The Greek Kitchen is Greek restaurant (duh!) near our apartment that we’ve passed by many times. I’ve been craving mediterranean food a lot recently so I was eager to try it out. The restaurant is much bigger than it looks from the outside and is kind of rustically decorated like an actual taverna in Greece. The dining room wasn’t very crowded on this rainy evening so we were able to snag a table in the corner next to the window.
We started off with a bottle of Greek red wine, a cabernet-merlot mix from Dimitra wines. We’re not the hugest fan of Greek wines but this bottle was pretty drinkable. We also ordered an appetizer platter to share, the pikilia, which is a choice of any four cold appetizers. We opted for tzatziki (yogurt, cucumber, garlic, dill), skordalia (potato, garlic), melitzanosalata (eggplant, garlic, olive oil, lemon), and dolmades (stuffed grape leaves).
Tzatziki, skordalia, melitzanosalata, and dolmades
The three dips were all nicely seasoned and packed good garlic punch. I also really liked the warm pieces of pita bread they brought us to eat the dips with. After we ran out of bread, they gladly brought us more. The stuffed grape leaves were also pretty tasty and not too greasy, which is a problem I often find with grape leaves at other Greek restaurants.
Warm pieces of pita bread
Josh and I decided to split two entrees, lamb shish kebab and a combination platter with gyro, bifteki, and pork souvlaki. Both of our entrees came with a big plate of salad, which they brought out to us first. The salad was mostly lettuce but had a few pieces of cucumber, tomato, and onion on top. It was also covered in feta crumbles, which I liked because it was mild and added a nice saltiness to the otherwise ordinary salad. The dressing was also pretty light and not too vinegary.
Salad topped with pieces of crumbled feta
We ordered the lamb shish kebab rare but it was totally overcooked. The pieces were tough and rubbery, which was very disappointing. It had a nice gamey flavor but I couldn’t get over the poor meat. The shish kebab came with a side of Greek fries, which were thin slices of potato seasoned with lemon and oregano and topped with a sprinkling of cheese. These were just ok. They had decent flavor but weren’t really very crispy and were kind of cold.
Lamb shish kebab and Greek fries
We opted for rice pilaf with our combination platter. The rice was ok, but it was topped with tomato sauce that tasted like it came straight from a jar. Not great. We kind of scraped that off to the side. The gyro though in the combination platter was my favorite meat of the evening. It had a nice char on the outside and the thin slices of meat were really tender. I liked the seasoning in the meat a lot, and made my own gyro sandwiches by wrapping some meat in slice of pita bread and adding a dollop of tzatziki sauce on top. The bifteki was ground beef mixed with onions and tasted like a hamburger patty. Not bad, but not great. The pork souvlaki, however, was really a mixed bag. Most pieces were tough and overcooked, except for one, which was completely raw. Unfortunately, I was the one who ate a bite of the raw piece. Josh had been complaining that the meat was too tough, so I took a piece and had a bite. My piece was surprisingly mushy, and I couldn’t understand why until I flipped it over and it was completely undercooked. Like it was still pink and fleshy. Yikes.
Combination platter with gyro, bifteki, and pork souvlaki
At that point we were both full and didn’t really want anything except the check, so we didn’t say anything. It was clearly an honest mistake, as the rest of the meats were all cooked to a point of overdone-ness, and it was only one piece out of many pieces of meat we had that evening.
A little taste of everything
Overall I wasn’t a big fan of The Greek Kitchen. The appetizer platter was good but it was pretty standard stuff that I can get at any decent Greek restaurant. And I was really disappointed with all of the grilled meats except for the gyro. I’m sorry to say that I’ve had better Greek food from a diner. Plus there are too many other Greek restaurants in this area to settle for mediocre food. I don’t think we’ll be coming back here again.
The Greek Kitchen
889 10th Ave. at 58th St.
New York, NY
Tags: Greek, Midtown West