Second Helping: Greek Taverna

We’ve been unabashed, adoring fans of Greek Taverna since day one. Literally. We hauled ourselves across the river all the way to Thumb Plaza when the first of the chain opened, with our half-Cypriot, half-Greek friend in tow to verify the authenticity. (He approved.) When the Hongmei Lu branch opened, we rejoiced at the thought of avoiding the bridges and tunnels. Then news of the French Concession expansion reached our ears. We were elated.

No sooner had the cyan doors opened before the complaints started rolling in. Two hour waits for food, an inept staff delivering the wrong dishes, lamb completely off the menu – we were devastated, but we waited the requisite one month grace period before we gave them a shot, bringing our Greek-Cypriot friend with us again to test the waters. Good news, Greek food fans! Seems like the team at Greek Taverna took the criticisms to heart.

The menu has changed – a facelift with a more than a few ‘unavailable’ stickers marring its pages – but the core dishes are still available. The cold dishes arrived fast and furious, tasting just like their counterparts across town. The Horiatiki salad came thick with seasoned feta, followed by a plate of lightly-sauced gigantes beans that hit the spot. The Baba Ghanoush slicked itself on to pitas that could’ve been warmer and disappeared before we really even realised it was there. Our only gripe would be the keftedes. The miniature hockey pucks of lamb took 45 minutes to land on our table, but with a squeeze of lemon to aid them, they were a delicious finish to a solid meal; so solid, our friend was back again the next night for more. He said to try the zucchini keftedes next time.

1 Yueyang Lu, near Dongping Lu. Tel: 6431 7751