Kri Kri Mezethopoleion
39-41 Little Bourke St Melbourne Victoria 3000
(03) 9639 3444
Reviewed 17 May 2002

This place was a nice find. The idea is kind of like Yum Cha, greek style - many little dishes, or mezethes, which can be shared around. Between the two of us we managed to sample five of them, which at prices ranging around $10 to $15 each, is reasonable for a city restaurant (desserts were all under $10 and just as filling as the mezethes - if we had known, we might have only ordered four mezethes).

The interior decor didn't strike us as particularly Greek, but the restaurant's own advertising card says the yellow walls were inspired by the Minoan palace at Knossos. Okay, if they say so. Interior aside, the food, music, and serving staff were all pretty Greek as far as we could tell.

How was the food? Depends on what you ordered. We started with saganaki, which is a kind of fried cheese. It was good, but it wasn't any better or worse than what I've had at other restaurants (makes me think it's kind of hard to get it wrong). The daily horta, or fresh greens, were "wild thistle greens" and tasted a lot like silverbeet, only smaller. Nothing particularly special there. The kotopoulo scaras, or marinated grilled chicken, was a bit dry and didn't quite live up to the menu description.

Best, and worth going back for, was the spetzofay (spicy sausage in capsicum sauce) and the seafood saganaki from the specials board (it wasn't at all like the cheese saganaki, but rather a tomato-based spicy seafood stew, with bits of feta cheese mixed in). These two dishes were delightful.

Once again we had wine, which we enjoyed even though we still don't know much about wine. I had a 2001 Scotchman's Hill "Swan Bay" Pinot Noir, Dave had a 2001 Simon Hackett McLaren Vale Shiraz. It seemed to go well with the food, anyway.

Desserts were surprising, in spite of the absence of chocolate (Greeks don't seem to be big on chocolate). The bougatsa, or semolina custard wrapped in pastry, and the loukoumathes, or honey balls, were both made to order and arrived hot. These kinds of desserts can be a little insipid if not served fresh, but the examples we tried were very good and we had no qualms about adding them to our already full stomachs.

The Greek coffee was thick, strong, and not too sweet. Mmmmm.

No complaints about the service. Empty dishes were cleared promptly enough and we never felt like we were being ignored.

Unfortunately, we never tried the restrooms, so we can't say how bizarre they were or weren't. Judging by the rest of the interior, they were probably quite normal.

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Dave's summary: "How the hell do you pronounce that?"

Probability that we will return: 32 / 42 (the menu is much more extensive than what we sampled)

Note that the probability rating is affected by the fact that there are hundreds of places to eat around here.

lunch

All whinings and dinings posted here copyright © 2002 Derek Moo and David Burke

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