for once i have something interesting to say!!! Manoli's Greek Taverna Rocks!

Saturday nite I flipped my wig and not in a good way - so Director Chick told me to get out of the house, mingle, socialise! I suspect the subtext was 'get out of my hair dude' so I went. I was going to go to the Groove Cafe to check out the first spoken word poetry nite for 2009 and eat some of their pizza, but then Hungry called me and said do you REALLY want to go to the Groove? Gently suggesting I think that if we thought outside the square we could go somewhere
else. Anyway when I rocked up to their place (Hungry lives with her lovely partner the Dessert Doctor (DD)), we all lay around on the couch going thru the same old options... Hanuman, Vietnamese Saigon Star, the wharf, Char, Yots... we needed something that catered for the vego among us yet also gave Hungry and I some meaty options should we desire them (I was pretty sure we would). Suddenly l had an epiphany, leapt from the couch, declared we were going to Manolis, the new greek restaurant that my new friend had told me about. Not leaving any time
for argument or indecison we jumped into the car and sped into town spontaneous-like, not even taking the chance of calling them to see if they could fit us in (it was only 630 so I figured we were in with a chance). We asked whether they could take us and they very sweetly agreed to, despite being fully booked. Just a note - they've only been open a month, so to be fully booked (and it's a big restaurant) is a pretty amazing feat.

We had to squeeze around a table for 2 near the bar. Now I know that some people would prolly shit their pants at being seated near the kitchen with the swinging doors and waiters barrelling through, but personally I like the rough and tumble, so it was cool with us. Plates, napkins, cutlery all magically appeared in double quick time. Waitstaff charmed us (I was particularly smitten by the boy with the white-framed glasses - it takes a bold man to dress outside the square like that) and the menu was delivered. And to my joy, this was not at ALL like Vietnamese Saigon Star where I read and reread the menu to see if I could find just one solitary thing I wanted. This time I read and reread the menu cos there was so much! I should prolly explain, as the waitstaff did to us, that Manolis specialises in Mezedes - which is kind of like greek tapas. Lots of dishes to share. You can order them all at once or order a few and then order a few more. The menu was organised into 3 columns, one of which was almost entirely vegetarian which made DD very happy. Hungry and I were equally happy to see yummy calamari and meatiness. Also, I won't eat greek salads, I boycotted them after getting too many bad salads that feature slimy past-their-use-by-date kalamata olives, or those rubber tyre olives with no pips and squares of tasteless feta cheese. But I made an exception on this night and we ordered a variation on a greek salad and was DELIGHTED to discover FRESH, yes fresh herbs (not sure whether it was thyme or oregano) and rocket in my salad, deliciously tasty feta, chunks of imaginatively shaped cucumber and our own oil, vinegar and seasoning so we could DRESS OUR OWN SALAD!!!

What else did we order? A bowl of Greeky tasty chickpeas, the greek salad offshoot mentioned above, calamari (tender, small pieces, big plate, delicious), zouzoukakia which are greek meatballs in a red tomato salsa, 4 to a plate (of all the things this is the one i would prolly give a miss next time - there was nothing wrong with them, but there was a bit of a funny aftertaste), saganaki balls (little balls of fried cheesy crumbed heaven), fried eggplant with skordalia dip (garlic and potato) to spread over the slices - this was heaven. Heaven I tell you! Everything was served with big quartered chunks of local lemon and lime to squeeze over the food. There was a whole lot of appreciating going on at our table I can tell you! Afterwards I was craving a sweet thing, as you do, so I asked about desserts. They don't have a dessert menu as such, but I was told the milfe (pronounced mil-fAY) a greeky vanilla custard tart that they serve, is baked by the chefs mama and dropped off to the restaurant at 6- 630 before service! So I had to have a go of that. We ordered the milfe, baklava and a canaries nesty thing to share and coffees for two - Hungry got a latte and there was LATTE ART. Yes. And I got a sweet greek coffee. Previously I've not been convinced about greek coffee either, but this was delish. I found myself sitting in athens in a kafeneion sipping my greek coffee and tucking into my milfe. Really it was the best. Transformative and transportative! We patted our bellies and made our way to the counter where we paid the grand total of $94 for 3 people :-))))))

So in a word? Go. But don't tell anyone about it.

Manoli's Greek Taverna, Smith St, Darwin City. Near Throb Nightclub and Coffee
Nut.