Take a evening stroll down the Surrey Hills section of Whitehorse Road on any given day around 6pm, your nostrils would be joyously inhaling the aromas of spit roast meats and grilled seafoods emanating from Flame Greek Tavern. The olfactory experience just gets my gastric juices on over drive and I'm sure I look like my dogs, unconsciously licking my lips as I saunter past. So after a few occasions of strolling past, Kiddo and I decided to stop there to grab some take away.
The aroma of this lured me like a siren song... grilled calamari, scalloped potatoes, Greek styled slow cooked green beans and a veggie mornay
Flame is a family business and it serves authentic Greek cuisine. There's veggies keeping warm in the bain marie, think slow cooked Greek beans, scalloped potatoes and of course the much celebrated moussaka. Then there's logs of meat grilling away to the back. There's a generous dining area but Kiddo and I decided to 'hunt and gather' and to retreat to our cave to hunker down with our meals.
We ordered two meal packs and a serve of grilled haloumi. The first meal pack was grilled calamari with whatever cooked vegetables they had on the day ($20) - see first pic. The veggies themselves were an assortment of scalloped potatoes, Greek styled slow cooked green beans and a veggie mornay. As the veggies were archaeologically layered, only the top strata of potatoes were visible. The calamari were delicious. Lightly battered with generous lemony sauce. The veggies were just like yaya would have made. Very comforting. For who doesn't love a casserole style veg on a cold winter's night? My only problem with this whole meal pack? There was insufficient amount of it. For $20, I was expecting more than 7 rings of calamari and a more abundant serve of side veggies. This was Kiddo's meal pack and she ended up heating a frozen Lite n Easy meal afterwards to fill her void.
I, on the other hand went with a slightly more filling but only marginally so, meal pack with grilled chicken skewers and Greek salad ($18). Chicken protein is generally has a more substantial feel in the tummy than seafood. The grilled meats were seasoned to perfection, lovely savouriness and of course, the char grilled taste was divine. Once again, could have done with more meat and/or more salad.
The haloumi were $10 for four pieces. Given the meager serving size for the meal packs, I wasn't really expecting more. Delicious nonetheless.
Verdict
Overall
The quality of the food at Flame Greek Tavern was second to none. Loved the home style cooking and loved the grilled meat and seafood. However given the mingy serving size, be prepared to order lots to feel replete. This in turn, of course would affect the affordability. Kiddo and I spent $48 on take away to feed one child and one adult and still ended up having to a second dinner afterwards. So I'm estimating to be fully replete, allow $50 per head.Find it at
Flame Greek Tavern3/486 Whitehorse Road
Surrey Hills VIC 3127
Phone: 9836 9722
I agree with the pricing - it is even more expensive to eat in. We usually get take away gyros (which is around the $10-12mark), but I can't help but envy those who know how to make those homestyle vegie dishes. They are delish.
ReplyDeleteNean
Hi Nean, I didn't realise it cost more to dine in 😬. I haven't tried the gyros yet but have since gone back & tried the chargrilled octopus which for $20, it is a reasonable sized serve. Omg, agree w you on the homestyle veggies. So good...😋😋😋
ReplyDeleteThe food looks great! I live just around the corner from here, shame about the small servings though!
ReplyDeleteHi Laura, I'm local too & would definitely go more often if it was better value for money as the food is fantastic
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