The Greek Larder, Kings Cross

Of course, with payday, comes payday dinner. The night with a few work friends (including fellow food blogger Dining With Dee) started off a bit chaotic with the restaurant we booked not able to find our table and other Kings X gems including Dishoom, Caravan etc having 1+ hour waits! We went for the tried and tested method of typing 'restaurant' into Google Maps, and that's how we found The Greek Larder. After a quick look on Yelp (two of the girls are American - no judging of using that over TripAdvisor!) we thought we should give it a try.

As soon as we walked in we were excited - we were greeted by a small open kitchen, deli counter and a bright modern space. Now, being Turkish means that I have my idea of what meze should be like, but The Greek Larder had the best spin on the classics as well as fresh new dishes that we'd not tasted before. While we could have had a starter & main each, that was never going to happen with so many great options that we all wanted to try!

Open kitchen where we watched the 3 chefs, from our table

Our task ended up being deciding what we didn't want from the menu, and trust me with 4 hungry girls that was a challenge!

We ended up going with:

Kefalotiri saganaki (pan-fried cheese), smoked red onion & candied chanterelles

I mean who doesn't like fried cheese?! I've never had this cheese before, and despite being fried and warm, it was still firm & the onion and chanterelles were a perfect accompaniment to it. So good we ordered a second portion!

Slow cooked chickpeas & tzatziki

The chickpeas were cooked to perfection, with a great sauce. The only disappointment for me (I love tzatziki, or cacik as I call it), is that there was only a small spoon of tzatziki on top.

Chickpeas & fried cheese

Elephant beans, grilled artichokes & feta

I still don't really know what elephant beans are, but these, cooked in a tomato sauce served with artichokes and a chunk of feta were delicious.

Elephant beans

Octopus & fava (yellow split pea purée)

I don't think I've ever had octopus prepared in a way that I didn't like and this wasn't an exception. The octopus & fava wasn't better or worse than anything I've had before, but we definitely had no complaints!

Octopus

Souvlaki (flat bread wrap with sausage kefte, roast tomatoes & tzatziki) - Didn't manage a pic as we tucked in too quickly!

Considering I don't eat pork, the sausage kefte was actually not bad, and the filling as a combination was good. Even the flat bread was some of the best I've had for a while.

Spinach & feta filo 'pie', fennel salad & tzatziki

This 'pie' is very similar to something my grandma makes, with raisins in place of feta, so this tasted familiar but still different. It really was great, crispy on the outside with a really fresh filling.

Filo pie

And of course, we can't forget dessert! Three of us went for the chocolate & mahlepi (ground seeds from a species of cherry used to sharpen sweet desserts) mousse with sour cherries, which was the perfect combination of dark chocolate & cherry.

Chocolate & Cherry mousse

Of course, baklava was ordered, but rather than being the usual overly sweetened baklava this was packed full of nuts with the perfect amount of sweet stickiness.

Baklava

I will definitely be taking a trip back to try more of the menu!