Ouzeri Greek Restaurant

Date: October 30, 2011

Location: 500 Danforth Avenue (half block west of Pape Subway Stn), Toronto

Website: http://www.ouzeri.com/

Meal: dinner

My thoughts:

Hi everyone. Before I dive into the delicious topic of food, I would first like to open with a suggestion that a friend has given to me with respect to my site. She suggested that I incorporate "more humour". I took this to mean that entries are rather long-winded (admittedly so) and somewhat of a dull read. Sigh. Maybe I'm being hard on myself, but I have decided that from this point on (after this lengthy paragraph of course!) to do less talking (writing) and to do more picture-taking. So here goes!!

My friend and I were strolling along the Greek 'hood of Danforth, and this spacious, softly lit restaurant with an impressive wine display caught our eye. Right away, we could tell this was a comparatively more upscale restaurant than the other Greek restaurants that we'd recently ventured to.

 

We placed our order and were given some bread, which was cold and slightly dense. Also, it did not taste very fresh.

We shared the Mushrooms a la Grec ($8.95) - sauteed mushrooms marinated in olive oil, lemon and spices. The spices were good, and the olive/spice blend paired well with the bread, but we didn't like the fact that this was cold. We knew this prior to ordering this, but we thought we'd give this a try anyway. This definitely would've tasted better hot (although perhaps this wouldn't have been typical Greek style.)

Gigantes ($7.95) - giant lima beans baked fresh herbs, vegetables and tomatoes. That last sentence was the menu's description of the dish, and the beans were indeed "giant". I initially thought they were large whole garlic cloves! We preferred this over the mushrooms, which is saying something, because we both are big mushroom lovers! The sauce was nice and thick, which again made for a perfect bread dip. (Sorry for the weird angling of the photo.)

 

Al's Feta Lamb ($18.95) - marinated lamb kebob grilled and served with spicy feta cheese sauce. This was my main. As you can see, the kebobs were quite charred, which I'm not a fan of (the charred areas are carcinogenic anyway). The meat itself was overcooked and tough. The potatoes were pretty good, the rice plain (i.e. not seasoned) and the cheese "sauce" (it was more like a dip - what it was for, I don't know) was very thick and even spicier. Everything was very salty, especially the cheese dip/sauce.

Veggie Pita ($6.99 + $3.00 to add a side of fries) - pita with hummus and grilled bell pepper, zuchini and eggplant, with a side of fries. I didn't get a taste of the pita but was told that it was pretty good. The fries were hot, somewhat dense and crispy - not bad and not too salty.

Our final verdict: Although we shouldn't compare, we would much prefer Kalyvia over this restaurant. Service was poor at both places (our waiter had a good attitude but it took him forever to fill our water glasses, even after we'd asked him to do so), but the mushrooms, lamb and the fact that we didn't feel the need to down a water cooler after our meal made Kalyvia the clear winner here. Oddly enough, we walked by Kalyvia on our way home, and it was absolutely empty. Go figure!