Taverna Ermou heads from Athens to London.
When did you last holiday in Greece? My dining companion recalled halcyon island days by the sea. I reminisced about childhood trips around ruins with my classicist father, stopping at roadside restaurants where no English was spoken – but where you’d be greeted like family and welcomed into the kitchen to point at whatever you liked the look of. If you dine at Taverna Ermou – a new restaurant located in Bond Street, London, which has come from the beloved Athens institution – it’s a dead cert that your conversation will follow similar lines.
With its whitewashed walls accented with blue wooden panels, its simple wooden chairs and white tables, and especially its playlist of upbeat Greek songs from the 1940s to the present day, it’s so achingly redolent of the country that it should really be sponsored by the Greek tourist board. You get that authentic Greek welcome, too – which is to say infectiously funny, enthusiastic and full of elaborate gesturing – from assistant manager Petros and London area manager Theo.
All the dishes are meant to be shared. In fact, unless you are ravenous, most are a little much between two, making this a better place to enjoy with a group of friends. It also makes Taverna Ermou superb value for money. Where else in central London, too, could you buy a bottle of perfectly good house wine – let alone a litre carafe – for £28? Though if you want to push the boat out, Petros became quite misty-eyed when extolling the virtues of the £155 Paliokalias from the Dalamaras winery, of which they had managed to secure just four precious bottles, and which hails from his home town.
So what of the food, overseen by culinary director Panagiotis Xanthis? You might describe it as traditional with a twist, specialising in seafood. We started with excellent sourdough and a Tyrokafteri Spicy Feta Cheese dip. The deconstructed Spanakopita might have been a more interesting choice – it’s a spinach and feta cheese dip with the crispy phyllo pastry served in strips rather than encasing it – were it not that my companion inexplicably objects to the idea of warm dips.
There was more feta, deliciously soft and crumbly, in the Greek Salad. And more deconstruction: it came with little pieces of pita underneath, so that the bread absorbed all the oil and flavours. Delicious. The final starter was Dolmadakia, the stuffed vine leaves to which I’ve always been partial. I can’t say they were the best I’ve had, but they were good enough, and generously portioned at six pieces.
For mains, there’s a selection of grills, including Charred Octopus, Flame-Grilled Sardines, and Seabass Fillet, as well as Soutzoukakia (spiced beef and lamb kebabs) and Skewered Chicken Souvlaki. Petros told us a signature dish was Crab Giouvetsi, a creamy ouzo pasta with a generous helping of crab meat. But since he warned us this was large, and we’d already over-ordered on starters, we couldn’t face it.
So instead, he recommended Crispy Fried Cod, which was served with a garlic dip studded with little bits of walnut (“it’s the small details that make the difference,” said Petros when we commented on this), and firm, flavourful hand-cut chips. He explained this was the traditional way to celebrate Greek Independence Day, which fell the day after we dined. Britain may specialise in fish and chips, but frankly, here we need to hand over the crown. It came in three separate pieces and, like the rest of the meal, could have served three diners rather than two.
All this left little space for dessert. We were inclined to order the cheapest and, so we presumed, smallest: a Lemon Crème Brûlée which comes in a real lemon shell. But Petros insisted we try the Galaktoboureko, and I’m glad he did. This was flat-out fantastic. A warm, golden, crunchy phyllo crust, smothered with honey, sat atop a sweet milk cream with the consistency of cheesecake. The latter may not sound appetising, but I assure you it was. Its size completely defeated us, but Petros was happy to bag up the leftover half for us to enjoy the next day.
Taverna Ermou is on a little street lined with restaurants, all with (currently hopelessly optimistic) outdoor seating. It’s a competitive space, clearly, but this little slice of sunny Greek paradise deserves to attract a loyal clientele. As Petros said, with his mischievous eight-year-old’s grin, “When you make the food with love, everything is good.”
GO: Visit www.ergonfoods.com for more information.