Stavros Tavern

The bread mop test never lies. Look around at Stavros: pita is used to sponge up the last of the lemony calamari; crusty white bread cleans the dips dish of silky, smoky baba ghanoush​; olive bread is dunked into the rich juices of braised goat. If the food wasn't delicious, none of this would happen.

Stavros Tavern, 36 years and four months old, is unconcerned with innovation. That's not the same as not caring about being good. The chunky timber tables and chairs, the archival sun-drenched images of Greece on brown brick walls, a menu that ticks off saganaki​, souvlaki and spanakopita​ are all unembarrassedly old-school.

Genial owner Stavros Abougelis​, 65 years and slowing a little (although still vigorous in the moustache department), oversees a smooth fleet of waiters, guys who are happy to help with ordering, change portion sizes to help craft a balanced meal, and who might even charge corkage by taxing a few sips of your good bottle of red. Chef Theo Stavrinos worked here 30 years ago and has been back for a year. Continuity is a beautiful thing.

As in 1979, when the tavern opened, the food is authentic. "It's like my mother cooked," Stavros says. "I'm never going to change the recipe for moussaka, and you're never going to get a chocolate-coated scallop in my restaurant." Thank goodness.

Instead, you get house-rolled vine leaves, grilled calamari "pikantiko" slathered with olive tapenade, salad topped with a big slab of feta, generous platters of char-grilled and spit-roasted meat, and desserts such as galaktoboureko​, semolina custard sandwiched by syrup-soaked filo, as sturdy and comforting as a Greek yia yia (grandmother). Everything is served on plates as bright as white-washed island villages and heavy as car tyres.

The specials board roams beyond bedrock classics without reinventing any wheels. That's where you may find haloumi melted over lamb sausage with glossy beetroot reduction; simple grilled quail with soft eggplant; and goat stew, braised all day so it drops from the bone if you so much as look at it sternly, with both mash and roasted root vegetables on hand for soaking up the juices.

Of course, you're also likely to do as most customers do, and embark on a bread mop test of your own.

Rating: Three and a half stars (out of five)