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
No comments:
Post a Comment