It was only after we had gotten our food that I realized that the restaurant (26 Cotham Road, Kew, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 9207 7477) was owned by a George Calombaris - an Australian chef of Greek heritage that's a judge in Masterchef Australia and a character of some repute, some of which controversial.
Anyways, we were here for their showcase of Greek food which I heard is good in Australia. Melbourne I read, is home to one of the largest Greek diaspora communities in the world as well as being the city with the largest Greek-speaking population outside Greece. These have got to count for something with their cuisine here. No?
We started with some lamb manti with mint yoghurt and what might have been chilli oil. The stuffings in the dumplings tasted like lamb sausages. Pretty tasty.
I thought their spanakopita was delicious with the crisp paper thin filo pastry crust. There was a good balance between the stuffings of vegetables and feta cheese
And then a saganaki - grilled Kefalograviera (which is very much like halloumi) that was topped with some peppered figs that provided a bit of spice and citrus sweetness.
Our celebration of the beast were a combination of spit roasted chicken and slow roasted shoulder of lamb. The former was all dark meat which I liked. Lamb was delicious with sweet caramelized char.
These might look like brains but they're actually roasted cauliflower with buttermilk tahini. The dark parts were the char on the cauliflower from the roast and not cancerous brain cells. For a little while, I had found the nutty creaminess a little confusing with the cauliflower.
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