at least one or more zero-alcohol beers from well-known brands like Heineken and Budweiser or popular craft varieties such as Athletic (the staff offered to make us a bellini with Sprite or a Shirley Temple).

Osteria Athena is open from 5-9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 5-10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 5-9 p.m. on Sunday. To check out the full menu, visit osteriaathena.com/eat.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Eat Athens: Osteria Athena holds the key to mushroom heaven