Avli, Greek restaurant in Exarchia, Greece.
Avli is a Greek restaurant in the Exarchia neighborhood of Athens, set inside a former residential building with an open courtyard where guests eat outside. The menu covers handmade spinach pies, stuffed cabbage rolls, octopus with orzo, and other traditional dishes prepared fresh each day in the kitchen.
The restaurant opened in 1982 inside a converted residential building in Exarchia, choosing from the start to focus on traditional cooking methods. The neighborhood around it changed considerably over the following decades, but the kitchen kept its original approach.
The name Avli means "courtyard" in Greek, and the dining area in the open-air space at the center of the building makes that name easy to understand. Sitting there, you are surrounded by the old walls of the building and can hear the sounds of the street filtering in from outside.
The space has both air-conditioned indoor seating and outdoor tables in the courtyard, so you can choose based on the weather. Calling ahead to book a table is a good idea, especially at weekends or on warmer evenings when the courtyard fills up quickly.
The kitchen puts together a short list of daily specials that change depending on what fresh ingredients arrived that morning, so the menu is never exactly the same two days in a row. The drink list leans toward local wines, Greek beers, and aperitifs chosen to go alongside whatever is being cooked that day.
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