Pita patter
MONSTER serves keeps everyone happy at Kefi.
SOMETIMES you have to wonder. We're sitting at Kefi, a marvellous little restaurant in the western suburbs, working our way through a huge pile of fried calamari strips. They're delicious and the two little boys are attacking them with gusto.
Over at the next table, we notice, is another little tacker, a bit younger than our lot, also tucking in but, in his case, to a red box of KFC nuggets.
Whatever gets you through the night, I guess, but I can't help thinking that the parents are missing out on a formative experience for their young 'un here, with a chance to experience the joy of eating good food together.
Because restaurants don't come much more easy-going than this little Greek taverna, where there's such bonhomie you would swear they were putting something in the tzatziki (beyond that load of crushed garlic).
Kefi is only a 50-seater but it's always full and does a roaring takeaway trade. From what I can tell, it has been since it opened five years ago. That doesn't happen by accident. So what's the secret?
Let's go back to that calamari. We have been warned about Kefi's reputation for monstrous serves but there we are, reeling in faux horror, as that first plate is hefted on to the table in front of us.
This is supposed to be a mezze serve as in a small dish to be shared with other delectable titbits as part of a bigger feast. Forget that. This huge stack of golden calamari strips is more than enough for four of us to share as a starter, and could have made a complete meal along with salad and some bread.
At $18.90, I can't think of better value eating in Adelaide. That's about the price many pubs would charge for about a third as much of the crumbed stuff that they'd emptied out of a freezer bag into the deep fryer.
Here the squid (I calculated, if re-assembled, it would have been two thumpers) has been caught locally, is lightly floured and fried in clean oil.
The tentacles are included, their crispy little tips the bits we fight over, and definitive proof of provenance.
There's no mayo, no sauce, just a wedge of lemon tucked under the heap of seafood, and perhaps a smear of tzatziki, one of the trio of dips that we have also ordered.
That's been the Kefi way since Jim Antonopoulos and his wife Kathy opened for business in a nondescript row of shops on Tapleys Hill Rd, Glenelg North, a few blocks from the Old Gum Tree.
They closed the restaurant last year to reshape the dining room and make the decor more contemporary, but for all the smart, neutral tones and stone feature wall this is still the same squeezy, loud, slightly chaotic, rollicking room it always was. Thank goodness.
Jim is a little worried about this review and how Kefi's simple style of eating will come across. But he is undervaluing the care he puts into the food he cooks, like buying only local seafood rather than the packaged stuff and into turning up to 100kg of potatoes each week into roasted wedges instead of settling for chips.
The potatoes, along with triangles of pita and a Greek salad (again with good feta and local olives, though the tomatoes could have more flavour) are the main course constants alongside choices of grilled lamb, chicken, pork or prawns, or fried fish fillets. For true diehards, there's a mixed grill, also including quail.
Serves, naturally, are huge, certainly ample for two regular-sized appetites, unless you are a vegetarian.
Two long skewers have been loaded with large chunks of lamb, nicely charred on the outside but still pink and juicy in the middle, perfection in the art of barbecueing.
Wrap a couple of bits in pita with a bit of salad and you won't look back. I like the skewers better than the lamb cutlet, a finer cut of meat that hasn't been grilled as long and is served with its daggy bits of fat and gristle still attached.
Slices of octopus tentacle are soft and tender, and look nicely browned from the chargrill, but they don't have that heavenly aroma of smoke and sea. I suspect that they might have been cooked a little earlier.
Only a glutton or a restaurant reviewer would get further.
Desserts are displayed in a glass cabinet at the bar a few trays of the standard filo sweets and bowls of rice pudding.
The cool and creamy pudding is actually refreshing to eat after all of the meat and potatoes and the boys really seem to like the baklava.
More than KFC anyway.
HOW IT RATED
KEFI
Food....12/20
Staff.......7/10
Drink........3/5
X-factor...4/5
Value.....9/10
The score out of 50
35
Address
3/61 Tapleys Hill Rd, Glenelg North;
ph 8350 9199
Food
Traditional Greek
Drink
Surprisingly extensive list of wine and beer, including Greek specialties. BYO corkage $15
Owners
Jim and Kathy Antonopoulos
Chef
Jim Antonopoulos
Prices
Entree $9.90-$20.90
Mains $20.90-$33.90
Dessert $4.50-$6
Snapshot
Huge serves of quality grilled meat and seafood designed to share. Great value, great fun.