Kyma Visited 7/27/2018 3 Forks

Kyma  15 W 18th St., New York, NY 10011

As many of you know, I love Greek food and think it's highly underrated.  So when a lot of the food blogs were buzzing about this new place (which apparently has a cult following in Long Island), I felt like I had to check it out.  It's kind of on a random, non-descript street in the Flatiron District but the decor inside was lovely.  Spacious, bright and white - as you would expect from something with a Greek theme to it.

The menu is huge, traditional and authentic:  delicious dips, spanakopita, saganaki, lots of seafood dishes, whole fishes, salads and they also had lamb and pork chops.  Really robust menu and it was even a bit overwhelming for two people.  Allison and I landed on the dips ($16), Greek salad ($20), and we split a whole bronzino ($32).   As with most Greek restaurants, the dips were fabulous and the Greek salad outstanding with the tomatoes being the star.  But unfortunately, the whole fish was a real bummer for me.  I guess I'm used to the type of whole fish in Chinese restaurants where they literally give you the whole fish and you pick it apart.  Instead, here they say it's the whole fish but they filet it for you, which I guess is helpful if you don't want to deal with the bones.  While I love that Greek food is so simple and delicious with just a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of salt, this just felt super meh to me.  It was really underwhelming and for $32, I expected a big, more tender fish.  Paying $32 for a flat fish left me still feeling hungry.

Another weird thing that happened to me here (which is of no fault of the restaurant) is that I started to feel itchy in the lip and ever since this meal, I had what felt like an allergic reaction in my lips for a good 4 weeks.  It was really weird and I have no idea what it could have been but this experience kind of clouded my memory of eating her too.  But either way, I left dinner still feeling hungry and it wasn't clear to me why there was so much buzz about this place to begin with.  The menu was huge so it's possible that I could have had a much better meal with other options but I'm not sure if I will be running back to this place so soon.  Total bill:  $101/pp with tax, tip and a few drinks

Souvlaki GR Visited 8/28/2017 4 Forks

Souvlaki GR  116 Stanton St., New York, NY 10002

I had been wanting to go to Souvlaki GR for a while purely because of how adorable it looked from the outside.  It's a stark contrast to all the other drab NYC buildings in the area although it does have a bit of a Disney-fied feel to it.  But on a rainy day in August, stepping into this blue and white delight was exactly what I needed.  The inside also has the same blue and white decor and if you've ever been to Greece before, it does transport you back there. 

Like most other Greek places in the city, this one is quite laid back and casual.  The host was really nice and let me sit at a table and wait for 30 minutes without giving me grief for it. The menu is a classic line up of dips, pitas, and lamb dishes.  As I've mentioned many times before, Greek food is such an underrated cuisine and it's definitely one that I could eat all the time.  We started with the tzatziki dip ($7.50) and the Greek salad ($13.5) because that's just what you do in a Greek restaurant. As for my main, I was struggling between the octopus and some kind of pita dish but in the end the lamb pita ($8.75) won out.  As you can see the prices were super reasonable for a really healthy and hearty meal.  To me, it's hard to get the basics of Greek food wrong because a lot of it is food in its natural state with a lot of olive oil, lemon and herbs on it.  Everything was simple but flavorful.  It was a nice change of pace from the heavy/fried food I had been eating in Quebec although they also had Greek fries which I would have ordinarily ordered if I wasn't totally fried out.

In the end, it the perfect casual and affordable place to catch up with friends.  It's not loud (clearly I'm old), serves solid food and they don't rush you out despite it being quite busy.  Since I don't live off the F train anymore coming to the LES is kind of a pain (although they have a Midtown location too but that's even more of a pain) but I would definitely put this on the list of places to return to, especially if you're missing the beautiful white and blue vibes of Greece.  While you don't get the same blue water view, you can at least close your eyes and imagine yourself away from the city for just a few hours.  Total bill:  $28/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

The Greek Visited 4/17/2016 3.5 Forks

The Greek  458 Greenwich St., New York, NY 10013

Aarti and I spent a lovely evening at the Tribeca Film Festival watching an episode of The Good Wife and seeing the cast and producers and were looking for a nice place to grab some dinner around the neighborhood.  I remember that one of my friends who lived in Tribeca had mentioned that The Greek was a great neighborhood joint.  I'm always a fan of Greek food, so we figure what the heck. Despite it being a random Sunday evening, the place was pretty packed. 

As you can imagine, the menu here is Greek food (duh).  There's so much to Greek food that I love and luckily, a lot of it is vegetarian friendly so it's easy to share a bunch of things.  We had a lot of difficulty narrowing down our choices and when we started the ordering the waitress was actually like "umm, are you really hungry? Because that's a lot of food!"  You know when the waitress says that, you've definitely ordered too much food.  So we ended up with the small spread sampler ($14), octopus salad ($12) for me, greek salad ($16), pites ($16), and oven baked potatos ($7).  We cut out the greek fries and the grapes leaves in case you were wondering what else we were thinking of ordering.  

The food came out all relatively quickly.  The spread sampler came with tzatziki (cucumber yogurt), tarama (fish roe), tirokafteri (feta cheese), and melitzanosalata (eggplant) dips with pita.  They were all great and flavorful.  The pita was sliced into thin slivers which was great for dipping but I would have preferred to just have the entire pita myself and to tear it up.  The greek salad was what you would think with lots of juicy ripened tomatoes, cucumbers, chunks of feta, on a bed of arugula with a splash of olive oil.  Greek salad is one of my all-time favorite salads and this one didn't disappoint although I would have liked a bit more feta in it but overall it was a solid salad.  The oven baked potatoes were potato wedges baked in the oven splashed with lemon and salt/pepper on it.  It was a nice summer-y dish - it didn't taste heavy or too carb-y.  

While most of the meal was extremely solid, 2 of the dishes were a bit of a disappointment. The octopus salad was very thinly sliced slivers of octopus in a citrus-like base.  They were sliced so thin that it was hard to tell that it was actually octopus that I was eating.  When eating octopus at a Greek restaurant, I prefer one large tender piece of tentacle.  The pites or phyllo pies were also a bit disappointing.  It came with one spinach version and one cheese version but they were both on the dry side and too heavy on the dough.  In retrospect, we should have gotten the Greek fries instead.

Overall, it's still a nice casual neighborhood joint that's a bit off the beaten path and clearly popular with locals.  It's cozy enough to be great for date night or just as a place to catch up with friends.  I looked at some of the dishes other tables got and the chicken and shrimp dishes looked great, so if you do go, I'd look to get few small dishes and maybe try a few of the main entrees.  Total bill:  $39/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp 

Gregory's 26 Corner Taverna Visited 8/22/2015 3 Forks

Gregory's 26 Corner Taverna 2602 23rd Ave., Astoria, NY 11105

Despite my love for Greek food, I've never really gone to the mecca of Greektown in NYC which is Astoria.  While it's geographically not that far for me, it's still a pain to get to via the subway because I've got to go into the city and then back out into Queens, so I generally never think to go there.  But Holly and I were looking to explore a bit and decided to have a Greek outing in Astoria on Saturday. There is absolutely no shortage of Greek restaurants in Astoria - in fact, you'll likely have a hard time trying to pin down one place to try.

Gregory's is conveniently located near the subway stop but it's far enough way that it still feels kind of homey and welcoming.  It's fairly small with a lot of tables outside, which was nice on a warm summer day.  They try their best to make it feel like you're in Greece with blue and white table clothes and you can tell that it's run by locals and visited by regulars.  The menu has your traditional Greek fare, so we ordered up some of my favorites:  Greek salad ($7), Grilled Octopus ($15), Tzatziki ($6) and we split the Shrimp Santorini ($20).

The small Greek salad was totally enough for 2 people - it came with fresh juicy red tomatoes, a huge chunk of fresh feta, sliced cucumber, red onion and it was lightly dressed in olive oil and red wine vinegar. It's so hard to go wrong with such a classic and simple salad and this one was done well. The tzatziki was good but not mind blowing as dips go.  I wasn't a huge fan of the pita it came with as it was a bit over toasted for me and dry.  I usually love my pita to be super soft and warm and these were more like pita chips than bread.  Next we tried the octopus which was what I was most excited by.  While parts of it were tasty, they definitely overcooked some parts of it (especially the end of the tentacles) and it became chewy and hard to bite through which is exactly what you don't want in an octopus.   Luckily, they redeemed themselves with the Shrimp Santorini dish which was grilled shrimp in a tomato white wine based sauce with peppers and feta on top of rice.  It was quite delicious and I was trying to get every bite of rice and sauce in my belly.   I'm glad that we split the dish because there was a lot of food overall but I could have easily seen myself eating the whole thing myself.

Overall, it was a very cute, quaint and homey restaurant with very warm staff.  The service was a bit slow but I guess it's no different than being in Greece.  While I wouldn't dismiss this place at all, I did have a much better meal at Taverna Kyclades in the city.  Total bill:  $40/pp with tax, tip and wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

MP Taverna Visited 5/22/2015 3.5 Forks

MP Taverna 470 Driggs Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 111211

This was a tough one to review because there were a lot of things that I really did like about this place and some that I thought were good but not great.  If I were still giving out 1/4 forks, this would be a solid 3.75 rating but since I'm not, I had to choose between 3.5 and 4 and 3.5 won out at the end but I would definitely say that depending on what you order, it could be a strong contender for 4 or even higher. 

Vince, Aaron and I were way overdue for our Williamsburg outing and finally were able to nail down a date and since we all lived within walking distance of MP Taverna (and since it had literally just opened the week before) we were eager to try it out.   I will give 5 forks for the space and decor.  It's a huge and lovely space on the corner of Driggs and 10th and it makes you feel like you're not really in a crowded busy city with its spacious seating.  The menu is a very solid line up for Greek food - I haven't been to Kefi yet but this is from Chef Michael Psilakis who has a stellar reputation around the city for great Greek food.  Greek food is one of my favorite under dog cuisines that I don't think gets enough love or attention.  We all wanted to try everything on the menu - the one thing we wanted to try but couldn't was the whole baby animal!  If you call 5 days in advance, you can order a whole baby goat, lamb, pig, pork butt or fish.  Next time!  Instead we opted for spicy feta dip, tzatziki dip, seared scallops, octopus, loukaniko sausage, lamb chops, mixed grill of the day, cauliflower, and thrice cooked smashed potato.  Yes - we clearly over ordered but who the hell cares? 

Surprisingly the scallops came out first along with the dips.  It was seared in brown butter and it's one of those dishes that was good but didn't blow my mind.  I mean it's pretty hard to f*ck up scallop and as long as you don't overcook them, it's always delicious.  As for the dips, I was a big fan of them - it's usually my favorite part of any Greek meal.  The pita bread was nice and soft and warm and the spicy feta had a real serious kick to it.  It had nice chunks of feta mixed in with spicy roasted red pepper.  If the spicy feta dip was great, the tzatziki dip was fantastic.  It was cool, refreshing and a very nice complement to the spicy feta dip.   I could seriously just have a trio of dips for dinner and be a happy camper.  Next was what was one of my favorite dishes of the night, the octopus.  Octopus is really one of those dishes that can go either way.  At it's worst, it can be chewy, dry and just very unappealing.  At it's best it's wonderfully tender and incredibly tasty.  Luckily it was the later here.  They served us 3-4 very big pieces of fabulous octopus that all 3 of us really enjoyed.  It's definitely something I would order again here.  Next I tried the sausage which was made with pork, orange peel, fennel, leek and other aromatic herbs and seeds.  It was grilled nicely and the addition of all the different herbs really added some great flavor to it.  On to the meats and sides - and yes at this point, I was getting really stuffed but I wasn't going to complain.  The lamb chops were a bit on the small side which was a disappointment.  They were at best 3-4 small bites but the bites were tender and juicy.  As for the mixed grill plate, I was also a bit disappointed.  Maybe it's because I didn't really read the menu to understand what was on the mixed plate but it was just more sausage, more chops and a few more bites of a meat.  I'm not saying it was a bad dish but after having tons of similar dishes before this, I'm not sure if this dish really added anything for me.  As for the side dishes,  they were also stellar.  The thrice cooked smashed potatoes were amazing.  They were basically fancy potato slices but they were so incredibly addictive.  I had 3 and if left alone with the dish, could have eaten the entire thing.  As for the cauliflower dish, it was a nice way to get some kind of vegetable in my system for the night.  

We ended the night just the way we started - with too much food on the table. We got the grilled pineapple, brownie and then the restaurant kindly served us the creme brulee on the house.  Of the 3, I enjoyed the creme brulee the best but really at this point, I was super full and 3 glasses of wine and 1 cocktail in.  

The service was pretty good - the waiter was friendly, seemed to know the menu pretty well (except when we pressed him on the whole animal) and the sommelier and GM all came by to ask us how we were doing and made sure we were taken care of.  I let Vince pick out the wines and they were all very solid choices and they had a very extensive beer and wine list that would make any drinker happy. 

Overall, I really did like my meal here it's just that I didn't walk away thinking this was the best Greek meal of my life.  I would absolutely come back here and definitely order any of the dips, the octopus and a side order of the smashed potatoes.  I didn't try the Greek salad but that's also usually one of my go to Greek dishes, that I would want to try here at some point.  Total bill:  business dinner so I'm not sure but overall the prices there were relatively affordable and reasonable. 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Barbounia Visited 9/18/2014 4 Forks

Barbounia 250 Park Ave S., New York, NY 10003

Barbounia is one of those places in the city that you've probably walked past a million times and say to yourself that you should check it out but then never do.   At least that was my thinking.  Luckily, Lav and I finally decided to check it out on her birthday.  We were originally going to go to Casa Mono but it was going to be a 30 minute wait (which really isn't that bad for Casa Mono) but we were both starving and luckily Barbounia was able to seat us in 15 minutes.  My first impression is that this place is HUGE.   And it's surprisingly trendy - less in the Meatpacking sense but more in the sense that it seems like a place a lot of people in their 20's would go to "pre-party" before they went out for the night.  

As for the food, it's Mediterranean/Greek and the menu was huge.  I actually think Greek food is one of the more easily sharable cuisines because there are a lot of spreads and really delicious appetizers and sides that can be made into a solid meal.  Lav and I decided to split a bunch of dishes:  spicy feta ($9.50), hierloom tomato salad ($17.95), saganaki ($14.95), flash fried cauliflower ($9.95) and the okra stew ($8).   That was plenty of food but I really missed not ordering my usual Greek staples of a greek salad, grilled octopus and a lamb type dish.  The food all came out very quickly.  The spicy feta came out first and it was amazing.  It was an incredibly addictive spread - made more so by the warm, delicious, and olive oil soak bread that came with it.   It was a pretty big helping but if I had enough time, I probably could have eaten the whole thing by myself.  It's not to be missed.  Next I tried the hierloom tomato salad and that was also a winning dish.  It was served with beautiful giant chunks of colorful tomatoes, red onions, pita crisps and most importantly crispy haloumi cheese. Although it wasn't a mozzarella or burrata cheese, the haloumi was a great pairing with the fresh tomatoes.  Next I tried the saganaki and I always go into trying it with an open mind because who doesn't love fried cheese with alcohol? But every time I try it, it's a disappointment.  You've got to eat it when it just comes out, otherwise once it starts to gel and coagulate, it's just really gross and inedible.  I had one bite but since I was more into the tomato salad and feta, I just never got into the cheese and it just dried out.  The cauliflower was a solid dish as it was lightly fried and served with tahini, pine nuts, parsley and lemon juice.  The okra was in a mini pot and was kind of like a Middle Eastern stew with tomatoes in it - it was a fine okra dish but compared to the other dishes it wasn't a huge stand out.  If I could do it over, I probably could have gotten get the selection of all 5 dips and a Greek salad and been the happiest person ever. 

Since it was Lav's birthday, we had to celebrate with some chocolate cake ($10.95).   This was a flourless cake with a praline crust, brandied cherries, caramel sauce and a walnut gelato.  The cake was pretty rich and I actually enjoyed the crunchy praline crust but it was too heavy of a cake for us to finish. Overall, food-wise I really enjoyed my meal and while I wouldn't say that Barbounia is some kind of darling of the NYC restaurant scene, it's definitely worth a visit and it'll probably surprise you.  Total bill with wine:  $120

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Old Stove Pub Visited 6/29/2014 4 Forks

Old Stove Pub 3516 Montauk Hwy, Bridgehampton, NY 11932

I was totally shocked when I read all these awful reviews about this place on Yelp that it made me wonder if I ate at a totally different place.  After reading a few more reviews, it sounds like there was management change in the past few years, but even so, unless I was totally delusional, I actually quite enjoyed my dinner there.  It might have been because we went really early and we opted for the very affordable prix fixe dinner whereas most of the negative reviews seemed to focus on how expensive it was, the bad steak and poor service.

Virginia, Christine and I stopped by this place on the way home from East Hampton knowing that we would get stuck in bad traffic on the way home.  Originally, I had assumed that this place would serve typical pub food like burgers and fries.  I mean it's called the Old Stove Pub from Christ sakes!  But lo and behold, it was actually Greek food.  Who knew?  During the summer, they have a great prix fixe deal of $29 that included a salad, appetizer, entree and dessert.  Considering most of the entrees are in the $25+ range, it's a great deal even if you can't eat all the food.  Instead of all of us getting the prix fixe meal, we opted to split one of the deals and then added on a few extras to round out the meal.  For the prix fix, we got the classic Greek Salad, the grape leaves, gyro entree with fries, and then added on the 3 dip combination ($18), the spanikopita ($14) and the saganaki ($11).  As you can see from the extras that we ordered, it can be pricey ordering individual dishes.

As I've mentioned many times before, I am a huge sucker for Greek food and I thought the food here was great with the exception of the saganaki - which I generally am not a huge fan of because if you let it sit for a while, it just gets hard, coagulated and just unappealing.  The Greek salad had tons of red, ripe fresh tomatoes, local cucumbers and a nice giant square of feta cheese.  Delicious.  The dips were your classic tzatziki (which I would slather on top of anything and everything), a roasted red pepper dip and an eggplant dip.  It was served with warm pita and it was fantastic.  The grape leaves were tasty and also a great add for the table.   Next I tried the spanikopita which had a nice flakey outside and a rich filling of spinach, onions and cheese.  Finally, I tried the gyro - which was served with a pita wrap but with all the other carb heavy things on the table and the fries that it came with, there was no way I was going to actually eat it like a gyro sandwich.  The couple of slices of meat I had was flavorful and it was topped with tons of tzatziki and red onion.  The fries were also thick and crispy and I couldn't stop eating them with the dips even though I really wanted to. 

In the end, we were so full that we just asked for the bill without even asking about the dessert that came with the prix fix meal.  The one fun thing about our meal was that it was the same time as the Greece World Cup game and it was a lot of fun to watch the staff and management be so into the game - and yes, plates were broken when they lost the game.  Judging from all the bad reviews I read on Yelp, it sounded like most people didn't order Greek food or maybe that was from before they changed management?  But in any case, I would just say, if you're in a Greek restaurant, it's probably best to stick to Greek food and you'll be fine.  Total bill:  $27/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Facebook

Taverna Kyclades Visited 4/30/2014 4.5 Forks

Taverna Kyclades  228 1st Ave., New York, NY 10009

Do you like octopus? No? Well it doesn't really matter because you should order here no matter what because it was seriously one of the best octopus dishes I've had ever.   In fact, everything here was top notch and incredibly authentic.  I have always been a huge lover of Greek food so when Taverna Kyclades - an Astoria staple - opened up in the East Village I was all over checking it out.

The decor of the place is kind of blah but the food more than makes up for it.  Everything on the menu sounded amazing - especially so if you like seafood.  Nancy and I decided to split a bunch of appetizers and started with the grilled octopus  ($18), spanakopita ($8), a variety of dips/spreads ($10) and a small Greek salad ($9).   Our food came out literally in under 5 minutes.  I'm not joking, it was kind of scary and that usually makes me question the food quality.  But I guess nothing that we ordered really takes a whole lot of preparation.  But it doesn't matter because everything was fantastic.  The "small" Greek salad was huge and could be a full meal on its own.  It had very little lettuce but TONS of red ripe beautiful wedges of tomato and a giant square of delicious feta cheese covered in olive oil.  Delicious. The dips they had (the only one I really knew what it was was the Tzatziki but there were 5 different kinds) were all fabulous but extremely heavy on the garlic and salt. It's served with a plate of nice and warm pita triangles and this also could have easily been a meal on its own as well.  The spanakopita was huge and delicious with a yummy mixture of spinach, leeks and feta in between flaky phylo layers.  The addition of the leeks was perfection and really made it stand out as opposed to it just being spinach.  But the star of the night was the grilled octopus.  I don't care if you don't like octopus or think it's gross, you must get it here.  First, they give you 2 huge pieces and when you bite into it, it's unlike any octopus you've ever had.  It's perfectly grilled and beyond tender and juicy.  When was the last time you could describe octopus like that?  We were so full at this point and had tons of leftovers but the restaurant offers everyone complimentary pieces of this flan/cake dessert - which was the perfect way to end the meal here. 

While I like the atmosphere at Pylos a bit more (it's gorgeous inside), the food here is just as good if not better.  Besides the food, the prices are extremely reasonable for the quality and quantity of the food. It's in a very convenient location for me (right off the L train) and if I find out that they do carry-out, I am pretty sure I know where I will be getting my dinner from now on a very frequent basis going forward.  Total bill:  $33/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Taboon Visited 4/4/2014 3.5 Forks

Taboon 773 10th Ave., New York, NY 10019

When my dad told me that he was coming to NYC for an Art Expo that was located on 12th Ave and 54th and wanted to me to find a restaurant nearby, I was really perplexed.  I mean besides being in a total waste land,  I couldn't even think of anything within a 5 block radius except the Gotham West Market and I didn't want to go there since it was a bit too casual.  I finally found out about Taboon on Opentable and luckily they had a 7:45pm reservation.  

The food here is Greek/Mediterranean which I love so I was excited to try it out.  I was and wasn't surprised by how crowded it was on a Friday.   I'm surprised because it's in such a removed area but also not surprised because if you live/work in that area, it's probably the best dinner option.  My one gripe about the menu is that everything was about $3-5 more expensive than it needed to be except for the dips.  But regardless the menu has a lot of delicious options.  To start we got the red snapper ceviche ($14), the crab meat salad ($14.50) and the sautéed calamari ($11) and then shared the lamb duo ($36) for an entree.  I was tempted to get a tzaziki dip for the bread but figured we had ordered enough food that we didn't need it.  While the bread was delicious, I definitely wished that I gotten the tzaziki because there was just something missing while we were eating the bread.  All the appetizers came out together and at first glance, while they looked great, they definitely looked small.   The ceviche was served chopped up and mixed together with lim juice, avocado, bulghur wheat, cucumber, shallots, cilantro and mint served on a romaine lettuce leaf and then topped with slices of radish.   When I think ceviche, I usually think they are chunks of fish marinated in lime juice not chopped up - while I wasn't a huge fan of this format, the flavor profile was still great.  Very refreshing and light but it was a bit difficult to really taste the fish because it was so cut up.  Next I moved on to the crab meat salad - this came with fresh crab meat, feta cheese, oregano, croutons, tomato and microgreens.   Again, nice fresh flavors but not sure if it really needed the feta cheese in it, but I'm never one to not eat feta on anything.  The calamari was sautéed with lemon oil and fresh herb salsa verde and served on a bed of arugula and cherry tomatoes.  As my dad said, it was a great dish but very small - it only came with 4 small pieces.  So while we had ordered 3 appetizers, I was still really hungry and totally ready for my entree.  The lamb was served two ways - as grilled lamb chops and as lamb meatballs and this was served on a bed of lentils and root vegetables. I'm not sure if they did this because they knew we were sharing but it was nice that there was 2 of each kind, so we didn't have to fight over who got what.  Again, these were also a bit on the smaller side as well but the root vegetables did help fill me up.  The lamb chop was delicious and grilled medium rare.  It fell off the bone and had a nice small amount of fat around it to keep the meat moist.  The meatball was also fabulous and juicy but flavored well with herbs and tasted just like a lamb kebab.

So while it sounded like we ordered a lot of food, I was still a bit hungry at the end of the meal.  Based on the waiter's recommendation, we ordered the date sponge cake ($10).  It was a date sponge cake soaking in rum and then topped with a date compote and English cream and fig reduction.  At first bite it was wonderful but as you start to take more bites of it, the intense sweetness really hits you.  It was to the point where I just really couldn't eat anymore of it because I was starting to feel sick from the sweetness.  All in all, I was glad that I found this place and if I was stuck all the way on the west side again, I would come back here if I needed a fancier establishment than Gotham West.  But do be aware that it's a bit pricey and the portions are on the small side.  Total bill:  $70/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Oleana Visited 7/11/2013 4.5 Forks

Oleana - 134 Hampshire St, Cambridge, MA 02139

I had heard a lot about Oleana from Lav and Eric enroute to New Hampshire, so I was pretty excited to give it a try.  Even though it received tons of raves reviews, I wasn't going in with really high expectations since I had never heard of it before. But I was totally in love with our dinner there and it was worth the crazy drive up there.  I was pretty surprised at how completely packed it was given that it was 9pm on a Thursday night.  Even though we had a reservation, but still had to wait about 20 minutes, which in relation to a NYC wait was totally ok. 

The menu here is Mediterranean, vegetarian friend and heavy on the flavor and spices.  While I wasn't starving when I got there (I totally blame the gigantic Auntie Ann's pretzel I had at the rest stop), my eyes definitely got big from all the yummy sounding dishes they had.  They have a LOT of tapas style entries as well as large sized entrees.  For starters, we all split the whipped feta with sweet and hot peppers ($5), saganaki ($10), and the sultan's delight ($13) and for my entree I got the hanger steak with a feta and chickpea salad ($29).  The one thing that disappointed me was the fact that they didn't have a Greek salad on the menu because I was totally in the mood for a good solid salad.  But luckily the rest of the dishes were so delicious that it didn't make me miss that the salad wasn't on the menu.  The whipped feta was amazing.  It had the strong flavor of the feta but with a nice combination of the roasted peppers to give it a sweet flavor.  It was whipped so smoothly that it almost had a butter-like consistency.  The saganaki was also fabulous and served with ouzo, sesame and really delicious grilled figs.  But my favorite appetizer was the sultan's delight which was tamarind glazed beef served with a smokey eggplant puree.  The beef was melt in your mouth and almost like a short rib in texture and consistency.  The puree was also spot on and had a very subtle smokey flavor that wasn't overwhelming but add a great touch to the dish.  I was pretty full at this point but I had to leave room for the hanger steak.  I am always a sucker for really good steak and this one absolutely did not disappoint.  It was good perfectly medium rare, closer on the rare side with a beautiful juicy red center.  The "salad" that came with it was more of a sauteed of peppers, onions,  some feta and chickpeas.  I could have done without it or just less of it because by the time I got to the bottom of it, there was a puddle of oil in the bowl that made it a bit unappetizing.  I had a taste of Eric's trout spanakopita ($24) and it was a nice blend of fish, spinach, avocado and roe.  It was bit heavy on the phyllo dough but otherwise it was a pretty unique dish that I haven't seen anywhere.  I didn't try any of Lav's dishes but she raved about the spinach falafel ($12), the walnut muhammara ($11) but mentioned that the corn and kohlarbi ($8) was lacking in flavor and a bit bland and her least favorite dish of the night.  We really decided to make it an overly decadent meal and got 2 desserts.  I totally apologize but I can't really remember what we got but I just remembered that one of them was too heavy the basil flavor and didn't seem right for a dessert.  

All in all, the food here had fabulous and strong flavors and it was most likely due to all the spices used in the dishes.  Eric actually had the cookbook for the restaurant and we tried to make a few of the dishes the following night (fairly successfully but still not as good as the restaurant) and the key to all the dishes were all these unique spices.  I know my friends were nervous about taking me here for dinner but they didn't have anything to worry about at all.  I've always said that I think Greek/Mediterranean food is like a sleeper hit - very unassuming but always a winner - and Oleana is no exception.  I would be more than happy to see a branch in the NYC area soon.  Total bill: $75/pp with tax, tip and wine

Photo Credit: Yelp

GRK Visited 6/18/2013 3 Forks

GRK 111 Fulton St., (between William St & Dutch St), New York, NY 10038

As I stated before recently, I am a huge fan of Greek food and luckily so is my friend Allison.  So she kindly took me out to GRK for a belated birthday lunch after I came back from all my travels.  I was totally excited to try it out and plus it was a beautiful day outside, so it was nice to get out of the building for lunch.

We got there a bit before noon, which was the perfect time because by the time we got our order the line was literally out the door.  So definitely try to go early if you can.  GRK is more of a fast food/lunch place vs. a real restaurant.  They have a short menu but it hits the Greek classics:  gyro sandwiches (chicken, pork or beef/lamb), platters, salads, and  tzatziki samplers.  What's also neat is that they also serve greek yogurt.  How on trend.  They have either regular yogurt or frozen yogurt.  We didn't really have time or space in our stomachs to get yogurt on top of our lunch, but if I worked closer to here, I could definitely see myself coming here for yogurt runs often.  Back to the food, I opted for the Greek Salad ($9.64) and Allison got the Chicken platter ($9.78) and we split a tzatziki sampler ($4.59).  I was super excited for the salad because I had been eating all this rich Chinese food lately and even though the menu accurately described the salad (Vine ripened tomatoes, red onions, green peppers, cucumbers and Kalamata olives. Tossed lightly with extra virgin olive oil, Kalamata vinegar and garnished with authentic Greek feta cheese) I was surprised that there was no lettuce in it.  The bowl was mainly huge chunks of tomatoes and cucumbers, which would have normally been fine but they were a bit poorly cut and I had re-cut them into smaller pieces.  The dressing and feta cheese were fine but it just didn't have that fresh Greek taste to it.  It was totally fine for a work time lunch meal but if I had that for dinner at a sit down place I would have been disappointed.  Allison's food looked like a winner with lots of gyro style chicken (I tried a bite and it was pretty tasty), aegean slaw (which was basically cabbage, carrots, onions in a vinaigrette) and rice with a tzatziki.  Considering it's almost the same price the salad, I would recommend getting the platter as it has more flavor and food to it.  The tzatziki sampler is a trio of dips (GRK - which is scallion, cucumber, mint and lemon; kaftero - which is habanero peppers, herbs, and sprices; and prassino - which is basil, cucumber and garlic) and a huge bag of warm pita.  I love the idea of the sampler and since we finished every single dip, clearly we enjoyed them, but similar to my Greek Salad, I've had better dips before in my life.  They all needed a bit more garlic and seasoning to them as they seemed a bit too mild.

Although this place is no Boukies, I don't think that's what it set out to be.  It's caters to a working lunch crowd and for that purpose, it gets the job done.  It's not super far from the Towers, but it's probably not a place that I would run to on a regular work day, more so on a lazy Thursday or Friday.  Total bill with 2 soda:  $30

Photo Credit: Yelp

Boukies Visited 5/31/2013 4.5 Forks

Boukies 29 E 2nd St., (at 1st St), New York, NY 10003

I've said it before but I'll say it again, but Greek food is so underrated.  I usually steer toward Thai/Asian when I go out and lately a bunch of Italian, but really good Greek food ranks right up there in terms of really really delicious food plus most of it is super healthy and good for you.  Lav and I were going to meet up with our friend Prem in the East Village, so I wanted to find a place that was within walking distance to B Bar (yuck), catered to vegetarians and had reservations at the last minute.  Boukies fit all of those requirements.  I should have known that the food would be good because it's from the same people at Pylos which is one of my East Village favorites.

Since it was a brutally hot day, Lav and I started with the Greek Salad ($12) since it would be nice and refreshing.  We also got the Flaounes me Feta kai Meli ($10), the Gigantes Ypirotiki me Spanaki kai Feta ($10), the spanakorizo ($7) and I ordered the Thrimatismeno Arni se Pita ($14).  What do all those words mean?  I'll explain as I describe each dish.  But first the Greek Salad.  It was awesome.  So so fresh with the perfect dressing and the ripest tomatoes I've had in a long time.  It had these fantastic large pieces of feta and crisp slices of cucumber.  It was also gigantic and I could see myself eating it as my main meal for lunch or an early dinner.  It was the perfect salad on a hot day.  Next came the Flaounes dish which was Boukie's signature phyllo flutes and filled with warm feta and drizzled with greek honey and black pepper.  Lav mentioned that I should have taken a bite while it was hot (and she was right) but even though I bit it after it had cooled down a bit, it was still a perfect combination of sweetness from the honey, crispiness from the phyllo dough and tang from the feta.  It was super unique and quite tasty.  The Gigantes was braised giant beans with spinach and feta and paired nicely with the bread we had.  It's totally fine to eat on its own but it almost tasted better as kind of a spread.   The spanakorizo was essentially a side order of Greek pilaf (almost like an orzo) with spinach, feta and lemon.  Again a nice refreshing dish but given how full we were from the other dishes, Lav and I both agreed that if we had to vote one dish off the island, this would probably be it.  Meanwhile, I ordered the Thrimatismeno or pulled lamb sandwiches for myself.  After seeing the size of the salad, I was a bit worried that it was going to be too much food, but it was actually a cute mini pita cut in half and then stuffed with lamb and served with a yogurt dill sauce.  I thought that the lamb was a little bit on the dry side and could have used a bit more flavor to it.  I was constantly dipping it into the yogurt sauce to give it some extra flavor and moisture.  When a lamb sandwich is done right, it usually has a LOT of flavor and moisture and this one didn't quite hit the mark but none the less I still ate the entire dish, so clearly I liked it enough!   Even though we were totally stuffed we always leave room for dessert.  We opted for the Santorini oozing lava cake ($8) which was this moist and decadent chocolate cake with wine soaked sour cherries.  As someone who isn't a huge lover of chocolate, I enjoyed this dessert a lot since it wasn't overly sweet or sugary. 

What I also loved about this place was the service.  I got to the restaurant first and normally most restaurants won't seat you until your whole party is there, but they were kind enough to let me sit at the table and grab some water while I waited.  Plus the waitress was very sweet and gave us a great recommendation on a light summery white wine ($46 for the bottle).  I also loved that it was very reasonably priced with all of the dishes we ordered being under $15.  All in all, it was a fantastic meal and it reminds again how wonderful Greek food is and how I should seek it out more often.  Total bill: $84/pp with tax, tip and lots of wine

Photo Credit: Yelp

Snack Taverna Visited 9/14/2012 4 Forks

Snack Taverna 63 Bedford St., (between Commerce St & Morton St), New York, NY 10014

It was nights like last night that make me hate New York.  Aarti and I decided to get dinner on a beautiful Friday night around 9pm.  In any other city, that's pretty late enough that it shouldn't be an issue to find a place to eat.  Except for the fact that I live in NYC, it's literally the city that never sleeps.  Every place that we tried to go had either a line what spilled out on to the street (Rosemary's), over an hour wait (Yerrba Buena), or an hour and 30 minutes (Commerce).  Of course then the places that did look like they had seating made us wonder why no one was there.  In the end, we said that we would try one more place before just calling it a night and getting something sad like Chipotle or Subway.  We ended up at Snack Taverna and we literally got the last table in the place.

Now I'm not giving them 4 forks simply because it was the one place that had seating but because the food is legitimately delicious there.  Greek food is one of those types of food that I rarely think of but when I do have it, I remember how much I love it (see my review for Pylos).  By the time we got our menu it was almost 10pm, so Aarti and I went to town and ordered everything our stomachs could handle.  Seriously, I kept rattling off dishes and the waitress looked at us like there should be more people.  We got the tzatziki ($8), saganaki ($11), lamb stifado ($14), spinach triangles ($12), zucchini fritters ($10), and a small greek salad ($12).   The saganaki (pan seared kefalotyri cheese with lemon and tomato) came out first and while I would have liked it set on fire in front of me (like how they do it in Greece), you just can't go wrong with a square of fried cheese.  Next came the greek salad and tzatziki (yogurt, cucumber and garlic).  Oh my, the tzatziki was amazing.  I wish that it came in a bigger size than the small dish we got.  I wanted to put it on everything else we ate and the pita that came with it was super soft and the perfect combination for it.  The greek salad was also fabulous.  It had bright red juicy chunks of tomato, a huge block of aged feta cheese, red onions and cucumber with a perfect olive oil/herb dressing.  I always think I can make a greek salad at home but it just never tastes as good as it does in restaurants.  I also thought the zucchini fritters were great too.  They were these 3 fried fritters that came stuffed with feta, kefalotyri cheese, garlic and tomato sauce.  It was pretty rich with all the different cheeses but at least there were only 3 of them.  By the time I got to the lamb stifado, I was pretty stuffed but I always have room for a good meat dish. Unfortunately, I wasn't super impressed with this dish.  It was braised lamb in a tomato and pearl onion sauce.  It was a bit too salty and the lamb could have been cut smaller and more tender.  It was actually my least favorite dish of the night.  Funny that the one meat dish was my least favorite.  The spinach triangles was you typical spanakopita with spinach wrapped in phyllo dough.  It was totally fine but by the time I got it, I was ready to keel over with fullness.

I am totally thankful that we were able to avoid a Friday night dinner at Chipotle and Snack totally came through in a big way.  I would definitely come here again on a random dinner outing again and it has reinvigorated my interest in Greek food.  Total bill: $120 with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Pylos Visited 1/7/2012 4.5 Forks

Pylos 128 E 7th St., (between 1st Ave & Avenue A), New York, NY 10009

I had been to Pylos years ago and all I could remember was that it had these clay pots hanging from the ceiling.  This was before I was "all into food" but I have always been meaning to try it out again.  So I was thrilled when my friend Vid suggested that we try it out for dinner on Saturday.  She used to live in Astoria and therefore had been accustomed to great Greek food.  So she wanted to try this place out in the city.  I also love Greek food but it doesn't really seem to be too prevalent in the city or Brooklyn so I haven't had Greek food since probably when I went to Barbados last year (weird, right?)

I was shocked to see that even after all these years Pylos was still super crowded.  In fact, when I got there the hostess said that if we didn't have a reservation, the next table would be 10:30pm.  But the beautiful marble communal table is first come first served.  So luckily, Vid and I pretty much got the last 2 seats at the communal table. 

They describe the menu as rustic, home cooked Greek food.  You won't find lamb sandwiches or gyros here.  Instead you'll find lots of small plates with lots of cheeses, veggies, and yes they also have whole fish.  Vid and I ordered 5 different small plates:  fried zucchini and eggplant ($10), grape leaves ($12), trio of dips ($11), Greek salad ($12) and spinach rice pilaf ($6).  I just want to put it out there that everything was fabulous and re-invigorated my love for Greek food.  The trio of dips came with tzatziki (tangy yogurt), a fish roe type dip and a grilled eggplant/olive oil dip.  They were all thick dips and to be honest, you could also just order this and 1 other dish and be full.  They all tasted homemade and made with fresh ingredients.  Next came the Greek Salad and while it was pretty basic, it was delicious.  There was no lettuce but it was full of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, red onion, and huge beautiful chunks of feta cheese.  The dresssing was a perfect combination of olive oil and herbs.  I could eat this salad all day.  The fried zucchini and eggplant was also really enjoyable.  They were extremely thinly sliced and lightly battered to the right texture so that you could still taste the crispiness of the batter but the meat of the veggies.  If I had to express one disappointment, it would be the grape leaves.  It took me years to get on the grape leaf bandwagon, but now I love them.  This one came stuffed with veal which I thought would be a nice addition.  But unfortunately, I didn't really like the addition of the veal.  It was a bit too much and made it too heavy tasting.  The rice pilaf was light and fluffy and was a nice side addition to everything we had.

All the portions were sized just right and honestly, I would have been just as full had I not ordered the grape leaves.  I wish instead I had ordered some kind of seafood dish instead (I mean how did I go to a Greek place and not order seafood?!).  They had a lot of yummy sounding shrimp, scallop, and squid dishes.  The waitstaff was friendly but I did feel a bit rushed when they threw down the dessert menu without asking us.  I mean on one hand I get that they need to turn over as many seats as possible, but I think it can be done in a bit more tasteful manner.  We each got a glass of wine and total meal including tax and tip was $45/pp...not bad at all for all that food!

Photo Credit: Yelp  

Kellari's Parea Greek Bistro Visited 4/15/2011 4 Forks

Kellari's Parea 36 E 20th St., (between Broadway & S Park Ave), New York, NY 10003

 Sometimes when you live in New York you get sucked into the latest, hottest, and most blogged about restaurants that you forget that there are thousands of great unwritten about places.  Kellari's is one of them.  Lav had stumbled across this place online and since it was only 3 blocks from her apt we thought we'd give it a go. 


It's on 20th street which is totally not a street when you think of places to eat, but as we were walking down I realized there were several good places there: Rhom Thai, Mizu Sushi and there was another sushi place next door that looked good. We walked into Kellari at 8:30 on a Friday night and while it wasn't packed, it was definitely full of what looked like locals.  At first glance, the menu is a bit more upscale Greek food as they don't have any pita pockets, gyros, or souvlaki type dishes.  They did have a lot of whole fish and lamb chop type dishes.  

They start off by giving you soft sliced multi-grain bread and a pretty good hummus spread.  One of my downfalls was that I ate a lot of it, so by the time our food came, I was kind of full.  We started with Saganaki ($10) and the feta cheese spread ($8).  The saganaki was lit table side, which was pretty dramatic.  But unfortunately the taste was not dramatic at all.  It kind of tasted like over-cooked, dried out cheese.  I haven't had saganaki in a long time, but I think any kind of hot cheese based dish should be soft and gooey? Luckily, the feta spread more than made up for it. Ok, I know that it's just a cheese spread, but for some reason it was just really really tasty.  The soft pita that came with it was super addictive as well.  It was a good thing we had that to nosh on because the wait time between the appetizers and main entrees was a loooooong time.  This definitely knocked them down 1/2 a fork...the service in general was just not great, so they were lucky that Lav and I really liked our food.  I don't even think our dishes were that complicated but for some reason it took a really long time for them to come out.  I had gotten the Maryland crab burger with fries ($18) and Lav got the zucchini fritters ($11) and a spinach and orzo side dish ($8).  As you all know, as someone from Maryland I am super picky about my crab cakes and a crab cake isn't really a Greek dish but for some reason it just called out to me.  I must say, it was a pretty good crab burger.  It was huge and you could see and taste real chunks of blue crab meat.  There was very little filler in it, so I was really pleased with how it turned out.  It was served on a brioche bun but after having had almost an entire bag of pita I ended up just eating the crab burger without the bun.  The fries were nicely done and tossed with oregano to give it a Mediterranean flare.  Lav's zucchini fritters were also excellent.  They were little balls of fried zucchini and cheese and served on a mint yogurt dipping sauce.  Delish.  Another service mistake they made was that they brought out grilled asparagus instead of the spinach orzo (I will say the asparagus looked really tasty), so they had to send it back and then we had a wait a bit for the right dish to come out.  I only had a small bite of it, but it was a nice blend of flavors and I could see it going well with a lamb dish.  All in all, I was pleasantly surprised at Kellari's given it's obscurity.  I do wish the service was a bit better, otherwise I might have even bumped this up to a 4.5 forks.  Total bill was $50/pp.       

Okeanos Visited 2/20/10 1.5 Forks

Okeanos 314 7th Ave
(between 4th Ave & 8th St) Brooklyn, NY 11215


I had originally been excited that a new restaurant was opening up on 7th Ave, but yet again, I feel like the quality of restaurants on this street is pretty disappointing. Dan and I mainly went b/c he had seen the menu when walking by one day and they had Eggs Benedict and Eggs Florentine on their brunch menu. We were starving when we went b/c I had waited an hour to get my taxes done, so were were very excited to sit down and eat. The place was pretty empty when we went at 1pm, which generally isn't a great sign. Dan and I really miss 2nd Street Cafe which had amazing brunchy egg products and have been dying to find a proper substitute. He ordered the eggs benedict ($10) and I order the eggs florentine ($10) and each got coffee ($2/each).

One minor complaint is that when we ordered our coffee they didn't bring any cream or milk out and after I asked for it, they brought a little thing of milk, which was fine, but then they brought a little bowl of empty creamer! WTF? The food came out and Dan's meal looked pretty standard but mine looked pretty different. I was expecting basically eggs benedict but with spinach instead of ham. But mine was baked in a baking dish and had 2 pieces of bread covered with cheesy spinach and 2 "poached" eggs. I don't understand how any restaurant, especially one that is practically empty, can't get poached eggs correctly. The eggs were completely over cooked. I like my poached eggs runny and these were almost cooked all the way through. The other bad part of my meal was that the bread was completely hard and I could barely cut through it. I ended up just not eating it.

The potatoes were flavorful but Dan's main complaint was that they were too big and that hash potatoes shouldn't require so much cutting. We agreed that the highlight of our meal was the side salad, which is never a good sign.