Food: The Real Greek, Soho
Hello everyone, another food post today! Recently, I was invited down to The Real Greek in Soho to try their new vegan menu out. I was super happy they were letting me cover their restaurant for my site as I have heard so much from my friends about the new menu and it has been on my list of places to try for a good while now.
Whilst a bulk of their seating at the Soho branch is indoors, there are a few select seats on the outside of their restaurant. Since it was a nice day, I decided it would be good to sit outside and take advantage of the natural lighting for my photographs.
For our drinks, the waiter kindly took out their vegan wine list which was great as most places don't pay attention to stuff like this when you are ordering drinks. After studying the drink menu, we decided on ordering Peach Bellini's. This was truly needed to keep us refreshed after what was on record the hottest day of the year so far.
For our starters, we ordered Greek olives, Geek Flatbread, Melitzanoslata and Houmous.
The first to arrive out of all our starters were the olives. People either love or hate olives, and I for one love olives so naturally I dived right in. The olives come in a variety of different colours and types but all so tasty. You need to be careful when you eat them though as they come with the pit.
Next to arrive was our tower of dips and flatbread. I found it very cool that they arrived in a tiered 'high tea' type of holder ( if anyone wants to kindly tell me what it's actually called I would be grateful). The flatbread came nice and warm which made it perfect for dipping. The houmous they serve is made from a blend of chickpeas, tahini and is spiced with cumin and fresh chilli. This made it different from any other houmous I have ever tried in my life and certainly has been one of best. Most houmous that I have had in the past have been far too bland for me but I think the addition of fresh chilli really gave this a kick.
My favourite out of the two however was the Melitzanosalata providing I have not messed up spelling that! Essentially this cold mezze was a blend of smoke aubergine, garlic, shallots and lemon. As you know, I am a big big fan of aubergine so it's no surprise that I loved this dish. Paired with the flatbread this was absolutely delicious and my friend Alisha who I brought with me agreed.
By the time our mains arrived, we had both made our way right through the bread and dips, eating so much that we were beginning to feel a bit full. Thankfully, we only ordered one Jackfruit Souvlaki wraps instead of two like we were thinking of doing at the beginning. Alongside the wrap, we also got the Falafel and the Chickpea Filo Triangles.
Starting from the top of the tower, the wraps were super. The jackfruit was well cooked and had that meaty bite that it has when you shred it. In all honestly, despite having jackfruit in food before (filipino staple) I am still to this day amazed that it can be used as a meaty veggie substitute to meat. The wraps were oozing in tahini sauce which had a hint of a coconut taste that reminded me of Koko dairy free coconut yogurt which I adore the taste of.
The falafels were very different to any other falafel that I have had in the past. They weren't the crumbly type and they did not have a nutty or bean like texture or taste to them like many other falafels. I still honestly don't know what they were made out of but I don't really care as they were delicious. These were served on a bed of tahini dip and covered with pickled celery& carrots and a tomato & onion salsa with a sprinkling of sweet paprika.
On the bottom of the tower were the Chickpea Filo Triangles which were by far my favourite out of these three. The parcels contained chickpeas in cumin, turmeric and sundried tomato & chilli and were absolutely flavoursome. The pastry was fried crispy and had a lovely crunch to them without being overly fried which is how I like any of my crunchy fried food ( thinking specifically of spring rolls here).
At this point having made our way through two courses we were stuffed. But I really wanted to try one of their desserts because I don't think I have ever actually had Greek desserts ever in my life. I was torn between ordering the Baklava or the Plum, Almond and Pistachio cake. So naturally, I consulted the waiter who advised that the vegan Baklava was even better than regular Baklava. I went with his word and shortly after it was delivered to our table. Being full and all, I let the first two courses settle just a little bit and took some photographs of the dessert before trying it. The filo pastry that contained a walnut spread was flaky and crisp and the whole ensemble was drizzled in a sweet sauce. I'm not quite sure what the sauce exactly was but it sure was delicious. Alisha who didn't order a dessert as she was super full could tell that I was really enjoying the Baklava, and tried a bit of mine. We both had the same verdict, the waiter was telling the truth absolutely incredible stuff. I would definitely recommend getting this if you are ever at The Real Greek.
Overall, we had a wonderful experience at The Real Greek, the waiters were super friendly and helpful and it's great to see that restaurants are catering for vegans more and more by expanding their menu with a whole range of imaginative options for all.
* Please note that The Real Greek provided me with a free meal and drinks in exchange for a blog posts and some social media posts.
0 comments