Greek on Cav

SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT

I don't know how I discovered this new restaurant, I felt it in the ether, in my waters, in my bones. Somehow I knew that a new restaurant had opened. I was discussing it with my massage therapist and he was asking how you find out about new restaurants. I said I didn't know you just knew when it came out, through being invited to their launch, seeing it in a magazine or newspaper article, word of mouth, Instagram pictures, status updates, seeing it being built around time and just having the feeling that something is new, food blogger style.

I sense a first comment in order!

This was one of the two days off I had in a row where I met up with Jubi. I had been thinking about her during the week since I knew she's had days off in uni and my days off were coming along. Every time I was pondering this it was slightly too late to breathlessly call her and ask if she wanted to go out for food. Luckily for me she messaged me on Facebook and that was the end of that.

AWESOME FRIENDS.

When I told her that I wanted to go here she was intrigued as well, she saw it on my Facebook list of places to go and mentioned that she had seen it whilst driving past. Apparently it took over the old Sing's Asian Kitchen spot and was easily accessible on Cavendish Road in Coorparoo. She had never had Greek food before so it was a done deal!

This place!

Just as a weird note, check out the price of the three dips with the pita breads. Its $18 for three dips and pita bread. Please note, that each dip, that already comes with pita, is $5. So if you bought three dips SEPARATELY you would only pay $15, unless you wanted an extra side of pita bread which is $3. The general rule of thumb is, when you buy in bulk things are cheaper, there's something awfully screwy going on around here. Here is their menu by the way.

There's a small window in the corridor that is called Greek to Go! Where you can pick up pastitio, moussaka, yemista, various souvlakis and Greek desserts super fast. Here is their actual menu.

+_+ shiny

Looks so good.

We got seated pretty quickly. The two seat arrangements are all sort of away from the main part of the restaurant. The interior is mainly for medium-large party of more than four, just outside the front doors are lots of long tables for big family gatherings of which there quite a few there that night. On the other hand, people sitting in pairs where shunted off a little ways, in the windy corridor between Greek on Cav and Sitar, a little ways up before the Greek to Go window. I'm not sure if this is intentional to give couples more privacy, but to me it seemed like we were out of the way.

We got our mezedes aka small plate to shares at the same time as our mains, we were asked if we wanted them as entrees but we declined and said we wanted it all with our mains. I think if we had know how long it would take for the mains to arrive, we'd have gone with them as entrees. We waited at least half an hour to forty five minutes from our ordering time and we went at around 6.20pm.We talked a lot and Jubi was glad that she got to sit beside the outdoor heater cause it grew quite chilly.

They have cute little fake lantern lights

Kolokythi are stuffed zucchini flower with kefalograviera and feta, aka sheep/goats cheese and your regular feta. Super cheesy and very, very strong in flavour, if you haven't had goats cheese before imagine a mild blue cheese with an aroma or taste that makes your eyes water at the same time. I think the feta in that goats cheese was perhaps too much and overwhelmed the flavour of the zucchini flower. Eating the "stem" of the flower, the small zucchini part with the cheese was a better balance however. I saw Jubi scraping out most of her cheese, and eating her flower nearly by itself, she said she liked it but there was too much cheese. The leftover cheese was very good with the toasted pita bread.

So much cheese. Please remember zucchini flowers are normally a bit flatter

These ones are pretty huge as is

The melizana is an eggplant and garlic dip with a side of warm pita, a bit nutty and creamy, noticeably under salted. I'm not normally a big eater of eggplant to be honest, but Jubi adds that its a soft mild flavour that is quite pleasant. There was a mild nubblely texture to the dip which I thought was some sort of nut blended in as a thickener/texture adder. The pita was lovely and toasty with good char marks on it and a slight crunch. 
 

Grainy grey looking

My main was the kotopoulo sto fourno is roasted chicken maryland piece stuffed with pinenuts, pistachios and sultanas, on broccolini, roasted tomatoes and a very sweet honey mustard dressing. The chicken was just your regular roasted chicken, moist and tender, I remember a few pieces of the thigh being a touch dry which is odd for a maryland chunk. The stuffing was tasty, bread crumbs, juicy golden sultanas, pistachio nuts and lots and lots of crunchy pinenuts breaking up the mix. I didn't really like the honey mustard sauce that went with the meal, since it was much too sweet and I didn't detect any mustard flavour in there at all. Jubi quite liked the sauce and ate it with her pita and drizzled over her salad.
 

Blobby sauce, unsure if the appearance was intentional

The roasted tomatoes burst in your mouth and even I didn't mind them. Jubi ate one and when poking it with her fork, exploded it over my plate. The broccolini was odd, I thought it was silverbeet for the entire meal and called it as such to Jubi, it was sauteed in a bit of garlic and was slightly bitter to the taste whatever it was. Its missing the distinctive floret like ends that broccolini has.

Jubi got patzari salata, roasted beetroot, haloumi, orange segment and rocket salad with citrus dressing. I didn't taste any citrus dressing although I didn't have any of the rocket. The roasted beetroot was sweet and earthy, also a great colour. The haloumi was cold although it was coloured nicely and still a bit squeaky, it wasn't what I expected. Jubi finished her salad before I finished my meal, but I was busy eating the other things we had and taking photos. She was disappointed in how small the salad portion was and finds that a lot of places are stingy on the salad.

 

Sad looking salad

We picked up some complimentary chocolate when we paid our bill. It was a milk chocolate and almond pieces one. It wasn't half bad. 

I flipped the picture but I was taking this picture in the dark with flash

Greek on Cav
Atmosphere:7, busy with a old Greek man playing a guitar in the corner of the restaurant. There were lots of big families with children here and it seemed like a really good place for a get together.
Service: 6, one of the other waiters did drop by and ask if we were being looked after/did we need anything. Although, there was no apology or explanation for the long wait. A piece of chicken fell onto the pavement when I was trying to cut it and it was kicked under the table by a waiter as he passed by, unsure how I feel about this.
Food:  7, solid food. A bit on the small side to be honest, barring my chicken, but the salad and sharing plates were definitely small sized.