Sunday lunch: A La Grecque

HAVING been granted the privilege of a weekend at the family shack in Anglesea, I'm not looking forward to firing up the antique electric cooktop after the dash to the coast.

Will it be a quick pasta and meagre salad because nothing else is open?

Shooting past Anglesea's assortment of closed shops, we aim for Aireys Inlet where A La Grecque beckons.

Having lived in Greece, I know my keftedes from ersatz meatballs. I order an ouzo and I focus on the menu. In brief, I have the best meal I've ever had on this coastline.

I devour authentic fried calamari: crisp, sweet, fresh and exquisite. It's a dish a young riesling is made to marry. I eat fried haloumi that has not been rubberised. Posing as saganaki, its lemony juices beg to be sopped up with crusty bread.

The locally caught whiting is cooked simply and served with a piquant dice of tomato, onion, cucumber and mint. Sometimes there's a fine fish soup such as what you may eat at a swish seaside restaurant in Glyfada, or lamb cooked as it is in the Peloponnesian countryside: salty yet sweet, succulent and slightly smoky.

Inside, the look is vaguely Greek, with white walls, a tiled floor and wooden tables and chairs. The welcome is warm.

The wine list provides an interesting mix of Australian and Greek offerings; it suits the food and is moderately priced. Entrees (from $8), main courses (from $16) and desserts ($10) vary according to seasonal availability. Food this good at these moderate prices is hard to find in Greece.

Reviewed by Tom Neal Tacker

A La Grecque, 60 Great Ocean Road, Aireys Inlet, phone [phone]. Licensed. Open Wednesday-Sunday, 9am-11pm until mid-June. Closed mid-June until the first week in August.

To stay: nearby Aireys Inlet Getaway (www.aireysinletgetaway.com.au), Aireys on Aireys (www.aireysonaireys.com.au), Butlers Bend Holiday Villas (www.butlersbend.com.au).