Category: Greek

Categories
Greek

Souvlaki Bar – Brighton-Le-Sands NSW Restaurant Review

I hit up Souvlaki Bar just after midnight in the small hours of Boxing Day 2020. It’s one of a few restaurants that are open late into the night, staffed by its regular crew within normal hours and a culturally and linguistically diverse cohort after hours. I feel like we shared a connection, working Christmas and Boxing days in what is essentially a service job (ED fast track).

Service was fast as I was the only customer of the two South Asian women working in this Greek restaurant. They were quite accommodating of my request of one dish to have there and one to take home.

Lamb Yiros

Souvlaki Bar’s Lamb Yiros ($12 with the addition of tabouli) was alright for a late night feed but not great. The meat I felt was too heavily marinated and tasty, whereas the tzatziki sauce was too mild. It felt quite imbalanced, with different bites producing quite different flavour profiles (the bites with salad and not meat were quite plain, whereas the bites with meat and not salad were too salty). The serving of meat was quite generous, though I think that for $11 tabouli should have been included.

Chicken double souvlaki

The chicken double souvlaki ($14 with tabouli) with chilli sauce was not very good. It consisted of pita bread wrapped around two chicken skewers. Tabouli was again a dollar extra on top of the $13 price tag. I felt like the chicken souvlaki skewers were too dry. The chicken wasn’t juicy at all, and this was generally a disappointment.

VERDICT
It’s 1AM, you’ve just worked eight hours in the local emergency department on Christmas Day, and you’ll be back again that night. You just want food in your mouth, and Souvlaki Bar provides that, but not much more.

3/5

Souvlaki Bar
78 The Grand Parade, Brighton-Le-Sands NSW 2216
(02) 9567 7988

Categories
Bakery Greek

Born to Bake Greek Patisserie Café – Eastlakes NSW Bakery Review

My partner spent $90 on breakfast from Born to Bake Greek Patisserie Cafe on UberEats this morning. This is what she ordered.

Kreatopita

This wrapped-in-foil delight is the Kreatopita ($10). It consisted of meat mince in puff pastry, however there were parts of the insides that was straight dough. For this, it loses a point. A further point is lost for the price.

Salmon Roll

This Salmon Roll ($14) with smoked salmon, capers, baby spinach, red onion and cream cheese actually came with surprise avocado. Sadly the avocado was very hard and not ripe at all. The flavours were not extraordinary. It is also quite expensive. Not again.

Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich

This Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich ($14) with lettuce, tomato and a spicy mayonnaise sauce is as described on the shipping manifest. Unfortunately ours was quite unbalanced, as it seems they ran out of ingredients to extend the salad beyond half of the roll. We therefore had one side that was yum, and one side that was just dry chicken with no salads. I saw that soon after we received our meal that they had marked this particular sandwich as out of stock on the UberEats app.

The Moussaka ($14.50) was cold. How am I meant to eat this?
(UPDATE: even warmed up in the oven it was not very good)

Bougatsa

The Bougatsa ($7.50) was a yummy dessert of filo pastry around a warm custard filling. Quite good.

Amarena Black Cherry Tart

This Amarena Black Cherry Tart ($4) was a nice treat for $4. The black cherry was yummy but I wish there were more.

Salted Caramel Tart

The Salted Caramel Tart ($9.50) was pretty standard. Not bad, but $9.50?

The Orange Cake ($9) was unpredictably huge. Very dense. The densest. I didn’t really like it that much.

Strawberry cheesecake, Amarena Black Cherry, Fruit tart

My partner made a sweet and kind move on my birthday to order me a repeat of our previous adventure.

The fruit tart ($7.50) was actually really nice. I loved the variety of the fruit as well as the custard filling and pastry underneath.

The strawberry cheesecake ($7) I wouldn’t order again.

The Amarena black berry tart ($4) you have heard about before.

VERDICT

Though they may have been born to bake, the operators of Born to Bake made some strange choices , like surprising us with unripe avocado and a cold moussaka. While they may be born to bake, I was not – I didn’t expect to have to bake my own food after it arrived.

3/5

Born to Bake Greek Patisserie Café
1/279 Gardeners Rd, Eastlakes NSW 2018
(02) 8096 5945

Categories
Greek Middle Eastern

Capri’s Kebab Pizza – Arncliffe Takeaway Review

We’ve had Capri’s Kebab and Pizza n-number of times over our numerous night shifts. Capri’s has the distinction of being open until very late most nights, late enough for us to reliably order at the end of a long night shift ward round.

The establishment itself is actually quite confusing, as it shares a location and phone number with Megabite Pizza, however there appears to be two separate menus, with Megabite providing Middle Eastern kebabs and pizza and Capri’s the Greek version.

Mixed Yiros (roll $13) – Delicious yiros meat in a wrap with hot chip, salad and tzatziki. Just what you need to keep your will to live during a night shift.

Capri Special Pide ($18) – Fresh and hot and cheesy, an unfaultable pide for the time of night.

One problem that I will point out about Capri is that they charge an additional $2 for tabouli, which, on top of a $14 charge for the base kebab is a bit steep. Tabouli is in my humble opinion an essential component of your kebab, and a $16 kebab is just too much. The other thing I’d mention is that I prefer the beef and chicken mixed kebab over the lamb kebab at Capri’s (neither are pictured). This is because while the lamb in the lamb kebab is indeed real lamb, it is extremely fatty, whereas the beef and chicken are your regular doner fare.

In my opinion Capri’s delivers a known quantity of good quality food, and is my personal pick for the night shift grind. This is not an opinion held by all of my colleagues, however, some of whom prefer Capri’s arch nemesis Adam.


Capri’s Pizza Kebab
266 Princes Highway, Arncliffe NSW 2205
(02) 8509 5889

Categories
Greek

Traditional Gyradiko – Rosebery, NSW Restaurant Review

Traditional Gyradiko goes from strength to strength with their excellent gyros and souvlaki. I have had their pork pita, lamb pita, and chicken souvlaki multiple times and they are yet to disappoint. They ate perfectly sauced and the hot chips inside provide an added dimension of crunchy potato.

The potato chips with feta was $9 and I cannot not recommend based on the small serving size alone. They do not detract from the quality of the gyros however and overall I would recommend this place to a friend or colleague.

Traditional Gyradiko
447 Gardeners Rd, Rosebery NSW 2018
(02) 9313 5379

Traditional Gyradiko Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato