Hellenic House

We were quite surprised upon entering the Hellenic House to see a vast hall where the greek community gather for conversations and their games of chest...or some other game perhaps... We suppose this is the original Greek Club? The interior is rather dim so we decided to sit outdoors right at a far end, after placing our orders at the counter.

Ouzeri

Ouzeri is probably one of the older restaurants in the West End precint and yes, we have walked passed it countless times and for some reason we've always turned elsewhere for Greek food. After dinner at Era's, we strolled pass Ouzeri and it was really busy. The aromas that wafted around and the colourful presentations we saw, were indicative of a visit soon and a couple days later, we returned for a weekday lunch.

Little Greek Taverna

It has been a quite while since we've last visited West End and so last sunday, we decided to check out which eateries have resumed business.  It was nice to see that a good number of places were still operating although the vietnamese and thai restaurants opposite the coles remained shut.  Lately we have been watching Come dine with me Greece and with that on our minds, our bellies settled on this popular eatery for lunch.

Yiayia dommas Cheese bread.

Normally Miss foodhunter is put off when the words 'cheese bread' are used to describe a dish as the idea of greasey melted oily cheese pops into her mind.  Thankfully when our starter arrived it was nice to see that it wasnt the case at all.  This dish is light and lovely to eat.  The rich tomato puree is a refreshing contrast to the olive oil drizzled bread and fetta and looks absolutely stunning sitting on the plate.  The only criticism I have with this is I wish the bread was more toasted to give it a bit of texture.

Lemon lamb shank with lemon potatoes

After such a good looking starter I was a little disapointed with the appearance of the lamb shank.  A bit small and sad looking for my liking but tender and juicy all the same.  At $12 though I cant complain too much.  The potatoes are prepared nicely with a squeeze of lemon over the top to justify the name.  In addition to the choice of potatoes, you can also choose to have greek salad or chips on the side.

Grilled fish with greek salad

When this dish first arrived we were a bit apalled by the amount of char on the john dory.  But we didnt raise any alarms as we thought this was their style of cooking, I mean what chef in their right mind would still send out something so 'charred'??  After the first bite though, it was clear something was really wrong with the preparation as the flavour of the fish is completely overwhelmed by a burnt taste as well as a liberal sprinkling of salt.  I could imagine this dish being really pleasant had the fish been cooked right.

We have heard many good reviews about this place but after this experience, we do have mixed impressions.  There is cleary potential for good food to be served here but can be let down by 'some' poor execution.

Little Greek Taverna
Shop 5 1 Browning street
West End