One of the best, most underrated foreign cuisines is Greek food. Up until a couple of years ago, I had never tried Greek food, nor had I even ever considered trying it. Personally, I had never encountered many Greek restaurants, and I had never heard great reviews about the one that is closest to me back home. But now, having finally tried it and read up on some Greek recipes, I think I can understand why it can be a difficult cuisine to master. Greek cuisine focuses on the use of minimal, yet extremely flavorful, ingredients that aren’t over-worked so as to keep the integrity of their freshness. When you finish eating, you should be full, but not so full that you feel weighed down and heavy.
My favorite Greek restaurant is Souvlaki GR, in Midtown NYC, which I discovered while watching Gordon Ramsey’s Hells Kitchen. In an episode, he took his competitors to New York to try what he considered to be some of the best ethnic restaurants in the city (I think they had a competition relating to that later in the episode). If Gordon Ramsey thinks it’s good, I obviously had to give it a try…
There are a couple of Souvlaki restaurants scattered throughout the city, but the one in Midtown is the easiest one to get to for me. The space is small but efficiently planned-out, and the service is exceptional. There isn’t just one server waiting on you, but all of the waiters collaborate together. This makes for faster and more efficient service, which benefits both the restaurant’s turnover and the satisfaction of its customers. It is, however, important to make a reservation, since the restaurant is busy almost every night of the week, and the waiting area is not so crowd-friendly – I don’t think I’ve ever been there when it wasn’t packed with people.
While the décor makes you feel as if you’ve been transported to scenic Mykonos, it’s the food that will really blow you away. By now, I don’t even look at the menu (except for the specials one), and order my go-to: Greek salad, lamb chops, and a chicken souvlaki. The tomatoes in the salad are always ripe, the cucumbers are crisp, and the olive oil that coats it all is thick and aromatic – The best part about the salad is mopping up the olive oil and tomato juice mixture left on the bottom of the plate with the fresh, hot pita that comes with it. The lamb chops are for sure the star of the show, and you can order them by the quarter, half, or full kilo. They come freshly off the grill and have a light seasoning so as to complement, and enhance the tender meat. Considering that a kilo contains about sixteen small chops, I generally order that when I’m with one to two other people. Eight lamb chops may seem a lot for one person (or maybe not), but eating them is like eating popcorn or chips… You can’t just have one, and it’s super easy to keep eating them until you realize that they’re all gone.
A souvlaki is basically a Greek wrap, where skewered meat chunks, tomato, red onion, French fries, and tzatziki sauce are all wrapped up in freshly-made, hot pita. They offer many souvlaki options, such as chicken, pork, shrimp, sausage, lamb, and even a veggie option. Some additional menu items that I highly suggest ordering are the Greek fries, which have a light seasoning of oregano (and some other herbs that I don’t know) and covered in crumbled feta cheese. The fries themselves are thick and crispy on the outside, and may be some of the best fries you’ve ever had. My friends also love to order the tyrocroquettes, which are basically ball-shaped cheese saganaki (fried cheese). They’re a little too heavy for me, but I have a low tolerance for anything fried, let alone fried cheese, so take my friends’ words for it and give them a try.
I think that Souvlaki GR may be among my top three favorite restaurants in NYC. The food is amazingly fresh and delicious, the service is unbeatable, and the décor gets you out of your head by letting you imagine that you’re dining on one of the Greek islands. It has also become one of my friends’ favorite restaurants as well, so we make catching up at Souvlaki GR a regular occurrence. Go there alone, go there with a friend, go there with a large group… Souvlaki GR will never disappoint. I hope I’ve inspired you to give Greek food a try, and I hope you go to Souvlaki if you’re ever in NYC!
Gourmet & Gourmande 