Monday, June 22, 2015

#64 - South Street Souvlaki - Sandy's synopsis


Ah, to be transported to Greece for an evening - South Street Souvlaki attempts to do this and since I haven't been to Greece, I cannot tell you if they succeeded. I can tell you, based on their website, that the owner Tom Vasiliades, is a charismatic man, who seems passionate about his restaurant. (Their old website had more direct quotes from him that made this more apparent. I was slightly disappointed to see that their newly re-vamped website removed most of his words.) 

Coming out of the virtual world and onto their doorstep you are first greeted by music, I'm assuming it is greek music? Once inside, you are greeted by the bar. 


It was a very striking sight to me and I loved the lights strung up top highlighting its presence. We somehow fought it's sirens' call and didn't order any alcohol, but I would be interested to give into it on a different day. Speaking of greek mythology, if you are seated on a table next to the wall, you will be surrounded by dramatic paintings from greek myth - something to peruse while you wait for your food.


Sam and I took sometime to look over the menu. Be warned, it is very extensive and the choice can be overwhelming. I am personally a "sucker" for octopus (see what I did there...) so I ordered the charcoal broiled octopus as an appetizer. We also got some houmus to start.



The octopus was delicious, with a few nice crispy burnt bits complemented by some very tender meat. The houmus with pita was fantastic as well and so we were off to a brilliant start, like Odysseus, assuming a pleasant and delicious journey home to Ithaca (or our main course) ahead. 

Well, turns out I had angered the food gods again, for I did not enjoy what I had ordered for the main course. I know Sam had much better luck so be sure to read her review. I tasted some of what she ordered and it was very good. 

Back to my poor choices, I decided to go with the Greek trio for my entree. The trio consists of moussaka. pastitsio and spinach pie. Now, two of those dishes are very similar and contain a lot of ground meat. From their menu, pastitsio is "ground meat with macaroni in a bechamel sauce" and moussaka is "ground meat with layers of potato and eggplant under our bechamel sauce".

I am also not a fan of ground meat, but for some reason thought this would be the dish I should order. 


There you have it, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, waiting to screw me over. My biggest complaint about the trio was that it was bland. Even the spinach pie fell flat and I was fighting to secure some taste on my tongue that wasn't just white flour sauce. I prefer my ground meat to have some other flavour than just the meat. I don't want to fault the restaurant on this. I know I have a particular taste when it comes to meat and perhaps this is exactly how most people like their pastitsio. It just wasn't for me. 

In conclusion, I might come back here to order something else. Perhaps give those kebabs a shot and definitely get some of the vegetarian dishes Sam got. For now, my main course left no taste in my mouth and I left disappointed. 

South Street Souvlaki
509 South Street
Philadelphia PA 19147
215-925-3026

#64 South Street Souvlaki - Sam's synopsis

Well, let me first off say apologies for the long absence. It's been a crazy month or so, with the other half of this blog getting married and having family in town, and me having quite the busy few weeks at work (but with a graduation date in sight!). But it's officially summer time, so things tend to slow down a bit and we can back into the swing of sauntering! Anyways, on to the review...

South Street Souvlaki seemed like a serious place when we looked it up, as they close every Monday to power clean all their equipment. When we arrived there, it seemed much more like the type of restaurant you find in the touristy part of town, plastered with photos and paintings of Greece and people who were clearly important to the owners in some way. It was a lot busier than I was expecting for a weekday evening, but I suppose that's a good sign.

We started with an appetizer of hummus (it seemed like the appropriate one to get) and Sandya really wanted calamari so I obliged. I'm not the biggest fan of calamari and wouldn't order it if I had the choice, but it's not something I absolutely despise and it was another appropriately-themed appetizer. I ended up enjoying both appetizers. The hummus was flavorful and smooth, and the pita they gave us was warm and not too dry. I don't know why I'm so opposed to calamari, since it's basically just covered in batter and fried and doesn't have too much of a seafood-y taste to it. I think it's the whole pieces that kinda freak me out, even though I've eaten some weird food items before. But yes, the calamari was fried and tasty and not too chewy or weird in flavor so I ate more than I anticipated.

Onto the main meal! I ordered the vegetable platter, which was (as indicated by its name) an ample variety of different vegetarian dishes, including: spanikopita (spinach and cheese in filo dough), turlu (stewed vegetables), dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), and lima beans. It also came with lemon potatoes and orzo, so it was quite the large meal. I thought the food was fabulous. Each portion had a different flavor, but they all accentuated each other very nicely. If I had a better memory, I might be able to tell you what sorts of spices were invoked, but it was definitely a Mediterranean-style set of flavors (makes sense, right?). Everything was cooked to a nice consistency (this can be surprisingly difficult with just vegetables) and the food held up the following day for leftovers. Each vegetable portion was delicious and I would definitely recommend this dish to meat eaters and non-meat eaters alike.

Overall, I really enjoyed the food and was even a little pleasantly surprised at how good it was given the restaurant's touristy feel and cheaper prices. The staff was friendly as well and the service was good, so that's another plus. I've been to Greece before, but it's hard to really comment on the authenticity. While I was there, I had some straight-out-of-the-water seafood and real homemade food that doesn't really compare to this experience, but I also had some standard off-the-street restaurant food that is more on par with what we had at South Street Souvlaki. And given that the owners are Greek, I'm pretty sure their food does get a stamp of authenticity.

South Street Souvlaki
509 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 925-3026