It’s an odd thing, this obsession with eating home-cooked meals once you are away from home. For many students and businessmen, taverna Papayiannis is the best substitute for those days when mom’s cooking is sorely missed.

Papayiannis is not an ordinary taverna. After just your first visit you feel right at home. They’ll call you by your first name, greet you with a smile and nod every time you enter. This is, after all, a family business.

Papayiannis, located in llisia, has been around since 1974. Owner Vassilios Papayiannis left his village in Nafpakto to find a job in Athens. He soon discovered that he could offer a great deal to Athenians who missed food from the village.

“When I first arrived I sure was homesick, so I got my whole family involved in this business,” he said, while sipping his house white wine. “Everyone got to know us because they knew we were good people, with good service and good food.”

The restaurant has four waiters, numerous grills and cooks and four delivery personnel. “We have always been delivering, it’s just that in the beginning we used to go on foot, not by motorbikeapayiannis said with a smile. And there’s more to deliver now. “With the traffic and parking, people prefer to stay home and have their meals delivered by us,” Papayiannis explained.

The menu at Papayiannis ranges from yiouvarlakia to mousaka and bamies. The meat served comes from the owner’s village. “Everything we use here is healthy and wholesome,” says Fanni, a waiter and first cousin to the owner, as he served me my oven-cooked chicken with potatoes, a familiar and tasty dish.

Papayiannis exudes a type of casual, low-key but intimate atmosphere that is rarely seen at some of the restaurants in the more chic neighbors. The walls are devoid of any artwork, except for the wine barrels planted inside the wall above the kitchen. There is not a menu in sight, probably because everyone who comes in checks out the display of foods being served that day.

The most popular item at Papayiannis is the mousaka. “It sates your appetite without weighing you down,” said Panayiotis Makris, a regular. The lamb chops are another favorite at the taverna, especially for singer Stellios Dionysiou. “We get a lot of celebrities who come in,” said Papayiannis. “Word of mouth has been our only and greatest advertisement.”

It’s like being transported to the Athens before T.G.I Friday’s and Applebee’s. The prices are unbelievably low, the service is incredibly good, and the food speaks for itself.

Address: 53 Papadiamantopoulou Street, Athens

210 770 9313, 210 77 6656

Hours: 11:00 am – 1:30 am 7 days a week

Prices: Sides, 2-3 euro; entrees 4-6 euro

Ideal meal: Stuffed tomatoes (yemista), mousaka, horiatiki salad and ½ litre of house white wine.