Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Greek Corner - Opa!

Mr EA and I recently got to visit another old-new eatery here in Anchorage. The Greek Corner, a fairly well-established restaurant in midtown recently moved to a new location on Northern Lights Blvd. Despite hearing good things about it, we hadn't gotten around to going to the old location, so we tried out the new!
The decor and atmosphere were discretely Attic, just enough to satisfy my fondness for hoke, but not so overdone as to merge into satire. It is done up in white and a sort of limpid mediterranean blue, accented with a tasteful smattering of Greek art and vases and so on. I smiled when we walked in the door and heard Greek folk music on the sound system. We were seated, had the specials explained to us, and examined our menus. I noted with interest that they note vegetarian recipes on the menu - they have a pretty good selection of them. The song ended. Then it began again. The same song. We looked at each other, then shrugged. We made our selections. The song ended. Then it began again. The waitress came, we ordered, she left. The song ended. Then it began again. We started giggling, and couldn't stop until the song really truly did, possibly 30-45 minutes into our visit.
I was voting to share the sampler for 2, but Mr EA declined in favor of a gyro platter. I got an order of moussaka instead. We each started with a cup of avgolemono (egg and lemon) soup. This was delicious - tart from the lemon, rich with egg and chicken, and just right as an appetizer. Mr. EA's gyro was somewhat different from other gyros we have had - served flat instead of rolled, with pitas above and below the filling - more like a sandwich. The meat was delicious, as was the tzatziki sauce. There was a little less vegetation than you normally see on a gyro as well, which was fine with Mr EA. My moussaka was good - the meat and tomato layers did not overwhelm the eggplant, and the light sauce was a good foil for the rich meat and bitter eggplant. Really tasty food!
Less impressive was the service. Our waitress was very nice and willing to answer any questions. However, I ordered but never received a cup of greek coffee (which from her description I was really excited to try), and Mr EA ordered and was charged for a gyro dinner, but actually received a gyro lunch (several sides were missing from his plate). Not a huge problem, especially with such delicious food and such a charming place. So go there - if you like Greek food, you'll be glad you did!

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