Μεζεδοπωλείο Η Αυλή — Restaurant in Municipality of Heraklion

I cannot give more stars than 5 but I would. This place is one of the best we went to in Crete, not just in Heraklion. It’s a family owned restaurant and they all are the most welcoming and friendly. Our waitress explained us the whole menu with all details, she even pulled a chair next to us to help us decide and have the best experience with her personal recommendations of traditional food.

We ordered the taramosalata, marinated anchovies, pork liver and the dolmades. All was exquisite and they make it on the spot (you can even see the open kitchen). At the end we had not just one but 4 different desserts on the house and not just 1 but 2 bottles of raki! We truly felt like home here.

Towards the end of our meal, a couple of ladies started yelling in a table next to ours and we wondered what had happened. The stuff apologised to us for the situation as soon as they left. Apparently they complained and insulted the staff and left without paying, they even made some racists comment’s against tourists and the restaurant owners asked them to leave.

We then understood that other restaurants come and give bad reviews so they get lowers ratings in Google maps and tripadvisor, and these 2 ladies seem they were from another...

What a precious gem of a restaurant. This family owned restaurant made our trip to Crete extra special. It all started w Marliena(hope i didnt misspell her name), sitting at our table to translate their greek menu. We felt warmly welcomed to their home, not a restaurant. We decided on: staka which was foam from steamed goat’s milk and mixed with eggs. It had such a creamy, delicious, almost cottage cheese like consistency. This was my fav.

Squid in its black ink-wow, delish. Doesnt look appetizing, but man its amazing

Fish-i believe it was sea bream, was super fresh and served w fries and uncooked red lentils(our first). Mussels were good as well. We wanted to try the snails which was highly rated but were informed it wasnt the season. We were pleasantly surprised when we asked for the bill and Marliena responded with not before raki and sweets 😂😂 … a sampling of honey figs, pineapple, coconut and nuts and strong raki completed our amazing meal. At the end of the meal we met the chef to thank her, whom we called “mama Katerina” (how could we not, after eating the food she poured her heart into). Her recipes have been passed down from generation to generation. How fortunate we felt to...

What a fantastic experience. The restaurant is run by a lovely family with the mother as the head chef (of course). The preparations were all terrific and I tried snails for the first time (think a mild calamari). Across the board not a single dish we ate disappointed and the family made twice distilled Raki is 💯. The service is excellent, however make sure you have plenty of time as there is no rush and preparations are small batch. The menu is only in Greek, but every part of it will be explained and recommendations given based on your pallete. We also had the lamb and the market fish, and my god...that fish was so 👌 delicious I'm still fawning over it. It was grilled to perfection, as good as at any high end restaurant I've been to. They even asked and took into account allergies.

The deserts were excellent (checkout this soaked lemon with full peel) that was just so damn good.

This restaurant is family run, no-rush, and a hidden gem of the city. I almost hesitate writing this review only to preserve its state, but I just can't help but heap praise. Well done 👏 and can't wait...