Atmosphere Beautifully Supports Menu at Greek on Main
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As reviewed in l The Metuchen Mirror l December 2017 Atmosphere beautifully supports menu at Greek on Main The Greek on Main H H H I Owner’s attention 419 Main St., Metuchen (732) 515-9457 | thegreekonmain.com to detail evident in Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mon- day through Friday; noon to 10 p.m. appetizers, entrees Saturday, noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. Appetizers and small n By CHRISTOPHER THUMANN plates: $8 to $14. SPECIAL TO THE MIRROR Whole grilled fish: $28 to $30. More than any other cuisine, Greek Entrees: $18 to $34. food is truly the sum of its parts. While Credit cards accepted. BYOB. you’ll run into some spices and herbs here Wheelchair accessible. and there, such as cinnamon, thyme and Restaurants are rated in relation to comparable es- oregano, the food of Greece is most no- tablishments and reviews are based upon an anon- ymous evaluation of food, service, price, value and table for the interaction of its core ingre- ambience. dients. A gamy lamb shank, a fine feta, a One star is acceptable, two stars is good, three stars whole Mediterranean fish or fresh figs is very good and four stars is excellent. tend to need no help from the spice rack if combined masterfully. Greek chefs have worked with these in- dish comes together nicely, with the rich- gredients for thousands of years, and at ness of the spice-infused sauce and meat this point, they know a little something complementing the lightness of the vege- about what ingredients work best togeth- tables. er. The cuisine requires little refinement if All of the desserts at The Greek on done right. – DEBORAH NILSON KMETZ Main are house-made. Karidopita ($7), And The Greek on Main does it right. The Greek on Main’s owner, Theodore Kappas, presides over a dining room that’s both clean and bright, intimate and warm. a walnut cake flavored with rosewater The restaurant, on the corner of Main and honey syrup and served with vanil- and New streets, produces Hellenic dishes Arabs fighting the Crusades – and stopped and fresh herbs. The phyllo here is crisp food dish. la ice cream, is absolutely delicious. It’s big from all regional cuisines. Some you may in their tracks in France – were likely the and meltingly light, while just enough A yuvetsi is a Greek meat-and-pas- enough to share, but you might get greedy have heard of, and some may be new to creators of it. Geographically, let’s split the feta cheese, with its rich texture and salty- ta recipe baked in a spice-scented toma- after the first few bites. A little disappoint- you, but you can be difference and say tangy flavor, adds a sumptuous depth and to sauce, and the Arni Yuvetsi Krithara- ing was the baklava ($7). Here, flaky phyl- sure that the kitch- the Greeks do goat subtle bite. ki ($24) is an amazing example of one. lo, walnuts, thyme and honey syrup deliv- en is putting out ver- cheese best. And if Greece has a variety of regional cui- In its splendid execution, the kitchen has er requisite flavors, but the dough layers sions at their best. A Review anything points to sines, but considering kakavia’s ancient adapted this crowd-pleaser to resemble are dense and a little tough. Owner Theodore the power of this lineage and Greece’s 8,500 miles of coast- lamb osso buco. In this inventive twist on The night wasn’t without its issues, no- Kappas underscores this with even his cheese in Greek cuisine, it’s the Fig and line, it’s hard to nail down which one this that Milanese classic, chefs have replaced tably a service problem that the restaurant purchasing choices. Many of his core in- Goat Cheese Flat Bread ($8) starter. ancient fish soup belongs to. Kakavia is the risotto base with a beautiful bed of ultimately handed well. We sat down to a gredients come from Greece, right down Here, a tender disk of pita bread is spread named after the cooking vessels in which orzo (“kritharaki” in Greek) in cinna- wait of 32 minutes before someone even to his unfiltered olive oil. And you can with a base of smooth and sweet caramel- this dish developed in countless Greek mon-laced tomato broth. approached us with a water pitcher, and taste that attention to detail in his appetiz- ized onions, then topped with a generous fishing villages over the centuries. The meat of the good-sized lamb shank our first waiter didn’t help matters much. ers and entrees. crumble of goat cheese and small batons According to the menu, kakavia ($14) is pulls apart as easily as you’d expect, and I finally complained, and the manager The atmosphere here supports the of sliced fig. The tang of this creamy cheese a “traditional Ionian fish soup with mus- the generous topping of shredded kefalo- gave us a new, and very competent, waiter, menu beautifully. The dining room is dovetails nicely with the fig’s sweetness, sels, clams, shrimp, calamari, and sea graviera, an aromatic hard Greek table who turned the whole dinner experience clean and bright by day, and once the sun while the onions hit the right balance be- bass in saffron chardonnay wine broth.” cheese, adds a nice dimension to this dish. around for us. It also helped that we were sets, it’s intimate and warm. Colorful vi- tween sweet and savory. It’s a lot like San Franciscan cioppino or Moussakas ($18) is not unique to comped our appetizers and kakavia. suals and well-placed mirrors open up this We switched over to feta cheese when French bouillabaisse, with its delicately ro- Greece – there are Turkish and Middle Even with that blip, dinner at The corner space, and the acoustics soften the we tried the spanakopita ($10). While this bust wine- and tomato-infused broth and Eastern versions of it – but the Greek ver- Greek on Main was a good experience. din of this busy gathering space. ubiquitous Greek classic is as ethnically healthy serving of seafood. And like these sion is probably the one that you’ve en- I may not get to Greece for vacation this We started dinner with our appetiz- available as pierogi or pad thai, no super- other classic fish classics, The Greek’s -ka countered the most. Here, it’s a layered year, but knowing that the restaurant uses ers. Food historians stubbornly credit the market freezer-case version comes close kavia is buoyed by an infusion of liquor pie of eggplant, potatoes, zucchini and such authentic ingredients in wonderful French with inventing goat cheese (a.k.a. to the freshness of this version, which gets from its constituent shellfish components ground beef, all bound together through recipes, I may only need go as far as Main chevre), but even they admit that Muslim its bright flavors from fresh spinach, leeks that make this a powerfully delicious sea- a cinnamon-scented bechamel sauce. The Street to feel like I’m there. .