If you sit with your back to the restaurant you can see the walls of the Byzantine church of Agioi Theodoros from the 11th century. If you sit with your back to the chapel, you can see the interior of the restaurant: mosaic on the floor, cement on the ceiling and the setting of an old urban restaurant.
Manari actually consists of two small shops that came together to serve Athenians with fine meat dishes – a third houses the wine cellar. All these spaces, assembled in a tight set on the ground floor of the impersonal apartment buildings, make a semi-circular courtyard.
In the hall, on the left are the pans and huge pots because the menu also includes some daily cooking, on the right is the open kitchen with the grills. Right in front of the grills is a large bench-table with an aluminum surface.
Whether you've come alone or with a group, sit here and absorb all the energy of the fire that turns meat into food.
The restaurant was set up by chef Aris Vezene in collaboration with Lelos Georgopoulos and Sokratis Toulias. Aris, a self-taught chef and entrepreneur, seems to have no limits to his action and inspiration.
The Vezene bistro with a heart for meat is recommended by the Michelin Guide, Birdman has been a hangout for years and has a menu with mainly Japanese cuisine, the Ekiben is a pan-Asian street food Ekiben which also does online delivery.
However, chef Vezene has now decided to open a meat taverna that was really missing from the city centre and has already become popular.
So, Manari's menu is small with dishes that you don't often find elsewhere. For example, the delicious kidneys that come on a thick slice of bread accompanied by salad, made with raw fennel and lightly pickled radish.
The dish of the dreams is the veal liver with vinegar sauce. Velvety texture, perfectly medium rare, and mild vinegary intensity just enough to soften the inherently earthy taste of the liver.
Today's suggestions include two types of ribs: sheep and lamb, both of which come from Epirus. We got the lamb. Thinly sliced, tenderly juicy and musky, without the dried-out fat of usual ribs.
We also enjoyed the robust wrapped beef patties. They are skewered, cooked medium rare and you can't get enough of them. However, you can order them as cooked as you like.
And since the conversation has come to vegetables, the salad with string beans, white kidney beans, and slightly pickled radish is a powerhouse.
The string beans are crunchy, the beans cooked just right, the sour and vinegary taste in fine balance - what a beautiful, inspired dish.
For dessert, they suggest bergamot sorbet and cocoa sorbet, ideal closure for such a meal.
Info: 3 Agion Theodoron, Athens, tel. 21 52 153804
READ MORE: Momo: American street food in southern Athens.