Elia

It was a friend’s idea to go urban on a Friday night, girls’ night out. We all live within a 4 km radius of the Athens neighborhood, Ambelokipi, so Elia, Greek for olive, a place I hadn’t been to in a long while, seemed like a logical choice, especially since one of the group had recently been there and “approved.” Unfortunately, I didn’t have exactly the same opinion. Some of that difference has to do with better memories of an earlier visit; some of it has to do with memories of the same plates, a menu almost unchanged over time, which to this palate means that the kitchen needs to freshen itself a bit.

For one, cheese and fried dishes seem to be overwhelmingly present on Elia’s menu in dishes such as: pitakia anthotyrou (small pies with anthotyro cheese), flogeres me tyri kai zambon (phyllo flutes with cheese and ham), striftopita(coiled pie) with tomato and feta cheese, parmesan croquettes, yams with cream cheeses, eggplant cheese pie, meatballs with mozzarella, red peppers filled with kopanisti cheese. That’s a lot of cheese! I have always felt that one of nature’s great gifts to mankind--cheese!--has to be savored and used sparingly. It’s an easy way out for any cook to add a little cheese and make something banal taste a little better.

We tried a sampling of some of the cheese-laden specialties. The pies filled with anthotyro, a soft, mild cheese, were good. We sampled the meat pies with yogurt, with the yogurt mixed into the filling; these were an OK dish, nothing terribly memorable, but nothing to hamper the night either. The croquettes were heavy. Both the zucchini and tomato fritters were fried dark and had soaked up the deep fryer oil like a sponge. We tried to temper the richness of so much dairy and fried foods with a spinach salad, which was good but a little too wet. We liked the classic grilled stuffed squid, stuffed with—what else—feta cheese!

I wanted something on the lighter side as a main course and so went with the salmon in basil sauce, which was not very sexy! The salmon was a little overcooked and the basil in the basil sauce had somehow gotten away. The rump steak that a friend had was decent.

Elia seems a little tired these days and so do its waiters. There is a strange system here—an electronic bell—for calling the waiter to bring one of several things: water, a menu, to take an order and, finally, to bring the bill. But it depersonalizes the service. It also doesn't guarantee the imminent arival of a waiter. When we pressed it half jokingly the waiter arrived several minutes later, annoyed that he had been called to duty. If he was actually on the floor watching he’d have noticed sooner that we wanted to order.

The décor is as tired as the food. It hasn’t changed over the years. Overall, it felt to me like Elia could use some sprucing up.

Cuisine: Mediterranean banal 
Athens Area: near the center
Decor-Atmosphere: contemporary and a little impersonal
Service: Not “saved by the bell”!

Wine List: an OK Greek wine list
Prices: 30-40 euro a person Address: 28, Mylopotamou str., Ambelokipi, tel. 2106910100