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Qantas - The Australian Way Sept 2003 |
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cheery place makes a welcome addition to the Adelaide
dining scene, and Dimitri Morphopous cooks simple, traditional
dishes that are full of flavour. To start, try the share
platters of mixed dips of the "tour of Greece"
selection of mezze goodies -dolmathes, pickled octopus,
kefthedes (spicy meatballs), cheese, olives and dips.
Then, who could resist saganaki (char-grilled) kefalograviera
or haloumi cheeses with roasted cherry tomatoes, or the
crispy whitebait? Greek staples, such as yhiros and moussaka,
are popular. Also recommended are the "Colossus"
char-grilled mixed meats plate, the saganaki prawns, and
the grilled quail served with lemon and olive oil. there
are a few Greek wines on offer, but the list is mainly
South Australian drops. |
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The Adelaide Review
Number 223, April 2002
Revolving chimneys
By John McGrath |
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The
Adelaide City Council's Halifax Street development site
has happened after not very many years wait, a twinkling
of an eye really in council-think. The old incinerator
building and chimney have been kept and renovated. As
much as I would like to report a revolving chimney restaurant,
I'll have to settle for one at ground level - The Greek
on Halifax. Not a bad landmark if you are starting a restaurant.The
restaurant conversion is sensible and pleasing to sit
in or about. Considering the restrictions that were no
doubt laid down it is probably extremely clever. The design
is in mid-eighties Sydney restaurant style. Remember the
discovery of stressed concrete, arid is in, Darlings?
The Greek has black and white pictures of the owners'
families in Australia and on the isle of Lesbos. Friendly
without falling into that blue and white tourist picture
trap.The
menu deserves a good peering at - it isn't a list of the
same old Greek regulars. Cypriot rissoles call Sheftalia
are wrapped in caul. Caul is God's Gladwrap. Ask your
butcher if you haven't seen or used it. It's invaluable
for barbeque burgers. There is black-eyed bean and spinach
salad or grape, rocket and haloumi salad.I
have been here for breakfast (Greek sausage and cheese
omelette), play-lunch, lunch and dinner. I've eaten a
yiros in pitta takeaway. I'm pretty impressed. I think
this place has gone straight to the top of the Greek firmament.
I've tried the mixed platters and the chicken, the coffee
and the cakes. The cakes, made on the premises, are not
the sorts that want your metal fillings to come dancing
out of their burrows, they are gently sweet.
The Greek's first wine list is just OK, but you can pick
some winners; for $21.50, the Montana (NZ) Pinot Noir
is good lunchtime value.Be
careful of Halifax Street if you haven't been down it
recently. The once wide street has been throttled to one
lance with right-angled parking. It won't last long I
suppose. It should only take a couple of fatalities to
reverse the council's bizarre and costly uglification.But
back to the restaurant. The good is fresh, beautifully
cooked and good value. There is a proper yiros rotisserie.
The staff are obviously all proud of The Greek; they should
be. Special mention for the woman with those shoes.Their
plans for a winter menu sound exciting; there are rumblings
about Avgolemono soup, a rarely seen Greek soup. It is
one of those very simple dishes that are impossible to
mess up, but everyone does. It is a big time comfort dish
and is rumoured to cure sudden death.The
Greek has been successful in the few weeks since opening;
it should keep on rolling forever. |
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The
Advertiser:
food & wine
By
Tony Baker |
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The
puzzling thing about the flowering of the city is that
it took so long. It was talked about in the '70s, and
not only by Don Dunstan in euphoric and visionary mood.
It was discussed at repetitious length in the '80s before
people actually began to strand in the rhetoric.What
it's all about doesn't look and get better than at the
Greek on Halifax, where the city council's old incinerator,
chimney and general dump is a newborn hamlet. It is possible,
more than possible, to quibble about the streetscaping
which has been not so much narrowed as left gasping for
a bypass. But
the other side of that coin is that the pavement is widened
to provide pavement seating. Which brings us immediately
to the built charms of the Greek on Halifax.
It is a quite
sassy bit of design. Behind is the preserved chimney of
the old incinerator, a reflection of the official Adelaide
view that the pyramids of Egypt and hanging gardens of
Babylon were on a par with an 1836 midden. Musn't digress.
GoH has a beguiling intimacy. It sprawls from pavements
back to several rooms so that it manages the paradox of
being chic and homely.This
is reinforced by the way the Xenos and Galantomos families
have set about attracting the customers. Patriarch Tony
Xenos has been rattling the pots and pans in Adelaide
restaurants for about 40 years. But is the next generation,
Peter Xenos and Maria Galantomos, who have imprinted the
personalities. This is not - praise the Lord and pass
the ammunition - a blue-and-white, smash-the-plates and
play-the-Zorba Greek pastiche.
The enlarged family photographs
around the walls of the main room depict a migrant generation's
origins and rites of passage.Let's
not get too high falutin' here: the food is good and true
and, if you are in snack vein, startling cheap, with Greek
coffee for $2.50 and a syrupy cakes for $3.50. Lili -
originally Vassiliki Maros - was quite misty-eyed when
she saw the ornamental triangular carrying trays used
to convey Greek food and the obligatory cold water from
counter to customer. When she then saw they were real
tools of hospitality, not artifacts, used to actually
convey the stuff, I knew I dare not criticise this joint
for want of authenticity. Not that I would have done so
anyways, save in two minor matters. They really should
not add lettuce to what was otherwise a prefect Greek
salad, and the retsina wine they listed lacked that resin
quality that makes your toenails curl. So we summoned
bottles of the emergent and Moorish Three Witches white
and, in a matter befitting the new Adelaide as much as
the lost Athens, an array of mezethakia (bites, nibbles,
occidental yum cha) starters. Loukanika are halvedsmall
sausages originally served here with ouzo-baked wedges
of fresh orange. Spanokopitta re the spinach and cheese
triangles which I can always enrage Vassiliki by likening
to pasties. One of two saganaki dishes was a salty, char-grilled
haloumi cheese with roasted cherry tomatoes.Despite
the presence of the lettuce, the salad was good enough
to call for a reprise, with a plate of char-grilled meats,
mainly meatballs, ouvlakia and yiros.Thence
to a true, creamy, quite voluptuous kataiffi and the thought
that we had at least lasted long enough to enjoy the new
Adelaide city as it blossomed. |
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South
Australia Special
In great taste November 29, 2003 |
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South
Australia has an enviable range of places to eat and drink.
Howard Twelftree samples the good life.Knowledgeable
Greeks say the Greek restaurant food in Oz is better than
its equivalent back home. Whatever, the food at the Greek
on Halifax is among the best in Australia. You can't miss
the place - look for the giant brick incinerator chimney. |
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| Australian
Gourmet Traveller:
2004 Restaurant Guide Australia |
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everyone would think of setting up a restaurant in the shadow
of an old refuse incinerator, but the Greek on Halifax has
done so with inventive zeal, creating a light and airy restaurant
of several rooms with a broad pavement dining area. Old
photographs depict the two related families that run the
restaurant, showing them in Greece and as newly arrived
Australian immigrants. A high quality home-style feel prevails
in the kitchen, overseen by patriarch Tony Xenos. |
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