Thanasis

This week, it was Phuong's birthday so we went to Thanasis for some Greek food. Thanasis is located on Poath Road in Murrumbeena. Again, Jo knew the owner as he was a client of hers at the pharmacy. So despite the place being booked out, we managed to squeeze in.

The restaurant is fairly small and was decorated with paintings of Greece. Otherwise the decor was fairly simple. There was a small bar at the back of the restaurant and a small dance floor area where the band was.

Here we are, from back left, Paul and I and in from front left, Kin, Jo and birthday girl Phuong.


The restaurant was fully packed that night with a couple of other birthday parties going on. It was extremely noisy and we had to speak quite loudly to each other to be heard. When the band kicked in, the noise levels were a bit too loud for talking but not for dancing. There were people doing Greek dances on the dance floor. Even the waitress danced with plates of food as she was walking past to serve the food.


The only choice for food that night was the banquet, which was fine for us since that was what we were going to get. There was an endless stream of food and despite waiting for the meat all night, by the time it came, I was already pretty much full and just managed to stuff a few pieces down.

So the food started with some dips, vine wrapped parcels and some antipasto of beans, roasted capsicum and beetroot. The bread was nice and warm and crispy and went really well with the green dip that I liked most. It had garlic in it and something else I can't identify.


Next up was fried eggplant, fried zucchini (just out of the left of photo), sanganaki (fried cheese just out of right of photo). The sanganaki was too salty and didn't have that nice melted cheese texture of other places. Instead it was still very hard. I didn't mind the fried zucchini and eggplant but they're still vegetables and I don't like vegetables that much.


The obligatory Greek salad, two plates of it. It was good.


The Grilled Octopus was totally delicious. It was way better than the Grilled Octopus at Bar Lourinha, with a massive serving and not costing $14 a plate. The Grilled Calamari was also very good, being tender rather than chewy usually.


There was mussels, which I don't eat so can't tell you how they were. Also served at the same time as the mussels (not shown in photo) was Fried Calamari and Grilled Fish. I was starting to get sick of fish and calamari so only had small pieces. The Fried Calamari was good but the Grilled Fish wasn't


The Oysters Kilpatrick were delicious. The Grilled Prawns were good and the Whitebait was nice.


After heaps and heaps of food already, the Meat Platter arrived. It was huge and we could tell we wouldn't come close to finishing eat. Everyone had eaten way too much bread at the start and also all that other food we had completely finished. I tried a lamb cutlet (good), sausage (too spicy and not good), chicken (good), beef rissole (not bad), piece of lamb (good). Then I was done for the night, with just enough room left for dessert. We took away a whole box of meat afterwards.


Finally, dessert was totally delicious Turkish Delights and Baklava. The Turkish Delights were the rose water ones that I'm used to, but the rose water flavour wasn't too overpowering and the sugar around it tasted different and really good. The other Turkish Delight flavour was nuts in something else. It was yellow in colour, does anyone know what flavour that is? That was really good too. The Baklava was excellent. It was sweet like most places, but the nut flavour really came through. We had some Greek coffee with desserts to help break up the sweetness.


Service was very good. They were attentive without being overbearing so we still had time to eat our food. Things were brought out in a nice timely fashion. When we asked for things, we got them. Plates were changed and water constantly being brought out without having to ask.

Overall, the food was good without any spectacular dish. There was a lot of food for the banquet and great value for money. The service was really good and the atmosphere was bustling. It got a bit loud towards the end for conversation but you can enjoy the dancing and singing.

Overall Rating: 14/20, Food was good service excellent. Party atmosphere.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.