The day’s catch over charcoal, on the beach at Afissos.

Whatever Nikos, the village fisherman, brings in at dawn goes on the grill that evening.

Open every evening in season

Tables: 18:00 to midnight
Grill lit: 17:00, fish from 19:00
Where: Afissos beach, Pelion

Afissos harbour on a June evening: white houses with tiled roofs climbing a green hillside, tavernas under plane trees along the quay, still water in front — Afissos from the jetty, a June evening. Our tables are the blue ones under the plane trees, left of the white umbrellas. Photo: Elsa Adonis, CC BY-SA 4.0

Today’s catch

Written up at 07:40 on Saturday 17 October, when the Agia Eirini, Nikos’s boat, tied up. Fresh fish is priced by the kilo and weighed at your table before it goes on the grill.

The board changes every morning. If something is crossed out, it went at lunch.

Fish	Caught	Price
ΤσιπούραGilt-head bream	Long line, off Alatas	€46 per kilo
ΜπαρμπούνιRed mullet	Net, Pteleos bay	€58 per kilo
ΣαρδέλαSardines, grilled whole	Net, in the gulf	€14 per kilo
ΚαλαμάριSquid	Jig, after dark	only 2 left €38 per kilo
ΦαγκρίPink dentex	Long line, off Alatas	Gone at lunch

My grandfather put five tables on the sand in 1974. There are twenty-two now, and the grill is the same one.

Hand-coloured postcard of Afissos around 1920: a curve of pale houses round the bay, green hills, two sailing boats — Afissos around 1920, on a hand-coloured postcard by Stefanos Stournaras. The plane trees on the quay were already there. The front is a real postcard; the message on the back is ours.

We open at six, when the sun drops behind the mountain and the gulf goes flat. The fish comes off Nikos’s boat in the morning, and whatever doesn’t sell never sees ice.

Three generations at the same tables, over the same charcoal. The oil is ours, from the grove behind the church. The wine comes in demijohns from Tyrnavos and Rapsani, and the menu is still written by hand.

Our story

A glass of tsipouro beside its bottle on a checked tablecloth — Tsipouro without anise, the way Volos drinks it.

How a tsipouro table works

It’s the Volos custom, and we keep it. You order the tsipouro; the kitchen decides the meze. Every karafaki brings a plate you didn’t order, and the plates get better the longer you stay.

First karafaki
Olives from the grove, cucumber in salt, a handful of fried koutsomoura.
Second
Something off the grill: octopus that has dried on the line since Monday, or mussels saganaki.
Third and after
The cook’s choice. Sardines, a bowl of fish soup, the last of the catch. Something different every night.

€9 a karafaki, meze included. With or without anise.

See the menu

Whole fish on a charcoal grill, smoke rising, tongs turning them

From the grill

All over charcoal, finished with oil, lemon and oregano from the mountain.

Octopus, dried on the line€14.00Grilled, with vinegar from our grove
Sardines, whole€9.50With a raw onion salad
Squid, stuffed€15.50Feta, tomato and mint
Fish of the dayby the kiloWhole, weighed at the table — see the morning board
Lamb chops€16.50From Pelion, with paper-wrapped potatoes

The whole menu, and a copy to print

A blue taverna chair on the Afissos waterfront, facing the calm gulf, under a tamarisk

“The last table by the wall isn’t kept for anyone. Come early or lose it.”
Dimitris, on the grill since 1998

The Afissos waterfront. Photo: Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0

The oil and the wine

Wine from the carafe: a white and a rosé from a friend in Tyrnavos, a red from Rapsani, under Olympus. The oil is pressed in November from the trees behind the village; on the table it’s free, and you can take a litre home.

House white, Tyrnavos€8.00 a kilo
House rosé, Tyrnavos€8.00 a kilo
House red, Rapsani€12.00 a kilo
Our oil, to take home€11.00 a litre

Through the year

15 August
The panigyriWe close the road, the band plays on the quay, and the grill goes until the fish runs out.
October
Chestnuts from the mountainRoasted in the wood oven at weekends, with the new tsipouro from the still.
Mid-November to March
ClosedThe boat goes up on the slip and we paint the chairs. Back in March, when Nikos is.

The main street of Afissos: whitewashed shopfronts with painted ceramic plates, tamarisk trees — The road down to the water. Leave the car before it narrows. Photo: Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0

Find us

Forty-five minutes from Volos on the coast road, through Kala Nera. Leave the car at the church, where the road narrows, and walk down. We’re the last taverna on the beach, before the rocks.

Every day: 18:00–00:00, Fri and Sat to 01:00
Kitchen: Last orders half an hour before closing
Season: March to mid-November

Directions on the map Call 24230 00000 (sample)

Book a table

Up to eight people by form. For more, call and ask for Dimitris.