Was my eyesight playing up? Or were the photos in this blogpost burry? Leave a comment. I made my promise and went back to my favourite Greek restaurant in Brisbane after a hiatus of 8 years.
Lefkas (Lefkada) is a pretty unspoilt Greek island with the most amazing beaches on its west coast. It is very friendly and serves fantastic food. Lefkas Tavernas is just like its namesake and the owners want people to feel like family with authentic Greek ambience, it’s comforting – with comfort food.
Chef/Owner John Theoharis describes his food as “wholesome quality food using the finest ingredients” and inspired by his time in Greece. Passing on most of her home-made recipes, John’s yiayia (Greek for grandma) is behind the inspiration of Lefkas Taverna.
1/ Appetisers
We started with a couple of dips and grilled sardines.
The Tarama (fish roe, garlic, lemon) and Tzatziki (cucumber, yoghurt, garlic) came with a stack of pita bread each; looked like there were at least six pieces per stack. But if you worked out the maths, it was just 3/4 of a single pita bread.
Sardeles (Sardines, lemon, black pepper) is one of favourite appetisers and I would order everytime I see it in the menu. These are not canned sardines but fresh ones beautifully salted and grilled. When the sardines were this fresh, nothing else was needed.
2/ Combination Platter for Two
Chicken & Lamb Souvlakia, Grilled Octopus, Calamari, Haloumi, Pita & Tzatziki
The platter has everything Lefkas has to offer. Souvlakia are marinated meat on a skewer, or what I describe as Mediterranean satays; instead of chopped up meats, they used marinated chunks of chicken thighs and lamb, most likely the rump cuts. The grilled haloumi (goat’s milk cheese) and calamari tiganito (calamari light floured and fried) was perfectly done. The chatpodu scarras (grilled baby octopus) was perfectly grilled this time as compared to our last visit. Despite inflation and currency fluctuations, the platter can still easily feed four adults.
The platter came with two sides (with a slight upsize cost) and we ordered a traditional Greek salad and lemon potatoes. The Greek salad was a tossed salad with chopped up tomato, cucumber with sliced red onions and rockets, with lots of olive oil and vinegar and crumbled feta cheese and whole olives. I do not know of Greek salad done any other way, maybe without the rockets.
It was supposed to be lemon potatoes (boiled potatoes with lemony dressing) but it was too salty for us that we left it pretty much alone.
For a little more ($5 per quail) we can add the Chef’s signature grilled quails to the platter. If course I did, and it was delicious.
3/ Moussaka
Moussaka is the Greek version of the lasagna without the pasta. Instead it uses eggplant, the usual beef ragout and béchamel. The top crust was made from mashed potato; the English shepherd’s pie married the Italian lasagna.
But it was the long bean stew that took our breathe away. Absolutely delicious, tasted like a Campbell’s vegetable soup freshly prepared with ingredients from the garden; comfort food at its best.
Afterthoughts
The food was still as good, the restaurant was busy with an old lady celebrating her 71st birthday and families enjoying a lovely evening. in the Brisbane suburb. This time we had no room for desserts, and asked for the bill as we were the last table to leave and the waitresses were cleaning up around us. A clear signal that our welcome was over.
Lefkas Taverna
170 Hardgrave Road, West End QLD 4101
Tel : +61 (07) 2102 7055
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