Once we reported that Derby was getting a new Greek restaurant, there was big pleasure amongst Derbyshire Dwell readers.
Having, coincidentally, requested you all what sort of restaurant you wish to see come to the city on our Facebook page a few days prior, Greek was high of the listing.
In fact Derby used to have a wonderful Greek restaurant referred to as Steliana’s and Sappho’s Greek Taverna, that was in Previous Blacksmiths Yard then moved to London Highway earlier than closing a number of years in the past with none fanfare.
Mr Economides who ran it had named it after his daughters. Mr Economides, who we perceive handed away previous to the closure of his restaurant, was a beautiful man and proud to deliver Greek meals to the individuals of Derby.
So, Zorba the Greek, which opened within the former Iberico constructing in Daring Lane a number of weeks in the past, has quite a bit to dwell as much as.
Before everything, it seems to be run by Greeks which is sweet and it appears like a Greek restaurant slightly than a Greek-themed restaurant.
Naturally, eager to deliver some exterior experience to the desk, we took alongside a real bona fide Greek particular person to see what they thought.
Okay, truthful play, the title of the restaurant isn’t nice, referring to a movie launched in 1964 that your actually must be of retirement age to recollect.
The welcome from a jovial Greek gentleman felt genuinely heat and the Aegean blue color scheme felt brilliant and cheery on a chilly November night.
It was busy, which was good to see and we ordered a few tsipouros, a type of Greek aperitif that is drunk lengthy with ice and water, like ouzo which is, in your reporter’s cash, a lot nicer.
We additionally ordered a bottle of Greek wine too, referred to as moschofilero, which was nice, fruity and crisp with out being spectacular for £27.50.
In her try to open the bottle, the waitress managed to spray us with a few of it which, provided that it isn’t a glowing wine, takes some doing however waitressing is a tricky gig so forgive and overlook.
What did we eat and what was it like?
For £24.90 per particular person, we went for Zorba’s particular meze which is actually a load of small plates together with a load of dips.
It consists of *deep breath* pitta bread, taramasalata (pink fish roe dip), tzatziki (yoghurt, cucumber and herb dip), tyrokafteri (a spicy feta cheese dip), melitzanosalata (aubergine dip), houmous, fried feta cheese, gigantes (beans with tomato and herbs), courgette fritters, dolmadakia (stuffed vine leaves), keftedes (beef and lamb balls), chargrilled loukaniko sausage, chargrilled halloumi, chargrilled pastourma (a type of seasoned beef sausage), saganaki (fried Greek cheese), kalamari (calamari, however you’d most likely guessed that already), chips (potatoes reduce into lengthy rectangles then deep fried sorry we’re messing about now :)), Greek horiatiki salad (feta cheese, tomato, peppers, oregano, onion), chargrilled hen, chargrilled pork and chargrilled lamb.
Although there have been three of us and we had been hungry we guessed that two of the meze specials could be sufficient and, for as soon as, we had been proper as we didn’t fully polish all the things off and no one actually had room or the inclination for dessert. That is price taking into consideration whenever you go to.
Highlights for us had been the aubergine dip which was nice with the herby pitta bread, the Greek sausage that had texture and loads of flavour and the kalamari which had a a lot firmer, meatier consistency than your common calamari rings and had been formed extra like fish fingers.
Chargrilled haloumi is at all times a winner and the meaty bits had been all good.
The chunky chips divided opinion with skinny French fries, it was agued, extra usually Greek. The oregano on the chips was a pleasant contact for the English palate. Greek delicacies is filled with oregano we found.
There was environment and there have been loads of vegetarian choices among the many meze which was good as we had a vegetarian with us.
However what did our Greek visitor assume?
He thought that the place seemed nice, the menu was effectively balanced with plenty of selection for various tastes and dietary necessities with pleasant employees.
A few of the dishes had been actually good, the gigantes (beans) undoubtedly getting the thumbs up, in addition to the aubergine dip.
On the down facet, he thought that a few of the dishes had been overly salty and that it was fairly dear for the amount of meals that was served though all people’s acquired to make a residing and we recognised that to match costs to what you would possibly pay in Greece is apples and pears.
Moreover, to our English ears the music was simply aural wallpaper however our Greek felt that the Greek music was barely loud and lacked selection, concentrating on the identical couple of singers.
Nonetheless, we had been the final ones within the restaurant and would have doubtlessly stayed longer. It was a beautiful night.
How a lot did it value?
It value a grand complete of £91.52 which included a ten% service cost which, for 3 individuals and together with a bottle of wine isn’t notably low-cost however removed from extortionate.
The invoice included the 2 meze specials at £24.50 every, the bottle of wine at £27.50 and two pictures of tsipouro costing £2.95 a pop.
Surprise what Mr Economides would consider Zorba…both means, it’s good to have an genuine Greek restaurant run by Greek individuals in Derby as soon as once more to offer town’s hungry foodies an extra choice on an evening out.
*The Derby Telegraph makes undercover visits to eating places, takeaways and cafés with a view to offering a good, balanced and correct report on customer support and the meals on supply. Our hope is that, for the sake of each the enterprise proprietor and the client, we are able to report positively concerning the locations we go to. Nonetheless if our expertise isn’t 100 per cent constructive then we’re duty-bound to report on precisely what we discover.
