From their many years directing Potts Point’s Apollo, Olympus co-owners Jonathan Barthelmess and Sam Christie know that if you serve big-flavoured Greek comfort food, people will come. And do they ever at this 200-seat taverna inside Redfern’s Wunderlich Lane precinct.

Chef Ozge Kalvo isn’t grilling souvlaki, however, although it’s very much on the menu, along with about 40 other dishes including roast lamb, dolmades and golden honey-sweetened, skillet-fried kefalotyri cheese. The kokoretsi is a highlight – a crumbly, rustic sort-of rissole rich with chopped lamb sweetbreads, belly and a ferric undertow of liver.

Wild-weed spanakopita pie is made to order and features a vibrant mix of greens under crisp eggshell-thin pastry; thick curls of grilled calamari are tangy with lemon-forward ladolemono sauce. Interior architect, George Livissianis, has excelled his own lofty standards with that oculus glass ceiling, too. If Dr No had a lair in a Greek village, it would look a lot like this.

Good to know: The 50-year-old bougainvillaea in the middle of the room was trucked up from Bowral for the job

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.