Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Maria's Taverna


This past weekend, my friends A & N were in town and we decided to hit up a Greek restaurant.  Hubbs & I hadn't been to even one Greek eatery yet, so we were up for some yummy mediterranean grub.  We were originally going to go elsewhere, but were too hungry to walk that far and ended up at Maria's on Denman.

Since we were starving, we ordered as soon as the server came.  Unfortunately, it took him a while to come, since the restaurant was swamped with people and appeared to be working with a skeleton crew.  Decor was typically Greek, BTW - lots of white and blue and not very stylish, but an intimate setting nonetheless.  We nursed our drinks and enjoyed the delicious warm pita (it was more like a bread since it was fluffy but boy was it good) dipped into our hummous and tzatziki.  Hubbs thought the hummous was the best he's ever had; it was good but I wouldn't go that far!

Then the server came out with one dish, which he promptly took back when he realized he had given A someone else's dish!  Good thing she hadn't taken a bite yet.  When our order finally came out, we were astounded by the enormity of the portions.  N had the calamari dinner and A chose the Kleftiko meal.  Hubbs & I shared the Greek platter for two, which was probably big enough for 4 (we barely touched our potatoes and rice).  Our dolmathes were pretty good, but I found the chicken souvlaki a bit dry.  Hubbs loved the keftedes and we were both drooling over the tenderness and moist perfection that was the kleftiko.  Two *huge* lamb shoulders that were so delicious and delicate that the meat fell off the bone...yum!  We were stuffed by the time we left!

The price was right too; only $49 (pre-tax and tip) for the platter.  Had we been less hungry, we totally would have had leftovers!

The service was friendly but slow given the number of patrons there that night.  It was a Saturday so I guess I can understand, although I thought that they could have comped us with something for the wait and the meal mix-up.

Highly recommended for the giant portions and the great lamb shoulder.  Probably best to go on a week night, though.  

Service:  3 out of 5

Food: 4.5 out of 5


PS - sorry, no pics...we inhaled our food so there just wasn't time to take pictures of it.


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