It takes a village

It’s a typical early summer rainy day when I hop into the newly renamed and renovated Greek Village (formerly the Greek House). It looks like a diner, with booths, a window through to the kitchen, and the counter displaying desserts, which we later discover are fabulous. The server is quick with an offer of a newspaper when I tell her I’m waiting for someone, and her warmth and sincerity instantly create an atmosphere of homeyness that bodes well for the meal ahead.

Soon my dinner companion arrives and we aren’t long in ordering from the standard Greek family restaurant menu (the kind where the daily special comes with soup and rice pudding or jello).

A plate of warm pita triangles with hummus ($4.95) quickly quells the rumblings in our bellies; in fact, we have to leave some of the very garlicky hummus for fear of not having room for the rest of our food.

Calamari ($5.95) and tzatziki is up next and oh, my. This is the most tender, freshest tasting squid I’ve ever had the pleasure of being served. Unbelievably light, crispy-battered rings of cephalopodian goodness are divine…until I chance upon something hard and not so good. I spit out what tastes at first like a piece of plastic, but that I recognize as cartilage. Many of the other pieces have the inedible, tough cartilage attached and when our server approaches the table, I show them to her. And here is a supremely fine example of guest recovery: she acknowledges the problem, empathizes with us, comes back from the kitchen with an explanation and an offer of a fresh order from the kitchen, and suddenly what could have been a disaster translates into two happy guests and a bigger tip for her. Through this, we find out the squid bodies, or tubes, come in daily, and the chef slices them into rings—this is a wonderful change from the much more common pre-cut, pre-breaded frozen calamari.

We move on to our main courses, roast lamb ($9.95) and pork souvlakia ($8.95). Both dishes come with rice and Greek salad; the lamb also has roast potato. The Greek salad is a little disappointing in that it has a lot of romaine lettuce and not so many other vegetables, although the kitchen is generous with the feta cheese and black olives.

It turns out the excess romaine will be the only setback from here on in. The lamb is falling-apart tender and the pork kebabs are seasoned nicely and grilled beautifully.

And although the portions are large and we are as stuffed as the green peppers on the menu, once we discover the desserts are made in-house we soldier bravely on. I feel like an old vinyl record with a scratch, because all I keep thinking is “fresh, fresh, fresh”—the squid is fresh, the salad is fresh, the pita is fresh and the desserts? You guessed it. Fresh.

We try two old-fashioned Greek desserts. Galaktomboureko ($3.95), a traditional custard tart of phyllo pastry and rich, creamy custard, is outstanding, but the baklava ($3.95) is sublime. Its light, flaky, walnut-filled phyllo layers crumble under the fork, with enough honey to be sweet and moist but not overly so.

The Greek Village provides great Greek comfort food in a warm, homey atmosphere, along with outstanding service and a kitchen where the emphasis is on fresh ingredients. At times like this, I love this job!

Greek Village6253 Quinpool Rd.405-3750Mon-Thu 8am-8pmFri-Sun 8am-9pm

Liz Feltham’s past reviews stay fresh on the web: www.foodcritic.ca

This article appears in Jun 22-28, 2006.