I’ve lived on the Danforth, a few blocks from Toronto’s concentrated stretch of Greek restaurants, for three years and to be honest, I’ve snubbed them. Mostly because I thought they were snubbing me. Being a non-meat-eater, a glance or two at the menus posted in their windows reinforced what I remembered from the days I did eat meat and occasionally visited their tables–that they’re all about the meat and seafood. But when a certain 6-year-old chose one of them as the venue to celebrate her birthday (what can I say, she likes chicken souvlaki), I had to oblige. Well I’ll be damned if some of them don’t have a selection of beautifully prepared vegetables. In addition to Avli’s main menu, the server brought out a tray of a dozen freshly prepared bites for us to choose from, like zucchini fritters, stuffed peppers, olive and bean dips and gratinéed tomatoes. We selected almost everything from the tray, the items were irresistible, and we grazed for hours. Oh and they also brought us a few complimentary glasses of wine. Way to become my best friend new little gem in the ‘hood.