Had dinner with an good girl friend/ex-coworker last night.  Although our usual hang out is a nearby Mexican restaurant called Chihuahua’s, she called me up and asked if I liked Greek.  Now, there’s lots of perverted ways I could answer that question, but when it came to Greek food, I’d never tried it. 

“Do you like Feta Cheese and Pita?” she asked.

“Is that all they serve?”

“Do you like Olives?”

“Not really.”

“They have belly dancers.”

“Let’s go!”

Willing to try anything once, I was pretty sure they had something on the menu besides cheese, bread, and martini accents.  So we went.  I was immediately impressed with the atmosphere alone.  Any place I can walk into and say, “Wow!  If I owned a restaurant, or coffee shop, or bookstore, this would be it!”  then I know I’m in for a good time.  I liked the clubbish atmosphere and patio.  We were seated in the front window at a table with bench style seating by a cute and kind little waiter who we later found out is named Phillipe.

You can’t go to a Greek restaurant without ordering Humus.  We also had Tzatziki which is a cucumber and yogurt mix, and we had Taramosalata which is an orange colored salmon spread.  You could get three spreads for the price of two! I ordered Sangria to drink and my friend had a blue drink called a Pythagoras which is a mix of Absolut Citron, Blue Curacao, and lemonade. The drinks and all three spreads were delicious!

Check out the menu online here!

And the drink menu here!

I had the shrimp pasta as my entree, and wasn’t impressed.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the best.  I actually felt I could have made better at home.  The shrimp was perfect, but the noodles were thick and plain.  There wasn’t a lot of seasoning, and the tomato sauce was blah.  But the sangria made it okay.

She had a traditional lamb gyro, which was not like a sandwich at all but more like a salad.  I sampled the lamb.  First time I ever had lamb, by the way, and it was yummy!  I’ll definitely be ordering this next time.

Good conversation abounded as we caught up on each other’s lives.  A gentle rainstorm swept up as the sky turned dark outside (the quiet kind you always see in movies), and drove the patio diners inside just in time for the music to be turned up and a belly dancer came out with bells and all and put on a show right there in the middle of the place.  I attempted (poorly) to take photos with my cell phone (I’m so technically challenged, as you know.) but ended up with some haunting snapshots that look like Jennifer Love-Hewitt’s been ghost whispering.  She was very nice though, all smiles, and even coaxed a little girl up from the table next to us and gave her a dancing lesson.

The crowd picked up and after we’d finished eating and each ordered another Pythagoras, the manager came over and asked for a favor.  He had a bachelorette party of ten that had a reservation but the tables were taken up when everyone came inside.  He asked, very politely, if we would move to a pub table over in the corner.  Because it’s bench style, where we were sitting could easily sit ten with another table pushed up.  An offer of him buying us drinks is all it took because he was so kind, so we moved to a pub table by the door on the other side of the restaurant.  A hot firey baklava with walnuts, strawberries, oranges, and apples soon arrived – lit on fire right at the table by Phillipe himself. I told ya he was cute.

The music got cranked up again for some more belly dancing.  That round of free drinks we were promised also finally came too.

The crowd thinned out.  Oh, and that bachelorette party?  Clad in long denim skirts, strange headband bows, long hair and no make-up, finally left and must have been pentecostal or something.  When the table next to us opened up, we asked if we could move over one just to get away from the door.  The manager came over and thanks us again for being good patrons and helping him out and offered us coffee which arrived in a nice glass Irish-style mug with cream and sugar.  Soon, the restaurant was empty except for some patrons at the bar and we finally left just after 11pm.

A polite staff (but be patient), great atmosphere, fun entertainment, cool music, great food, and of course, great conversation with an awesome friend…I’m really glad we decided to go there.  Overall it was a great – and inexpensive – night!  If you are ever here in St. Louis, check out Momo’s near the Loop!