I needed some place to go for Valentine's Day. I've had Greek food before, but I wanted some place I'd never been to. This place has been on my list for quite some time, so it's nice to be able to finally mark it done. The restaurant is on Scotch Road in Ewing, NJ. You can find their website here. They're open every day of the week until 9 or 10 PM.
The dress is casual and the decor inside is pretty simple. They have plenty of seating, some tables and some booth's. There's a really big sunroom that's really nice. I think the prices are very reasonable.
Sitting at our table we were promptly greeted by our waitress. Recently I was at an Indian restaurant where the guy would walk back and fourth and look at you every fifteen seconds. How annoying. The waitress we had was attentive to all the tables she was working, but not annoyingly so. She was very nice, friendly and chatty. Perhaps the best waitress I've had in a long time. My only complaint would be that she should have known what the specials were without going out to read the sign at the door. No big deal, though.
We started off with Greek Coffee. This took a little bit to make, which the waitress apologized for, but really it wasn't that long. I think it was worth it. It's like some really good espresso, with a nice earthy tone. You have to let it sit for a few minutes, not only because it's hot, but because whatever is in it (just coffee grinds?) needs to settle down. If you drink it too early it'll have a gritty texture to it. All of that settles to the bottom and when your done you flip over the cup and they'll read your fortune. I was joking that I should have turned my cup over when the waitress wasn't looking and quickly try to make an image of the Virgin Mary with my fork for when they came back to read our fortune. That would have been funny, but I'm not that artistic. I don't think a stick figure would have been as believable.
That's not theirs or my picture. I just thought I'd show what Greek Coffee looks like. Now that I'm thinking about it I think it had a slightly chocolaty and smokey flavor in addition to what I mentioned above. Next time I'm definitely having more than one!
We didn't ask for it, but I'm guessing every table receives some pita bread with olive oil and Greek spices as a starter while you wait. The pita could have been a bit done more, so it would have been slightly toasty, but either way it was tasty and warm. Maybe that toasty thing is just me. I'm not sure how it would be served in another Greek restaurant. Careful not to fill up, because some meals come with a salad, which we didn't know. With an appetizer, salad, side dish, and a meal we left this place absolutely full.
For our appetizer we tried the Melitzanosalata. No need to pronounce it. Just point to the menu or say the eggplant appetizer. This is eggplant made with (I think) olive oil, lemon juice, tomato, and a ton of garlic. I'm not sure what else was in it, but it was excellent. I wasn't kidding about the ton of garlic either. I'd definitely order this again.
Next up came some salad. Had I known they came with our dinner I'd probably have skipped them. I'm not usually a salad eater. Lettuce, red onions, grape tomatoes, pretty simple. It was too light on the dressing, though. Had there been more dressing I'd probably have ate it all. The tomatoes were very tasty.
We both ordered the same entree. It was a Valentine's Special. They might have it on other days, but this was my first time there so I'm not sure. I can't pronounce the name, but it was meatballs in a red wine tomato sauce and a side of rice for $10. The meatballs were a good size. They seemed to have a more dense texture than I'm use to. I liked it. I'm not sure what they put in the rice. Maybe just butter. It was done perfectly. What I really enjoyed was the red wine sauce. It was very tasty, but didn't seem over acidic, and my stomach thanked them. I wasn't having heartburn later on that night.
We also had two sides of potatoes. First up are the lemon potatoes. They're boiled potatoes and sauteed in olive oil, lemon juice Greek spices. Very tasty. You get some really tangy bites in there. One order was enough for two people. Really good and highly recommended. Second up was an order of Greek Fries just to see what they were. Don't waste your time with these. They're frozen fries with a tiny bit of spice thrown on top. With all the other freshly prepared food available it would have been nice to see fresh cut fries instead.
The bottom line? Just about everything was really good and I can't say enough good things about the service from our waitress. I'm sure the desserts would have been good too, but we were too stuffed to even think about them. We'll be back again soon. I've actually got a craving for that coffee, so will probably be back very soon.
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