A lovely little bit of Greek

OK, so may be not a little bit. A whole lot of Greek, with some satin drapes and an attentive, friendly waiter thrown in.

Let's be honest, you think of Greek food: olives, hummous, halloumi... and you think healthy right? But the fact of the matter is, Greek food was made for sharing, but sharing in the sense that you order as many different types of dishes as possible to have a taste of everything and then once it's all in front of you, no matter how much you say to yourself that you're only going to try a little bit of everything you end up stuffing it all in your face. And I definitely did.

And where did I feast? At a Greek restaurant less than 5 minutes walk from Camden Town tube station called Andy's Taverna. The outside decor of this little Greek restaurant is a pleasant white wash of walls with blue shutters encased by decorative railings. In fact on the day that I visited the weather was so hot you could be mistaken for actually being in Greece.

Walking into the restaurant we were greeted by our very friendly waiter, who escorted us to a table just inside where the big doors opened on to the front terrace. The waiter was obviously keen to please and with such a charming and warming character you instantly felt welcome.

Inside the decor is heavy on blue and white with photos of past guests lining the walls, one of which I am told by my boyfriend was the Greek football team - obviously a good sign! The white satin "wedding chairs" may not be to everyone's taste and may seem slightly garish, but this to me only added to it's charm and they have obviously been doing something right given they have been open since 1967!

Whilst we looked over the menu, our friendly waiter brought over some olives and pickles with some soft, warm sesame bread. To be honest, I could have left the olives and pickles as they were fairly bitter, but the sesame bread was scrumptiously soft and served warm, delish!

There was so much to choose from on the menu that we decided to opt for the chef's mixed grill: loucanika, pastourma, lountza and halloumi. This was basically varying types of Greek sausage (spicy, garlic and smoked respectively) served with possibly one of my favourite cheeses, halloumi. The portions were perfect size and good value for £7.25, but of course being the perfect portion meant that of course we ordered more including some tasty Tzatziki and kalamari. At which point I was definitely full.

But then came our mains, so I had to put my full stomach aside and tackle my Lamb Kleftiko, a traditional Greek dish of slowly cooked lamb with vegetables, basically a Greek stew, served with a Greek salad. The lamb was a hefty piece of beautifully cooked meat which even by the touch of my knife slid easily off the bone. So tender and flavoursome with every mouthful that I'm ashamed to say that I could not finish my plate, I was just too full!

To end an already wonderful meal (and an equally wonderful price at £31 for two including beers - thanks to a Tastecard discount), the waiter came over with an on the house dessert of Galaktoboureko, a semolina based custard in filo pastry, simply gorgeous. And yes I finished it all.

Yelly-fi-felly-food-belly x 


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