Avli rustic fine dining restaurant — Restaurant in Municipality of Rethymnon

I have dined at Avli a couple of weeks ago during my holiday in Crete. I was lured by beautiful pictures and good reviews. I had also visited before the Avli raw materials which I truly recommend and got me excited even more for my dinner. We had booked the table in the garden which is absolutely stunning 🤩 and I would probably say still worth going just to sit in that environment. Whoever designed the place is genius! Now onto the less pleasant part. When we sat down we were only given a cocktail menu suggesting we should order a drink first which we didn’t want but had to wait before we could actually order food. When we were later given the food menu, the waiter started with an explanation of what a tasting menu is as a concept which probably isn’t necessary but naturally strongly advertised as it is more expensive than a la carte - just overall there’s a strong feel they want you to order and spend a lot which is never nice. In terms of the actual food, we ordered the fresh fish carpaccio (which is probably more of a ceviche than carpaccio), green salad and carob pasta with sofegada. Overall everything contains some sort of fermented ingredient which was way too overpowering and ultimately not enjoyable. In terms of sofegada, it was actually mostly mushrooms which I don’t eat and was disappointed it was not clearly stated in the menu as I wouldn’t have gone for that dish knowing that. While the quality of the ingredients is high, at the moment it feels like the dishes and menu are full of ‘fancy’ names like sofegada, but they ultimately lack balance and harmony, often with one single ingredient overpowering the dish and making it a struggle a finish. I feel like with the current ability of the kitchen a simpler approach to the dishes could lead to a better outcome. (The goat butter...

5 star location with room for improvement. Let me explain:

The location is wonderful! Sitting there is sort of being in an oasis middle in the old town. The service was absolutely friendly, knowledgeable and on time. Feedback was appreciated and noted. Great! The food was 5 stars in terms of products. The dishes are not what you can expect from any tavern or fast food place! They really re-engineered traditional dishes. And here comes the critic: Sometimes I felt the creativity went too far. 2 examples: The Musaka, to a Greece Original from what I remember made of potatoes and egg plant but contained here brown lentils, which tasted a bit strange. My proposal to you fine men and women at the Avli, why don’t you reinvent Musaka based on its original ingredients. My second example is the desert. All the deserts again contained great ingredients no doubt but reinventing a cheese cake is not what customers can expect. The level I expect is that you use ingredients from the island like goat cheese, honey, these small bananas, figs and maybe even blend it with your most precious product - the olive oil. You could also take plums but them in red wine with certain spices and serve the to some cottage with honey...as a starting idea. Kriti has soo much to offer to create your very own dessert. You even grow strawberries up on the high plains in the mountains.

To everyone who wants to go there remember this: This restaurant gives you best products for a reasonable price. With a bottle of good wine and an aperitif you will end up at 90-100€/person. It may sound a lot to you but you will have have a menu with 6 courses, which you can also mix up. The wine is very good. I can really recommend...

We sat outside under trees in the beautiful shady courtyard of the main Avli restaurant on a warm Friday lunchtime in May. The setting was lush, calm and sophisticated. Obviously a lot of thought had gone into the design and decoration here. It was not busy (but probably would have been much later in the day) and the service was first class: polite, friendly, unrushed but efficient. Even the cats (common in Crête) were unobtrusive as they languished in the warm sun.

The menu was varied and creative without being avant-garde. We started with a basket of fresh bread and the waiter brought complimentary amuses-bouches of tiny sacs of pureed tomatoes, and filo pastry cones of creamed feta cheese. We shared a delicious house salad which contained thinly sliced figs with an intense honey dressing. We then chose one of the two goat dishes on the menu which was basically two generous solid pieces of roasted lean 2-year-old goat meat served on small, oven-baked potatoes but the highlight was the intensely-flavoured rich sauce. Be aware that the meat was tender but quite fibrous. We also chose chicken fricassée which came with a creamy herb sauce with tasty mountain greens, courgettes and potatoes. Even though we chose the cheapest of the three Cretan rosé wines on offer it was excellent. Fuller flavour say than Provence rosés.

We declined dessert from the menu but were still given a complimentary dessert of small chocolate tarts. Total price, €64. An exceptionally enjoyable meal and good...