——-26/08/2011——-
Italian, Chinese, Italian and then more Chinese. My friend and I were thinking that we should try something different despite our love for pasta and dumplings. I’ve been meaning to go to Ostratos for quite some time now, it always looks busy and who could resist the offer of Greek lamb? Despite the minimal car parking state of Braddon at the moment, we were lucky enough to get a parking spot right at the front!
My friend was starving and wanted bread ASAP! So that was the first thing we ordered- trio of dips with bread. The bread was soft, crusty and fresh, given in generous portions. As for the dips we chose: fetta cheese and chilli, potato and garlic and tzatziki (just in case the first one set our mouths on fire).We had a bit of ordering remorse when we saw the table next to us had ordered the grilled haloumi cheese which looked delicious but we decided against adding to our order as we were going to order substantial sized mains!
These dips might not have much in the way of colour but boy do they pack a punch in the flavour department! Firstly we tried the potato and garlic dip, if you don’t like garlic or you’re on a first date I wouldn’t recommend this! It’s very garlic-y! Maybe not fresh garlic more ‘minced garlic from a jar’, but nevertheless- VERY GARLIC-Y! Lucky for the both of us, this wasn’t a problem!
The tzatziki was very fresh and re-freshing (especially after all that garlic)! One of the nicest tzatziki dips I’ve had! My favourite dip though was fetta cheese and chilli by far! The flavours compliment each other so well and it was just the right amount of salt from the fetta and just the right amount of chilli.
Bifteki– Beef mince rolls mixed with fresh herbs, garlic, sweet chilli sauce, eggs, fetta cheese and stuffed with kaseri cheese topped with mild pepper sauce served with rice and vegetables.
The kaseri cheese filling was stringy and delicious like mozzarella and the beef didn’t taste overly ‘meaty’ and wasn’t overbearing which was complimented very well with the pepper sauce. The vegetables on the other hand, tasted like they were taken from a minestrone soup and were a bit oily.
Souvlaki lamb – three lamb skewers marinated, served with vegetables and rice. The lamb was tender and flavoursome.
I was trying to remember for the life of me what dessert the Greeks were famous for. I saw in their cabinet they had lots of baklava… No that’s not it. I saw lots of different cakes… No that’s not it either. When I went a bit closer and saw these bowls of dessert on the bottom, then I thought- BINGO! That’s right! Oh how I love rice custard pudding!
This one was deeeeeeeeelicious! Not too sweet, nice amount of nutmeg on top and very vanillla-ry. MMMMMM, I wonder if they sell this in take away containers?
Warning– although it might have seemed like a good idea at the beginning of the night, we shouldn’t have ordered bread, then rice and rice and end off with more rice. We were overly stuffed by the end!
Venue: Ostratos Greek Taverna
Address: 9 Lonsdale Street, Braddon ACT 2612
Phone: (02) 6257 8200
Opening hours: Tues-Fri 12pm-2:30pm, Tues-Sat 6pm-9:30pm
TALES OF A CONFECTIONIST 