A Taste of Greece: Mezes

Saturday was a good day to be wearing blue if you wanted to blend in and cheer for multiple teams with Greece, Uruguay and Italy playing.  I headed over to the Danforth early to take in a game with a Greek friend.  I got to the area an hour and half before the game started  and noticed a place called Trapezzi was already quite full with the Hellas fan club who were chanting and drumming away.

Instead of eating and watching the game at my chosen restaurant Mezes that my Greek friend suggested, we took in the game at the fox and the fiddle which was packed with Greek supporters and strangely a few groups of Colombian fans.  I found the presence of the Colombian fans a little odd.  It makes you think someone in each group likes to cause trouble, but I could be wrong.  The atmosphere was very intense and by the end of the game some of the Greeks were clearly not impressed with at least one Colombian fan who was not in my view so I'm not sure of what mischief he was up to.

After the game I headed back over to Mezes which appeared to have been busy with their own crowd who took in the game on the one TV that I assume had been mounted just for the tournament. 

Before I got around to ordering my food a couple of saganakis had been set ablaze.  If you have never had saganaki you should, even if only for the fun factor. :)  This time I decided to try something different in the Greek cuisine as I've had my fair share of souvlaki and gyros in my life.  This time I took my friend’s recommendation and ordered the kleftico, a chicken breast wrapped in phyllo and stuffed with spinach, cheese, tomatoes and onions.  It came with the elliniki salad (Greek salad) which had lots of yummy feta cheese on it.  Everything was delicious. The one thing I would have changed was I would have preferred the traditional Greek potatoes rather than the red potatoes I got.  I love Greek potatoes!  I’d even skip the rice and take a double serving of Greek potatoes!

And what would a Greek lunch be without some ouzo?!  I ordered a glass of that too.

This place has a pretty big menu.  There definitely are a lot of other Greek dishes I should try.