Greek food in Greece is more diverse than what we see in Melbourne, despite the city having the largest Greek population outside of Greece and Cyprus. Our main options were once limited to dishes like tzatziki, souvlaki and spanakopita – a narrow representation of what’s found in the motherland.
“The Australian way of serving Greek food is very tavern-style, very simple,” says chef Ioannis “Yiannis” Kasidokostas. “But there’s another side to Greek cuisine that hasn’t been explored here.”
Kasidokostas and wife Maria Tsilfoglou run Carnegie restaurant Sowl, which serves food from across the Mediterranean. The game plan is a little different at Aegli, which has just moved into the former Lume site.
Join Broadsheet Access for exclusive invites to new venue openings in your city, plus other hot–ticket events. Membership starts at just $12 a month for an annual membership.
Aside from some new kitchen equipment and a shift in lighting, the space has undergone minimal physical change, retaining the former site’s sleek, timber-rich interior. You can dine at the bar, in the main room or an atrium that doubles as a private dining space.
The menu zooms in to present a more detailed, comprehensive picture of Greek food, adding even more texture to the cuisine’s Melbourne renaissance. Traditional dishes are reimagined while staying true to the core flavours, if not their exact forms – a style Kasidokostas began playing with in Athens before moving to Melbourne 14 years ago.
“It was a revolution, even in European dining,” he says, reflecting on his time working in high-end restaurants where Greek gastronomy took precedence after decades and decades of French rule.
That’s not to say Aegli resembles fine dining. Kasidokostas draws inspiration from across Greece, incorporating elements of culture, migration and personal experience. Hence dishes like lobster hilopites (a type of pasta), or a hulking wedge of baked anthotyros cheese paired with sour cherries and capers.
Then there’s manti, small beef and mutton dumplings served with brown butter, chilli, kefir and salted aged cheese. The dish is thought to have originated in Central Asia before heading west along the Silk Road. Manti are identifiably Turkish today, but ethnic Greeks living in the country’s Pontus region have long enjoyed them too. This cross-cultural exchange is something Kasidokostas hopes to highlight.
“Food has no borders. Food is not a country. Food is people,” he says. “My wife is Pontian. Her grandparents came from there when the [Greco-Turkish] conflict started and stayed in Greece for many years. Instead of [getting political], how about we bring this dish to the table?”
Another standout is youvarlakia, beef or pork meatballs often served in avgolemono (egg and lemon sauce). At Aegli, the meatballs are made from the day’s catch of fish or shellfish, an homage to the seafood-heavy dishes of the Greek islands.
“Whatever we’d eat on the mainland because we didn’t have much access to fish, they’d cook on the islands with fish because they don’t have much access to animal products,” Kasidokostas says.
The menu is rounded out by produce-driven dishes like baked stuffed eggplant, sauteed wild greens and hot spelt bread with various dips. Wine, beer and spirits come from Australia and Greece and, in traditional Greek fashion, the coffee machine is kept running until late.
Aegli
226 Coventry Street, South Melbourne
(03) 9279 4271
Hours
Tue to Sun 5pm–10:30pm
[aegli.melbourne](https://www.aegli.melbourne]
