Back in 2018 I made a few visits to The Real Greek in Cabot Circus and had some great food. Of course with lockdown, any early return visit was scuppered.
So recently I was in the Westfield Shopping Centre with my son and we decided, on my recommendation, the branch of The Real Greek they have there.
It was quite a hot day and it was rather warm in the restaurant. We looked over the menu and thought about what to eat. The menu has changed since I ate there four years ago, so some of the things I had enjoyed then, were no longer on the menu.
In the end we went with the fixed price Filoxenia Dinner Menu.
You make one choice from the four options.
For the first option, I went with the Greek flatbread, whilst my son had the crudités.
As for the second option, my son chose the Houmous and I went with the Santorini Fava.
From the hot meze options, I went with the Loukaniko Beef & Pork Sausage Skewer, and my son chose the Fried Kalamari.
For the final option we had chips and the Saffron Rice.
The Santorini Fava was something I haven’t had before, and is yellow lentils from Santorini, cooked and blended with herbs and spices, topped with a salsa of tomatoes, onions, capers and caper powder.
It was nicely presented and worked well with the flatbread.
The houmous was a blend of chickpeas, rich in tahini and spiced with cumin, topped with paprika and roasted red peppers. I had a taste and it was really nice.
For the hot meze, the Kalamari was crisp squid rings served with lemon mayonnaise.
Compared to the grilled kalamari I had in 2018 this was a real disappointment. The previous dish was described as “Our own unique version, using the freshest squid and a sticky Greek honey and paprika marinade.”
My thoughts back then were:
I think you can tell a lot about a restaurant on how they cook squid. The dish looked interesting and not quite how I imagined. The squid was tender and tasty, the marinade wasn’t overpowering and enhanced the dish.
This time, what we go was, squid rings in a crispy coating. It could have been okay, however the squid hadn’t been cleaned properly before cooking and a couple of pieces still had the inedible membrane attached.
As for my Loukaniko, Beef & Pork Sausage Skewer, this was a traditional Greek sausage from Thrace, chargrilled and served on a bed of Greek Slaw.
Well it was, what it said it was. The sausages was tasty and I enjoyed the slaw.
This was a very different dish to the one I had in July 2018, then you got a lot more sausage.
Overall I was to be honest quite disappointed with the whole experience. I don’t think I will be making a return visit anytime soon.
