With the closing of Mykonos in Las Cañitas during the pandemic, we lost our only Greek restaurant in town. Some mediocre Greek food started coming out of the small stand, Souvlaki BA, in the Mercado San Telmo this last year or so, but for my palate, it wasn’t worth it. So spotting two new Greek restaurants having opened up in the last couple of months, I was enticed. The two spots are very different – one is a full-on Greek restaurant with waitstaff, bartender, and a reasonably extensive menu, the other is a casual “fast food” souvlaki spot.
Let’s start at Kéfi, Humboldt 1920, Palermo. A trio of us met up for dinner one recent evening. The place wasn’t all that busy – a couple of tables of folk were already eating when we got there, a couple more filled as we went, but it never got busy. The space has a lot of blue in it. It also seems to have adopted as its logo the Nazar Boncuk, or “Turkish Eye”, a good-luck symbol in Turkish culture. Oddly, in Greek culture, as I understand it, a similar eye is more of a curse than a positive symbol. Either way – Greek and Turkish cultures are not one and the same and it seemed an odd choice to us.
Our waiter was friendly, though not overly helpful in regard to food or drink selections, and not, as will be seen, all that amenable to problem solving. One truly annoying note on the ambiance… the music selection, and I use the last word advisedly, seemed to be a compilation tape of various versions of the theme song from Never on Sunday. Over and over and over again, from elevator music versions, to orchestral versions, to the movie soundtrack, to versions played on a bouzouki, to… I think there might have been a harmonica one. The same song, for the entire time we were there.
We decided to share the appetizer sampler platter for two. It seemed a nice array, with stuffed grape leaves, keppe, various purees and roasted vegetables. But nothing was seasoned. It was all completely lacking in salt and/or any other real seasoning. That is, to say, it was Bland with a capital B. And the keppe were burnt to the point of being black. Overall, not a good start.
A seafood and orzo pasta dish looked appetizing, but suffered from the same issue – no seasoning, just near tasteless pasta and bits of seafood in a neutral tomato based sauce that could have been plain tomato puree out of a carton.
A spinach and cheese filled spanakopita looked a bit pale, and suffered from two faults – once again unseasoned, and, almost raw. One side had been browned, the rest literally had raw, wet dough. We called over the waiter who admonished us that we didn’t know what we were talking about, and a) it couldn’t have been raw, and b) if it was raw it was supposed to be that way. We demanded it be taken back and cooked a bit longer. We’d long finished dinner and it still hadn’t come out, as they’d decided to make a new one instead, so my friends asked for it to go, which elicited some eye-rolling, but was complied with. They said it was, at least, cooked through this time, though still completely tasteless.
The one and only dish that we liked, and that, at least had some solid flavor. A big bowl of a seafood stew, saganaki, packed with garlic and herbs, tomatoes and olives. It still had no salt, but at least we could add that and perk it up. And at least it had both garlic and herbs in abundance, plentiful seafood, and was cooked perfectly.
Other than the waiter’s attitude, this place needs a simple fix. Buy some salt to use in the cooking, and use some more other seasoning – pepper, herbs, garlic, in more than just pinches. I don’t know if it’s intentional, some sort of attempt at making the food more healthy by cutting the salt to a minimum, but it’s a chef’s job to season the food correctly so that the flavors are bright and balanced. It’s not the customers’ job. Fix that, and this place could be as good as Mykonos was.
A lovely, small but bright and airy space, with tables inside and out, Theos Souvlaki, Gorriti 4400, corner of Julian Álvarez in Palermo, is immediately inviting. It’s completely a casual, order at the counter, “fast food” souvlaki restaurant. There are a couple of other items available, but basically, either pork or lamb souvlaki is what’s on offer.
Now, souvlaki, especially when it’s basically all you’re serving, should be a fast food item. It was not fast. The couple of people you see sitting there were already eating, there was a table of two and two tables of one, outside that arrived around the same time as I did. That makes for a total of five souvlaki on order. I appreciate the unbridled joy being exhibited by the cook and the two waitresses, as they spent… my time… dancing around the kitchen. But it took 32 minutes until the kitchen sent out… plates of french fries. Really good french fries. But they were also cold by the time the 46 minute mark rolled around and the souvlaki were sent out. And it was really good souvlaki. It wasn’t worth the wait really good, but I’d happily eat it again. I just want it in a reasonable amount of time. There seemed to be no reason that it took that long for either fries or wraps, other than that the staff were just more interested in having a good time with each other than getting customers their food.
