(Visited in June 2010)
Finally I made it to try Kuzina. Having heard good things about it from several people I have wanted to visit it for quite along time.
The location is very convenient for me and for general public, being one minute away from the Thissio station.
It has many tables in front of the restaurant as well as inside and on the roof top (which is open only in the evening).
The photo above is just an image photo that I shot several weeks ago. There is no one because it was before the opening time, at 13 o'clock.
We chose an outdoor table. It was late Sunday afternoon. It wasn't busy in any way, but several tables were occupied, some looked tourists and some Athenians.
As a starter, two of us shared a plate of salad (it might sound strange to non Greek readers, but eating salad for starter is pretty common in Greece). This is Freskadoura - mixed green leaves with traditional crositini from Kythira (ladokouloura), goat cheese and cherry tomatoes from Santorini (€10.50).
The cheese tasted like mixture of Philadelphia and Kopanistí. It was good, if the amount of cheese was a bit meagre. The 'crostini' were like those ones I could buy from supermarket. Cherry tomatoes from Santorini were bit tried, though sweet. Just passable.
The bread arrived 5 min after the salad, as they were not ready yet. They make and bake bread of their own.
The bread costs €2.50 per person for unlimited servings. There were sesami kourouli (doughnut shaped ones) and small round bread. Small round ones included - I think - grated carrot and cheese. Both fine as bread on its own, but I prefer plainer bread to go with the food.
I presume that the olives and olive oil were a part of the bread deal; both tasty.
This is one main course: 12-hour roasted pork served with lime and basil cream and pineapple, green apple, cucumber and fresh coriander salad (€14.50). The pork was itself was just fine, some parts being rather dry. Excellent was the combination with the fruity sauce. The heaviness and greasiness of the pork was nicely counterbalance by the fresh fruits salad and tangy cream. The request of removing corinder from the salad was accepted and executed accordingly.
Being beaten by the heat of the day, I ordered one of the cool sounding appetiser as my main dish, Lomi-lomo: Salmon marinated in lime, olive oil, coriander, tamari and fleur de sel (€14).
It arrived very cold and pleasant (well, it got soon lukewarm, but it is not the restaurant's fault). I did not taste much the tamari soy sauce, but did taste ginger which was absent in the menu descritpion. I love ginger, but my Greek dining partner who dislikes it, made face upon tasting it. It included a lot of sesami seeds.
I was pretty happy with the dish. It wasn't 'wow' dish, but satisfied my requirements.
At a certain point, the sun started to hit our table and we could not bear the heat any more. Both the waitress and the manager (?) were very sympathetic when we said that we wanted to move inside.
We settled at high chairs near the entrance and ordered a dessert and a coffee to conclude the meal.
This is Lemon cream with almond biscuit, meringues and fresh raspberries (€8.60; all the desserts cost the same).
Unfortunately, I thought it was a flat failure. The lemon cream was not bad (but I would have preferred it with a bit of liquor), but the almond biscuit was as heavy as quatre-quarts butter cake and meringue was like sticky candy. I think I see where they wanted to arrive at, but the result was so distant.
With a bottle of water, an espresso, and a glass of beer, the total came to €62.75. By Athenian standard, I don't think it was too expensive for what they offer (although I had to warn you that we did not order any of expensive dishes), but I cannot escape from an impression that in other countries I could have eaten better for the same price or as much good food for less price.
KUZINA
Adrianou 9 (Thissio)
Tel. 210-3240133
http://www.kuzina.gr/
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