Est. 2019 in Athens

Real fire. Real food. Really fast.

Ember & Bun started as one food truck in Gazi with a flat-top grill and a stubborn idea: fast food could be made the slow way and still be ready in minutes.

The open kitchen at Ember & Bun Syntagma during dinner service, flames rising from the grill

✱ The pass at Syntagma, Friday 21:00

✱ Our mission

To make the fastest meal of your day one of the best. Real ingredients, cooked over real fire, served in minutes at a price that still feels like fast food.

What we stand for

01
Nothing frozen
Beef is ground twice a day, potatoes are cut every morning and there is no freezer in any of our kitchens.
02
Cooked to order
Every burger hits the grill when you order it. No heat lamps, no holding bins, no exceptions.
03
Know your farmer
We buy from fewer than twenty suppliers and visit every one. Most are a day’s drive from our kitchens.
04
Fast is a promise
Seven minutes from order to tray. Our kitchens are designed around it, and we track every ticket.

Pasture-raised cattle grazing at Kampos Farm in Thessaly

Sourcing

Where it comes from

We buy from fewer than twenty suppliers, most within a day’s drive of our kitchens. We visit every one of them at least once a year.

Beef
Kampos Farm
Larissa, Thessaly
Pasture-raised cattle, dry-aged 21 days and delivered whole-cut to every kitchen.
Bread
Fournos Lambros
Piraeus
Potato and brioche buns baked from 4am and on our counters before opening.
Potatoes
Naxos Growers Co-op
Naxos, Cyclades
Volcanic-soil potatoes, delivered three times a week and cut by hand each morning.
Chicken
Ktima Zagori
Ioannina, Epirus
Free-range birds raised for 56 days with outdoor access and no routine antibiotics.

Freshly baked potato buns cooling on racks at Fournos Lambros

From truck to table

2019
The truck
A secondhand food truck parked in Gazi. One grill, one menu board, a queue by week two.
2020
Koukaki
Our first bricks-and-mortar kitchen opens on Veikou Street with eleven seats.
2021
Hot Honey
A staff-meal experiment becomes the Hot Honey Crunch and our second bestseller.
2022
Syntagma
Our flagship opens on Ermou, open until 2am on weekends.
2024
Thessaloniki
Ladadika and Kalamaria open within six weeks of each other.
2026
Patras + app
Restaurant number six, and an app that remembers your usual.

The people at the pass

Nikos Andreou
Founder & Head of Culinary
Ran the original truck for two years and still works a grill shift every Friday.
Eleni Markou
Co-founder & COO
Designed the seven-minute kitchen. Owns a stopwatch and uses it.
Dimitris Kostas
Pitmaster
Twelve years of smoking brisket. Responsible for the Smokehouse Stack.
Sofia Lambrou
Sourcing Lead
Visits every farm and bakery we buy from, usually in muddy boots.
Yannis Petridis
Kitchen Lead, Thessaloniki
Trained every cook in our northern kitchens. Fastest dredge in the company.
Maria Vlachou
Pastry & Desserts
Created the Molten Cookie Skillet after 31 test bakes.