NYC restaurant plug
Went to Kefi last night before seeing South Pacific at Lincoln Center. This just might be one of my top ten restaurants in all of NYC. I've been to Michael Psilakis's other restaurants, Anthos and Mia Dona (and Onera, when it was still around), and those are great -- wonderful inventive cooking in a way that feels very special. The great thing about Kefi, though, is that the food is just as delicious, but the price is totally accessible -- entrees $10 to $16. It's more of a homey atmosphere than the trendy feel of Anthos and the in-between feel of Mia Dona, so if you want romantic ambience, it's not the best place to go -- but if you just want to eat some really damn good Greek food and not pay too much money for it, I suggest you make a reservation now.
What we had:
Grilled octopus with bean salad appetizer -- outstanding. The char on the octopus was perfect and the beans were sweet and nicely textured. The salad also had some really tasty bits of oven-dried tomato.
Grilled branzino with vegetables -- very tasty, but I only had a bite of it so I can't say too much more.
Pasta with braised rabbit and (forgive me for forgetting the name of it) cheese -- this had about 15 more ingredients in it than the menu suggested. Not a bad thing at all -- every bite was a little bit different from the others, and all were delicious.
Chocolate sesame cake with sesame ice cream -- I was skeptical of this at first, but the sesame ice cream won me over. Better eaten together than separately (that is, mix the cake and the ice cream together on your spoon, don't alternate bites of one or the other), as the chocolate flavor complements the sesame's aftertaste well.
What we had:
Grilled octopus with bean salad appetizer -- outstanding. The char on the octopus was perfect and the beans were sweet and nicely textured. The salad also had some really tasty bits of oven-dried tomato.
Grilled branzino with vegetables -- very tasty, but I only had a bite of it so I can't say too much more.
Pasta with braised rabbit and (forgive me for forgetting the name of it) cheese -- this had about 15 more ingredients in it than the menu suggested. Not a bad thing at all -- every bite was a little bit different from the others, and all were delicious.
Chocolate sesame cake with sesame ice cream -- I was skeptical of this at first, but the sesame ice cream won me over. Better eaten together than separately (that is, mix the cake and the ice cream together on your spoon, don't alternate bites of one or the other), as the chocolate flavor complements the sesame's aftertaste well.