Two Wednesdays ago, I visited this cute little Greek place in Brooklyn, on invitation.

The good part – it was great food, great service. Add good company to it and you have a great meal going, right? The bad part – it was a weekday, a working day. And I couldn’t be away for long, otherwise, I would’ve just kept eating and chatting.

Amidst all the excitement of chatting with the friend and eating great food, I missed to take pictures of the place which was very cute. And would be my idea of a fun, sunny-day, casual date place with friends or family.

But fear not, I took plenty of pictures of the food that I ate. And I requested small portions so I could try as much as would’ve been possible. But they said everything is grand in Greek 😉

Seriously though, this was one case of tummy full, but heart not. Imagine, as I’m writing this post, I’m salivating again and as I look at their menu, I’m all, ‘Oh I would’ve wanted to eat this and this and that..’ :p

We started with a glass of Greek wine, each. They both tasted nice, different.

This was followed by some brilliant dips – fava mani, rich rich and yummy tzatziki, and a very balanced tirokafteri. The inherently sweet colored peppers balanced the feta’s saltiness too well. And the tzatziki was perfect. So creamy and delish. The fava mani had the perfect amount of tang.
And that soft and warm pita made sure you had no difficulty getting those delicious spreads to your mouth. Truth be told, I can eat those spreads plain from a fork. They were fork-licking good 😉 Did I tell you that we left the decision on the house – on what to bring us to try? With telling them a couple of the things we definitely wanted to try? Next up was tender okra braised in tomato basil sauce crumbled feta. Simple and flavorful.

Followed by some very simple and subtly flavored spanakorizo,sauteed spinach, rice, onion, dill.

Then they got us some red grape & baby kale salad, with some walnuts, sheep’s cheese for that crunch and that creaminess.
And had I not known it was kale, I could’ve never guessed it was kale. Never had seen those designer-cut-styled leaves before.
And because spanakopita needs no introduction, I’ll tell you this – this is might’ve been the best spanakopita I’ve had till date. For once, to me, the spinach didn’t taste frozen. The phyllo dough was extremely flaky and soft and slightly crisp. And what I might not have ordered but we got, like the kale salad, was this strawberry, cabbage, grapes salad with walnut, yogurt, butter milk dressing and house dressing of EVOO honey capers dejon mustard wine vinegar. Good balance of sweet, salt, tart.

Then, they got us some nice vegetables – lemon potatoes – red potatoes roasted in lemon, oil, herbs and grilled veggies – eggplant, zucchini, tri color peppers, onions, garlic. Simple and flavorful, yet again. The grilled veggies were more ratatouille like, than grilled and crisp. But I liked the flavors. And actually enjoy them more this way.

And then I’d seen these online but not in the menu, and I asked for them because they sounded good – were fava fritters – chick pea, scallions, feta, herbs spices pan fried. While they were good and tasty and crispy and all that, what I had pictured reading the description were more fluffy pancake like fritters.

And though we were full-ish, they insisted we try their pantzaria – roasted beets, baby kale, walnuts, feta, yogurt dressing. And were we glad? The beets were roasted to perfection? Sweet with a bite and not mushy. And that yogurt dressing was a perfect complement to it.

And then came the haloumi stinpsistaria – Cypriot goat cheese grilled with lemon oil dressing.
And this wasn’t it. Both my friend and I have a sweet tooth, and requested for a little something. What came were not little, but a very hearty and nutty baklava and a creamy rizogalo – a rice pudding of long grain rice, vanilla paste and cinnamon.

The baklava was a bit sweet even for my taste (I like my sweets sweet :p), but the nuts were chunkier than I’ve eaten at other places. The phylo dough deserves a mention again.
And the rizogalo was quite creamy. But it’s not my kind of dessert. I love cakes.

I enjoyed my meal here. Thank you Avlee Greek Kitchen.