Haven’t heard about the Greek and Cypriot cuisine before?! neither did I till I was invited to review the new bi-lingual menu at Kryptos by Willi. Arrived the designated day and time, there I was at Kryptos refusing to expect anything since all I wanted was a surprise. I did get my share and all pleasant. So what does the greek food taste like? as you know I’m not that great at describing tastes, but all I can say about this cuisine is like all other European cuisines, has a vast usage of herbs and vegetables and of-course meat. As the saying goes, it was all greek and latin (read cypriot) for me.
About the restuarant, we got seated at the long granite top table, heard somewhere that ancient greek held their community dining at long granite tables. The ambience there blends well with the taste of the food, with all the greek music playing in the background, this could be a place where you want to unwind after a long day, tasting some exotic food. And the highlight is that Kryptos has now a menu which is bi-lingual, i.e those of you who wants your menu in Tamil, here it is.
Now coming to the food part,
Hummus with Pita bread.
Variety of sauces
There is a salad buffet where the vegetarians can dig in big time. Well, I tried it too. Two visits to the salad bar, I could call it a full meal, hence I stopped with my first visit 😉 . The salad bar has a vast range of cold cut veggies drizzled with extra virgin oil, varieties of seasoned olives, extensive range of pickled veggies and classic salads. I think I should be visiting here atleast once to try the salad bar alone.
My choice of food from the salad bar
A tasty sandwich from the salad bar
Moving onto the starters, both the veg and non-veg platters were so good and inviting that we ended up asking for extra servings. I gave a miss for the veg platter. Kotopoulopithakia (chicken apricot and feta) is one which should not be missed.
Veg Meze Platter – cheese and aubergine rolls, felafel & ricotta filled pastries
Non – Veg Meze platter – Lamb and aubergine rolls, Kotopoulopithakia, crisp fired lady finger fish
Kotopoulopithakia with Tzatziki and fried aubergines
Jacket potatoes
Main course dishes did surprise me. Though I couldn’t taste the garlic rice, my dish for the night was Fried Hamburgers, which was nothing but meatballs in tomato sauce done in Greek style. Interesting dish was the oven-baked mackerel with potatoes which arrived in a beautiful pot. Chicken breasts were juicy. Veg dishes too were interesting and I got to taste Gemista of veg patties filled with mozzarella which was yummy.
Garlic Rice
Papoutsakia – Aubergine halves with onion, garlic and tomato topped with white sauce
Veg patties filled with mozzarella
Kolios sto fourno – oven-baked mackerel in pot
Piperies Gemistes – Stuffed pepper
Fried Hamburgers
Kotopoulo me pilafi – chicken breasts roasted with garlic and mint
aah, my favourites, desserts. I was quite disappointed when I first saw the portion of dessert served, it looked like two tiny pieces. Oh boy, I was totally wrong. The Baklava was a sinful phyllo pastry with walnut, pistachio and almond drizzled in honey (I stopped with the first serving). But the Fondant Sokolatas, which is a sticky chocolate cake with chocolate sauce did call in for extra servings (I think 3).
Fondant Sokolatas & Baklava
Xtra servings of Fondant… *slurp*
And my evening ended with a shot of espresso.
Kryptos is one place where you can quench your craving for Greek and Cypriot food.
aargh, now I feel like I need to learn greek…
Kryptos by Willi,
#24, KNK rd, Nungambakkam.
044-4503-8001
