Location: 2101 Centre St N, Calgary
A couple of friends had mentioned this little greek place open on Centre street, and armed with a Groupon coupon, I'd gone with my brother to give this place a shot.
As it was pretty early on a Saturday, it was quite quiet, but decorated full of Greek statues, and pictures on the walls of the 'old country'. Slightly dimly lit, it had a nice ambiance to it, though, and a good first impression.
As my brother is a big eater, we'd decided to go big and try a few things... and the best way to do that seemed to be to get not just the Appetizer platter for two, but the Dinner platter for two as well. This meant we'd get to try calamari, spanikopita, soutzoukakia (meatballs), pita with tzatziki, garithes (shrimp in garlic butter), followed by the combo platter of Moussaka, kleftiko (roasted lamb), more meatballs, chicken souvlaki, and again, pita with tzatziki, all on a bed of rice, vegetables, and roasted potatoes. If that weren't enough, the dinner platter also came with starter salads.
Just as it sounds, it's a lot of food. The appetizer platter was enough for dinner, to be honest, for most people. Good thing, my brother isn't most people, and plowed into the mound of food. The shrimp were in a garlic butter sauce, and were very large - usually an appetizer isn't that big, but these were exceptional. The meatballs were soft and tender, although slightly salty to me, but easily counterbalanced by the spanikopita, which was a large slab of flaky goodness. As I'm not a huge fan of calamari, these didn't matter too much to me, but my brother assured me they were excellent, and the pita/tzatziki complemented everything well.
The salads that came weren't anything special, but served to break up the flavours of the appetizers, before the main course came. I'd thought the appetizer platter was large, but the plate that came was easily twice its size. I can't say enough about this platter, it was everything I'd hoped it could be, and the star would have to be the fork-tender lamb. One peeve of mine is having dry chicken, and this one didn't disappoint, with again, tender and juicy chicken on the skewers. The only quibble I'd had were that the potatoes were slightly overdone... but really, who's eating potatoes when there's all this other good stuff!
While we tried our best to make a dent, we eventually had to surrender, and take home leftovers. If you know my family, you'll know how rare that is.
Taste: 9.5/10 - I loved the lamb, super tender, the shrimp were huge, flavours all good throughout, and great big portions. Ambiance: 9/10 - the overall look and feel made it great for a small dinner.
Service: 8.5/10 - true family restaurant, with the family providing the service. Attentive, if slightly slow at times when they are busy.
Plating/Presentation: 8/10 - great platters! The dinner plates are huge!
Prices: $15-20 for entrees, $30 for the appetizer platter, $70 for the dinner one.
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