photo: Joe Putrock

Coming of Aegean
By B.A. Nilsson

A Taste of Greece

193 Lark St., Albany, 426-9000. www.atasteof
greece.biz. Serving Mon-Thu 11-9, Fri 11-10, Sat 2-10. AE, D, MC, V.

Cuisine: Hellenic

Entrée price range: $9 (pasticio) to $18 (Thalasina – snapper and shrimp – special)

Ambiance: Sasual neighborhood joint

Clientele: Neighbors and other connoisseurs

When the gyveci ($12) finally arrived, it managed to top all the appetizers. Probably because a tender, meaty lamb shank was hidden under all that cheese, nestled among the little torpedoes of orzo pasta. Lamb shanks require a long, slow oven session, so they end up sharing a lot of flavor with whatever is baked with them; the cheese, Greek kaseri, is a sheep’s milk blend often served as flaming saganaki.

And the cheese has a robust flavor, good enough to go up against the cinnamon-spiced lamb, picked up by the pasta and spreading a satisfying warmth as you make your way through the dish.

A Taste of Greece has occupied its Lark Street corner for more than five years, at first as a casual eat-in-or-take-out joint, and now, after a change in ownership, a little fancier with its menu offerings.

The changes were eased into place by Dino and Kella Kacani, who bought the restaurant from the original owner four years ago. “I was the chef when the restaurant opened,” Dino explains, “but I had no control over what was happening. Eventually, I was in a position to buy out the owner.”

Although the traditional fare is still very much in place, Kacani has added some of his own creations, like the melixana brizola ($11), in which slabs of sautéed eggplant are served in a creamy garlic sauce, topped with mushrooms and onions, or the $18 thalasina (from the sea) special, topping shrimp and red snapper with a creamy spinach and tomato sauce.

Heading page three of the four-page menu are the gyros, available with a lamb and beef combo or with ground beef alone. You’ll want the former, the original, the mother ship of gyrosity, the meat that’s carved from an upright rotisserie, wrapped in an oversized pita, daubed with tzatziki, decorated with tomatoes and onions. It’s $6, or $10 in a platter that ups the size and adds potatoes.

You can get seafood or chicken or even vegetables in a similar presentation, and if that’s your preference, I’m sure you’ll be delighted with the flavors. I just can’t wrench myself free from that original lamb and beef loaf.

But let’s talk vegetarian for a moment. Sure, this would seem to be a meat-
intensive cuisine, and when I imagine those hordes of baby sheep being felled in and around Athens I’m not sure whether to get hungry or sleepy, but just think about spanakopita, another famous Greek dish (spinach and feta baked in crunchy phyllo pastry) and you can see the veggie possibilities emerge.

Saganaki, for instance, a tomato-rich casserole with squash and mushrooms and feta, or a vegetable shishkebab ($11 each). Spinach baked with feta and rice (spanakorizo, $8) or vegetables topped with béchamel sauce for a moussaka variant ($10).

I’ll confess that I didn’t try the regular moussaka (also $10) because it’s made with ground beef and I was in a lamb-hungry state when checking out this menu. But it’s offered, along with chicken or lamb or pork scallopini ($10-$11) and a number of seafood dishes like swordfish, grilled ($12.50) or served over a spinach-cream sauce ($16), and snapper, broiled ($12.50) or served in a salad that also features spinach, feta, beets and pepperoncini ($13.50).

But you probably want more of that saganaki experience. Head for the shrimp or scallop saganaki (Our Prize Dish! the menu exclaims—$13) and again there’s that melange of zucchini, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, feta and more, this time (as my friend Sharon preferred it) with a generous helping of shrimp mixed in.

After five years of successful business, there’s no point in making fun of the restaurant’s name. Especially when it offers something as great-tasting as “A Great Taste of Greece”—an appetizer option ($11) that’s a combo of four appetizers. Spanakopita ($5 alone) is not only an excellent version of the dish, but it also anchors the plate nicely, giving a crunchy contrast to the stuffed grape leaves (dolmades, $4.50), which are as you’d expect. Two meat dishes finish the collection: keftedes ($4.50), which are meatballs with a more dramatic flavor than you might expect, and lukaniko ($4.50), the star of the plate, a sausage sweetened with the unexpected flavor of orange zest.

A half-dozen Greek dips ($5 apiece) include the cucumber-and-yogurt tzatziki and a garlicky baked eggplant mash. We selected a threesome (there’s a combo platter for $12) that arrived with a heaping platter of hot pita slices. Tarama salata mixes pink roe with cream cheese for a unique, salty flavor; revitho salata is a cousin to hummus, and tirolafteri is a deliciously spicy creamed feta dip.

We even sampled the grilled octopus appetizer ($10), which is a tasty, slightly chewy dish that also worked well sliced cold into a salad the next day.

But you don’t even have to take my word for what’s good here. A Greek buffet is served at dinnertime the third week of each month, Monday through Saturday, and is terrifically popular.

Baklava was the appropriate finale, not-too-syrupy squares of the nuts-and-phyllo dessert. By then, you have such a good sense of well-being that you feel as if you might be in a European café (inspired, possibly, by the mural that takes up one wall of the restaurant, depicting a view from the Greek coast). Service is fast and friendly, and more than likely you’ll end up chatting with those sitting near. There’s everything here except xenophobia, plenty of which lurks outside.

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