Yiasou George — a Greek party at your doorstep
The young team behind an East End pub have picked a winner with this fun-filled take on Mediterranean dining, writes Simon Wilkinson
Restaurants on the Greek island of Mykonos are in strife for ripping off tourists, including one that reportedly charged more than $1000 for a lunch of squid and a few beers.
The line about a sucker being born every minute comes to mind, along with a cautionary note on visiting Euro hotspots in the middle of summer.
At other times and in other places, however, Greek food tends to be reliable in its generosity, sometimes overly so.
Take the bleakest of winter evenings in the East End of Adelaide, for instance, where a basket of divine puffy pitas, bowls of superlative dips and a huge slab of slow roasted lamb can hit the table for a little more than $50 at Yiasou George.
This fresh-faced eatery, connected physically and by ownership to The Stag Public House, is not your run-of-the-mill Greek. In fact, despite the name, the kitchen brief is more broadly Mediterranean. And its young crew, resplendent in their floral shirts, seem more concerned with generating a good party vibe than getting too deeply into dining anthropology.
It’s a welcome change from the claustrophobic décor and complicated plates of Charlick’s, the previous concept for this space, that always seemed a little too self-absorbed to work alongside the pub.
Yiasou George is the complete opposite.
Even as the night turns black and showers slap into the window panes, the room is welcoming, its white walls embellished with quirky, vaguely Greek motifs and open shelves loaded with colourful canned fish, jars of pickled veg and other pantry staples.
Padded booths are arranged on a raised platform on one side, while standard tables follow the line of doors that will open to a deck and the street when the weather improves. Over in the corner, behind the bar, flames flicker in the gaping maw of a wood oven that is the centrepiece of an open-kitchenette where most dishes are finished off. The main kitchen, also serving the Stag, is through a hatch in the wall.
Part-owner Jack Booker oversees dining room operations with infectious energy, even early on a midweek evening when bookings are sparse. A disco playlist is gathering steam and a cheeky Med-themed cocktail isn’t out of the question. Sanity prevails and Jack comes up with a ripping bottle of Barossa grenache instead. He also warns against over-ordering, which we, of course, ignore. I blame the pita. Bundled up in a tea towel to keep them cosy, these char-freckled discs come to the table puffed up with steam like little whoopee cushions and smelling like your favourite bakery.
Then come the dips – the baba ganoush, still with some strands of eggplant, rather than being a puree, is scattered with pomegranate, while the luscious tzatziki has a small hollow filled with vivid green herb oil.
Tear into the floppy, warm bread, dunk into one of the bowls and swoon. Repeat.
Fried pastries have an excellent short, crumbly casing and are filled with chunks of lamb, feta and pine nuts. Spice-dusted cauli is roasted until it develops a tan like a wrinkled sun-lover, only to plunge into a pool of pure white whipped goat’s curd.
Quail, brined, crumbed and fried in the style of chicken from America’s south, then takes several unlikely diversions with sesame, rose petals and a buttermilk dressing. It’s a popular dish, apparently, but I find the heavy coating and a buttery sauce become cloying, and the spindly bones of the bird difficult to navigate.
The larger meat dishes are less complicated and justify the promise that they are “designed to share”.
The pork is two hefty slabs of slow roasted belly, the crackling rim brittle enough that it can be snapped into little pieces, the fat properly rendered, the flesh firm rather than falling apart. A splotch of skordalia underneath doesn’t go very far.
A piece of lamb shoulder, of roughly the same size, is dark and leathery on the outside but then disintegrates pleasingly inside. Wrap it in a strip of pita, with a dollop of yoghurt dressing, to make the yiros you’ve been dreaming of. Shepherd’s salad would be a good addition here as well, or channel a Sunday roast with the charred brussels sprouts and shredded ham hock.
To finish, the “loukoumades”, normally little honey-drenched fried puffs, are re-interpreted as larger sugar-dusted doughnut balls with a silky honey and cinnamon custard. I’d stick to the original.
Yiasou George is great value and a load of fun. If you don’t have a plane ticket and squillions for squid, it’s the place to go for your next Greek party.
YIASOU GEORGE
26 East Tce, Adelaide
0434 812 023; yiasougeorge.com
OWNERS Oliver Brown, Jack Booker, Joshua Talbot, Jamie Huffam
CHEF Matt Eustis
FOOD Mediterranean
SMALL $14-$28
MAIN $22-$36
DESSERT $12-$14
DRINKS A smart contemporary list
with plenty of new names to explore, most of them local.
OPEN LUNCH Fri, DINNER Wed-Sun
SCORE 13.5/20