A new year may herald a return to the office but it needn’t mean heading back to boring lunches, not if you’re in W1 anyway. If you’re a fan of Greek cuisine and haven’t yet discovered Soho’s Suvlaki, get it on your radar.
The Bateman Street restaurant may be small but it’s perfectly formed. Suvlaki shops opened across Greece in the 1950s, serving meat skewers grilled over charcoal; it’s become Greece’s national street food and it’s easy to see why – lunch here was probably the best Greek food I’ve tasted this side of Athens. Their chef, Elias Mamalakis, is a towering figure in the culinary scene of Athens. His name is synonymous with good, honest, traditional Greek cuisine and is one of Greece’s most popular media and TV personalities.
Main courses come in the form of skewers or wraps, with four delicious meats to choose from as well as a vegetarian option. With lemon glazed pork, chicken thighs marinated in Florina peppers and tarragon, lamb mince with Athenian spices and wild boar sausages, you’ll want to try them all, especially as the wild boar sausage is from a farm on Mount Olympus and the pita bread from the outskirts of Athens.
Lunching with a friend, we plumped for the mixed platter of two skewers, two wraps the absolutely mouthwatering mixed port, lamb and beef mince pita burger with lemon mustard and four sides; a crisp and crunchy Greek salad, Cretan salad with barley rusk, cherry tomatoes, crumbled feta and capers, a lentil salad (which I’ve already attempted to recreate at home) and – the piece de resistance – baked feta. As my friend commented ‘the only thing better than feta cheese is baked feta cheese’. It was, quite simply, delicious, and the platter between two was just enough to leave us pleasantly full without feeling overly stuffed – a pleasant change after a festive season of utter gluttony.
Make sure you leave room for a dessert – get the chocolate biscuit cake with homemade Greek coffee ice cream; you won’t regret it. The only fault with Suvlaki is the size; with only a handful of seats and no reservations you might find yourself in a queue, but fear not – they offer takeaway so you won’t leave empty handed. Ditch the Pret wrap next week and head to Suvlaki for something much, much tastier.
