Greece - Andy's Greek Taverna

 

Restaurant:  Andy's Greek Taverna

Address:  23 Pratt St., London, NW1 0BE

Date of visit:  23 July 2023

Time of visit:  7pm

I was anticipating the Greek restaurant visit for a while, knowing that London would have a wealth of excellent options. To the point the prospect of researching and choosing just one restaurant was originally a little daunting. However, by chance, I happened to walk past Andy's Greek Taverna on one of my regular trips to Camden. I was immediately impressed by the cuteness of the corner cafe, and by the masses of people inside and out. A quick look at reviews online as I passed made up my mind. We had to make this our Greek stop.

So we returned on what was a lovely, sunny Sunday summer evening. I booked a table for 7pm several days in advance using The Fork (https://www.thefork.co.uk/restaurant/andy-s-greek-taverna-r719957) and arrived right on time. 

I had only ever seen the restaurant from the Bayham Street side, and assumed that the "corner cafe" made up pretty much all of Andy's. So to the corner we went, which was surprisingly very quiet, with no music playing. Almost abandoned, including lack of staff. It took some time before someone emerged from the enclosed kitchen area. We told him we had booked in advance, and he took us out of the corner cafe, and to next door to the adjacent unit on Pratt Street. Which was clearly the main restaurant. Who knew?!

We found ourselves in a lovely, inviting environment, full of diners with not-very-discreet traditional Greek music playing. Much more of a restaurant feel than the corner, with a choice of tables. We didn't have to wait long for the menus to come. We ordered a bottle of the house white wine, which was Italian, rather than Greek, in origin. We had mulled over the menu in advance and had pretty much already made up our minds. But we still spent some time to check it over again in the restaurant environs.

The menu is really impressive. Plenty of cold and hot starters for not much more than a fiver, which is incredibly decent. The vast majority of the mains are between £10 and £15. All the traditional Greek dishes you'd expect to see, with descriptions. A plentiful selection of seafood and vegetarian dishes too, although we tend to overlook those due to personal tastes! There are also some excellent value Set Menu options, which were very tempting.

Someone else came to take our food order. We were served by almost all of the waiting staff at some point in the evening. The service was very friendly, light-hearted and actually quite banterful. These guys clearly enjoy what they do!  Elle and I ordered the "Chef's Mixed Grill" starter to share. I opted for the stifado for main, and Elle went for the moussaka.

Time to take in the atmosphere. The music was quite loud. It wasn't offputting for us, we quite enjoyed it. But I could definitely imagine someone else potentially taking issue with it. The simple solution would have been to move away from the speaker, but there was no need for that with us. The interior was very blue. Almost nautical. Probably helped by the massive photo of a gorgeous Greek island landscape looking over our table. 

The restauant was by no means fancy, but also more than just a cafe. The tables were basic, with comfortable soft blue chairs and plastic benches. It was a very pleasant place to be, with absolutely no pretences. It really stuck me as the kind of place where the most attention goes into the most important things - the food and the service.

When the starter arrived, it initially didn't look to be particularly large (keeping in mind the prices are very decent). But in the end it was absolutely perfect, leaving you very eager for the main dish. The mixed grill was made up of halloumi, loukanika (Greek pork or lamb sausage), lountza (salted, smoked grilled pork tenderloin) and pastourma (beef sausage with wine and black pepper). The starter also came with a basket of bread.

The sausages were very flavoursome indeed, aided by the taste of the grilling process. The lountza almost had the appearance of a thick slice of straight forward bacon, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing! It was still excellent, as was the halloumi. The bread was very fresh and fluffy. We originally regretted not getting some kind of dip for the bread, but there ended up being enough goodness on the plate to use with the bread. The vegetable accompaniment - tomato and cucumber - was also very fresh and complemented the dish well.

Our attention once again was on the service. In a good way. This was a very well run place. The team of waiting staff were absolutely on it. Very polite and in no way invasive, but very swift to take away empty plates and attend to any needs. It was quite impressive, and no doubt one of the reasons this restaurant is so widely loved.

Then the mains arrived. This was a sight to behold.

I was already excited about this. We have been on several Greek holidays in the past, and stifado quickly became my favourite Greek dish, and I was therefore very hopeful about this. When my eyes met the content on the plate I'm sure my heart started racing. I could see the most incredibly substantial chunks of beef, luscious rich thick gravy, and amazing looking roast potatoes, all garnished with herbs. And I have to say, this dish was abslolutely exceptional. Defintiely the best stifado, and best Greek meal generally, that I've ever had. And one of the best main dishes on this project so far. The beef was melt in the mouth soft, but so beautifully flavoursome, the gravy matching it perfectly with a wonderfully balanced presence of cloves throughout. Those potatoes were something else... perfectly roasted and well looked after. A truly perfect meal.

It's hard not to be utterly impressed by this substantial wedge of layered goodness that is the moussaka. I actually really wanted to see the "mothership moussaka" from which this came. That must have been some sight! Again, generous is the word that comes to mind. It was packed full of layers of really succulent minced beef, and thick creamy bechemel sauce, which was perfectly baked at the top. A superbly tasty dish, and quite easy to see why this has won awards.

It also arrived with a very fresh, delicious side salad of tomato, cucumber, red onion and feta, drizzled with olive oil.

We need to go back to the potatoes.

I don't know how they get potatoes to taste like this. But they were some of the best I've ever had. We ordered more.

Surprisingly, despite a very decent dessert menu offered, there was no heavy sell. In fact, the question was never asked. Plates were cleared (typically swiftly) and we were left to enjoy the rest of our wine without interruption. In fact, it was a little bit of an effort to find someone to let us pay the bill. We geninuely could've spent all night in there. And we would have been happy to do so.

If all the above wasn't good enough, we received a free amaretto shot each on paying the bill.

I'm not sure if I've said this often through the years of this project, but we'll definitely be back here again. A very memorable visit.