13 Pirie Street.
Ph: 801 8896
www.theosgreektaverna.co.nz
As you enter Theo’s Greek Taverna, its unassuming façade gives way to a Grecian courtyard – with red bricks, whitewashed walls, and turquoise columns. Greek music filters through the grapevine, and on Friday and Saturday nights you can experience a live Greek band. There’s even plate-breaking at $4 a plate!
Theo’s offers a wide range of food, catering well for both vegetarians and carnivores. Highlights include the large range of tasty Greek ‘Mezedes’ (appetisers) on offer, made with beautiful fresh ingredients. If you can’t decide which to have, there are platters for $10 a head – we ordered the ‘Mixed platter’ for three and received a generous selection.
Their mains are in the mid-to-expensive end of the price range – from $18.50 to $29.50 (for the scotch fillet). The menu features Greek classics such as Moussaka (a mince and aubergine lasagne-type dish), Spanakopita (spinach and feta parcels) and Kleftiko (lamb shanks). I would recommend the Prawn Saganaki, a flavoursome dish incorporating whole prawns in a delicately spiced tomato sauce with rice pilaf and feta. On the whole, the mains were found to be a little lacking compared with the Mezedes. Although the portion sizes are huge, they erred to the bland end of the flavour spectrum.
My advice would be to order a selection of Mezedes rather than the mains, and use the cash you save to sup on wine or ouzo (potent Greek liquor) to your hearts content. Be warned, however, that at peak times (8pm – 10pm Friday and Saturday) there is a $20 minimum food charge per person, so you may wish to come outside of those times. All-in-all there is potential for a lot of fun to be had at Theo’s, experiencing Greek frivolity and food alike.