Zucca in Glenelg

MAKING a meal of Zucca's small serves can add up.

taste food

MAKING a meal of Zucca's small serves can add up.

FOUR is the magic number in all sorts of situations, from a family ticket for the footy to a hotel room with its one double and two single beds. At Zucca, the award-winning Greek restaurant between the boats and the beach at Glenelg, things also come in fours .

That's fine, except there are five of us, and we all want one of those prawns in their natty shredded pastry jackets. So we have to buy a second serve, at nearly $19, and then fight over who gets the extras.

For a place that specialises in mezze, the Greek version of a communal meal of shared small plates, a night at Zucca can be surprisingly inflexible. And expensive.

Still, the boys crunch the prawns happily (even if a couple are raw in the middle) while I love the little accompanying salsa/salad of finely chopped tomato and cucumber, lima beans and a sprinkling of dill.

Those big, mealy lima beans also star in the night's best dish, a "stifatho" of goat meat turned to soft, wobbly splendour in a delicious light tomato sauce.

That's when you regret having to share. It's the same story with a special of Coorong mullet fillets and served straight from the pan. Gosh, they were good. And to think we nearly missed out ...

Zucca opened almost 10 years ago in Holdfast Shores at the end of Anzac Highway. High profile head chef Adam Swanson has been there from the start, along with the other co-owners.

The entry to the restaurant is on the marina side, opposite the squillions worth of yachts and launches bobbing in the harbour. It's a long space split into two rooms, with the kitchen mid-ship. The rear room, where we sit down early on a Saturday night, has views to sand and sea and, with subtle decor and white napery, feels surprisingly formal. It's certainly no taverna.

The menu is based on nearly 30 mezze, divided into a $17.90 list and an $18.90 list, five mains (from which we select the goat) and a couple of platters. There are also apparently some specials, though we aren't told about them until the mullet is mentioned when we've nearly finished eating.

This isn't the only time that service falters. Water glasses remain empty for long periods, and the remains of a bottle of wine fills two glasses but leaves only a drop for the third. Perhaps it's because we've come in early, and with kids.

Still, that doesn't explain the "whitebait incident". My boys love crunching these little fried fish and when the younger one screws up his face, you know something must be wrong. An extensive sample of them finds at least half are gritty - not the kind of crunch you want.

We politely explain this to the waitress who tells us: "They're from the sea, you know." Well, yes, we did know, but we also know they aren't normally full of sand.

The calamari is much more enjoyable, the baby squid divided into little cones and clumps of tentacles all flash fried until pale gold and very tender. A dish of tartare in the middle of the plate has half a gherkin balanced on top.

It's not all fried seafood and grilled meat. A few combinations have the hallmark of more ambitious gastronomy, particularly a pork fillet with "carrot milk, preserved grapes and crackling". The meat has been delicately handled and is still a pale pink in the centre. Its sweetness melds well with the other components, but the "crackling" - seemingly from one of those packets you get at the pub - is a let down.

Two mezze serves are supposed to be equivalent to a main course and while that might work with some dishes, others are a little light on. We're warned the four (of course) slices of pork are small. The little piles of shredded wood smoked salmon spread out around a large plate is even lighter on and the presentation makes it look particularly mean, even with some "aged" turkish bread.

So there's plenty of room left for the desserts, a collection of the traditional Greek pastry treats with their sweet syrups.

The best is the small balls of golden fried batter known as loukoumades, a Greek-style donut with no hole. Freshly cooked and crispy, they are drenched in a sticky honey syrup. Try stopping at one.

The baklava isn't the best going around. The filo has lost all crispness so doesn't provide any contrast to the dense filling. Five of us, including two small children, have eaten well but not excessively. The bill, including a bottle of mid-range wine, is more than $300. Certainly some of the more traditional dishes we didn't try this time are more substantial, and I've eaten better and cheaper here before.
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How it rated:

Food: 13/20
Staff: 6/10
Drink: 3/5
X-factor: 3/5
Value: 6/10
Overall: 31/50

Address: Shop 5 Marina Pier, Holdfast Shores;
Phone: [phone]