El Greco | Greek shack in Jumeirah

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Greek food in Dubai? I don't think we have that long of a list. I can think of Eat Greek, Elia and now, El Greco. Do you know any others? Let me know if I'm missing out!

Even though this one fits the Greek category, it's similar to the small shacks you'd find in Europe where the seating is minimal and music, smells and interiors feel authentic & homey. The shelves are filled with Greek oils (delicious olive oil!) and there's a few seats outside for the gorgeous weather that's starting to creep up. Are you as excited as I am for that? Humidity - See you later ;)

The menu is pretty much Greek street comfort food like gyros, donner and souvlaki served with traditional Greek bread. Starters and salads include well known favorites like baked feta and greek salad.

I'm going to keep this post nice and short and get to the point. Their food is delicious! Super tasty, flavorful, authentic and fresh!

I've had their 'mamaca's salad' both times that I went, it's my favorite thing on the menu. Red, plump tomatoes, authentic Greek feta (none of that fake stuff), olives, capers, oregano, parsley and here comes the best part, the Greek pita bread that's brushed with olive oil - SO GOOD. Must try!

The chicken 'gyro' comes tucked in their beautiful bread. It doesn't have fat which can be a huge turn off, packed with tomato & onion and your choice of sauce. I kept things traditional and opted for tzatziki of course. As simple as a tzatziki sauce is, sometimes there isn't enough flavor or too much garlic but theirs is beautifully balanced and creamy. Spot on!

I love watching my food being cooked in front of me and with that in mind, my 'souvlaki' was grilled to tender perfection on the grill. Served with generous portion fries, choice of sauce (tzatziki, what else?), veg condiments and a side of happiness :)

I'll be stopping by here on the regular. Service is friendly and fast, parking is a little minimal but it's nothing unexpected with any shop directly on beach road and food is fresh & tasty.

x

Rated: Elia

I know, I know, 2 Greek restaurants in a row? Sue me why don't you! but hey, the way I look at it is I'm discovering the Greek food around Dubai for YOU. See? This is all for YOU. Not me. Just YOU. Geez, be thankful. Kidding.

I was quite surprised that this place had been around for a whopping 6 years and I've never heard of it. I guess that was the beauty of it. Tucked away in the 3rd floor of Majestic hotel in Bur Dubai, Mankhool area, this place escapes from the loud and noisy Dubai.

And so our "Greekilicious" night began at Elia...

Upon entering, you see a mixture of a crowd from couples, seniors, families and friends dining and chit chatting their way through their meals. The Greek music in the background was a perfect mood setter and the place itself has a cute, rustic meets modern take on European style (much like their menu). The ambiance and look & feel already made me escape from Dubai's usual settings and took me to a European escapade - along the lines of Greece. My friend and I decided to sit in their glass terrace area which was beautiful. So homey and inviting and surrounded by trees and minimal views of buzzing Bur Dubai.

I know that Greek food traditions are similar to Arabic and so mezze was a must. You muzt mezze. Was that funny or plain cheesy? Now while we're on the topic of mezze and this is where you're wondering what we ordered & I was wondering what to order, this pops up on our table --> 

Eggplant salad, marinated olives with fresh baked bread. Okay let me break this one down for you. The eggplant dip was so smooth, full of flavors dancing in my mouth like olives, eggplant, garlic - just yummy. The olives were sitting in rosemary & garlic infused olive oil and the fresh bread had an assortment of carob (not pictured since this pic is the second round of bread), sesame crusted and olive sourdough. This was so good we had to tell each other to stop and save room for mezze.




Since we're on the topic of mezze, here's what we got:

We ordered the Tomato Kefte and Cheese saganaki. Looking at the kefte, I was afraid they were going to be flavorless or bland but one bite of this, and YUM. Super super crunchy (best part about it) and filled with delicious and simple flavors of herbs that go so well together. Doesn't need any sauce and was not one bit dry. Now I have never tried graviera cheese and was pretty excited about this one. I also appreciated the hefty portion they give you (since it is AED67!). The cheese itself was super tasty - salty, flavorful and delightfully crispy on the top from being baked. I also loved the balanced flavors of the tomato, garlic and pepper sauce that it sat on. Both these starters, I will definitely go back for.

At this point, we've done two rounds of breads and dips and two starters and I have to say we were 60% full. Note to self, eat less bread next time (let's see how that goes!).

So far so good. Here's where things started to fall a bit. We waited around 15-20 minutes for the main courses after our starters which meant we were getting even more full. We also mentioned it our waiter and the manager took note of that.

Once our mains did come, this is what we were about to tuck into:

Since the menu was split up into two: one being traditional Greek food and the other authentic with a contemporary twist, we decided try one from each section. I'm going to leave it to you to guess which one ;)

The chicken was cooked well and had flavor. The downside was that it was heavily coated with dried mint and was borderline bitter. The pita bread it was served on top of was too oily to eat. On a positive note, the crunchy onions went well with the chicken sewers as well as the tzatziki. The stuffed capsicum with tomato and rice was yummy and reminded me of homemade dolma. I prefer Iraqi dolma over this since I love the additions of meat in the stuffing and the sweet pomegranate syrup it's cooked in.

The second was a sea bass spring risotto with egglemon/'avgolemono' sauce. I didn't know what that was until I checked and it's pretty much the same meaning as it's name - a thickener consisting of egg and lemon. The sea bass was cooked well, however, the risotto was under cooked. Although the dish had good flavor and was almost there, the under cooked rice left you with a chalk-like taste. It's kind of surprising since the mains did come late. Since I ate the best sea bass risotto of my life last weekend (read about it here), that was the reference I was comparing this to and it was in two different playing fields.


We were super full by the end of our meal but the manager came
round and delightfully complimented us with two dishes of their milk pie dessert ('Galaktompoureko') as a sign of courtesy for the earlier delay. Although we were full, doesn't mean we don't taste right? :)


The texture was great since the outer filo pastry was crispy and browned with sugar while the inside was creamy and milky.

Their service, aside of the slight delay, was great and we were very pleased that the manager reconciled our slight issue with a complimentary dessert.

I am definitely going back to Elia to try out more dishes and absolutely love their getaway location and ambiance!


Total price breakdown below (for 2):
1 x tomato kefte = 23 
1 x cheese saganaki = 67 (A bit too pricey)
1 x chicken souvlaki = 56 
1 x sea bass risotto = 69
1 x large water = 15
Total (AED) = 230

I've rated Elia 4 out of 5!

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Rated: Eat Greek

I'm sure you've all been to the new area, The Beach, of JBR where there's a full new strip of restaurants alongside the gorgeous beach filled with elements of art, sand sculptures and even work out stations. I love this area. Only downside is the traffic (for parking & people in general) but hey, nothing new there about JBR so just accept it!

One of the restaurants on my radar was 'Eat Greek' since I rarely ever eat greek food in Dubai. There aren't that many that I know of (have only heard of El Greco and Elia - have yet to try either). If you know of any good Greek restaurants that ought to be tried, please let me know below.

Now since it was a Friday, there was a waiting time to be expected of 20-30 minutes as described by the hostess. However, I must admit they did only call me after 40-45 minutes and at this point, our hunger levels were somewhat soaring through the roof.

We were seated outside (as requested) and the weather was gorgeous! Pure bliss. Our waiter was so energetic & friendly from the start, that he put us in a great mood to start. Whilst we look around our menus & try to figure out what to eat, their fresh piping hot bread basket arrives and this is what happens. Suddenly we're just distracted...

I told you we were hungry. But in all serious note, their bread was delicious. It had a crispy crust and airy filling and was topped off with olive oil, salt and herbs. Two more baskets coming right up, please. Thank you.

On to the starters! For cold, eggplant "salad" & giant beans "plaki" and for hot, baked feta cheese (after Foodiva's enticing picture on Instagram - could not let that one go), greek salad (of course) and roasted beetroot salad.




I thought the eggplant salad would be something similar to a baba ghanouj (arabic eggplant mezze) but it wasn't at all. I would say it's a much brighter & fresher version of baba ghanouj which was quite tasty. It was very simple and focused on the true flavors of eggplant seasoned with citrus and herbs.


The giant beans were a win! Baked lima beans in tomato & herbs - pure yumminess. Spoon that over with the baked feta on their fresh bread - you will be super happy! That baked feta was just melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness. Pretty much devoured in seconds. Trust me when I tell you try this combo out!

The Greek salad was fresh, simple and perfect portion. My best Greek salad was in Greece itself but this was still very tasty. The roasted beetroot salad with yogurt, walnut, apple & croutons was alright. I thought there was too much yogurt on the beetroots & took a way from the roasted flavor. I also didn't think there needed to be croutons on the dish.

For the mains, we ordered the Moussaka burger, 'Kleftiko' roast lamb, Greek eggplant Bayildi and a couple of pita lamb gyros.

The burger was moist, juicy and had sweet taste from the caramelized onions (if you don't like a sweetness in your burger at all - this is not for you). I'm pretty sure there was honey in there with the onions - which I liked. If you're thinking that this is going to be a typical "burger" taste, I'd think again. I really enjoyed it as it was quite different but the downside was it was too messy and sort of collapsed as I was eating it. Also, you couldn't taste the grilled eggplant that much because it was such a thin piece. They had chip/fries on the side which were pretty yummy! The eggplant 'bayildi' is a great vegetarian option. I really loved all the Mediterranean flavors singing in my mouth and the sweet kick of honey it made it that much more interesting & harmonious. As for the lamb braise, ooh-wee!, this was tender, fall off the bone, melt in your mouth, sort of meat. It was delicious and quite a hefty portion. It did have quite a lot of fat to discard but it added flavor during the cooking process for sure! As for the 'gyros' sandwich, I myself wasn't the biggest fan however, my family members did enjoy it. I found it to be too heavy and in a sandwich form, I wasn't that comfortable to have that much fat on my meat. It made the process of eating a little less enjoyable. Try it out for yourself as my family did say it was delicious :)

We were too full to try out any desserts and decided that a walk around the beach was much more suitable :)

Total price break down below (for 6):
1 x eggplant salad = 15
1 x giant beans "plaki" = 25
1 x baked feta cheese = 45 (this is overpriced!)
2 x greek salad = 35 x 2 = 70
1 x roasted beetroot salad = 30
1 x "moussaka" burger = 50 
3 x pita lamb gyros = 45 x 3 = 135
1 x "kleftiko" lamb braise = 100
1 x greek eggplant "bayildi" = 50
2 x large local water = I forgot this one but you can take an estimate of what a local water bottle costs :)
Total (AED) = 520

I've rated Eat Greek 4.0 out of 5!

I would definitely return and try out some other dishes and I particularly enjoyed their mezze (or starters) the most! The ambiance was also great in terms of music, service and overall vibe. We also had THE coolest waiter in town! (check him out on my Instagram). I read that the Eat Greek in Australia (the original one) does traditional live entertainment and dish breaking on the floor - would have been great if we had that!

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