Restaurant review: Kefi

I love Greek food. But in New York City, good Greek food can be pricey! For example, you can easily spend a lot of money on fresh imported Mediterranean fish by weight at Kellari or Milos. And Avra, Molyvos, and Periyali are slightly too expensive for a casual weeknight dinner when you're just craving something smothered in feta cheese with a side of tzatziki. Usually, when I am in the mood for Greek, I shlep out to Taverna Kyclades in Astoria, which is well-worth a ride on the N train, though there is always a long wait. They have excellent versions all of the standards, including my favorite saganaki ever (pan fried kasseri cheese!) as well as delicious and reasonably priced seafood. I love their scallops.

So you can imagine my excitement to check out the new Kefi, Michael Psilakis' casual greek restaurant on the Upper West Side. In case you haven't heard of him, Michael Psilakis is a young chef who was honored as one of Food & Wine Magazine's Best New Chefs in 2008 and whose fancier Greek restaurant, Anthos, has been nominated for a James Beard award. He also wrote a cookbook last year, How to Roast a Lamb, which was frequently featured on many best-of lists for 2009. I had been to the original Kefi, which was on West 79th Street, two or three years ago, but had not been back since it moved into a larger space on 84th and Columbus. I had read Frank Bruni's fairly mediocre review last year, but was not deterred.

On Wednesday night, I met my friends Margaret and Alex for my long-awaited and much anticipated meal at Kefi. We started by sharing three appetizers. First, a selection of spreads: tzatziki, a taramosalata (it has caviar in it - not for me), a chickpea and sun-dried tomato spread, and a smoky eggplant spread with warm pita. I enjoyed the eggplant spread and tzatziki in particular. Second were crispy (i.e., battered and fried) cod pieces with garlic mashed potatoes and stewed tomato which were really delicious. Third up were sublime beef and pork meatballs with a tomato, roasted garlic, and olive sauce. We all agreed that they were delightfully tender and tasty (meatballs can be dense!) and that the large chunks of olive and roasted garlic in the tomato sauce were perfect for scooping up with some crusty bread.

For my entree, I ordered the pork medallions with spicy peppers, capers, and lemon. You would not have guessed from this description that the pork would be covered with a shaved fennel salad, but it was. That was ok because I am starting to like fennel, though I still am not at the point where I'd order anything with raw fennel. Still, I liked this dish, though those little pieces of pepper were quite spicy!

Alex ordered a chickpea, eggplant, and bugler fritter wrapped in pita. I didn't try it, but it looked good and came with a small greek salad and homemade potato chips. She liked it.

Margaret chose the orzo with shrimp, tomato, spinach, and feta. I tasted it and liked it, but it didn't taste particularly Greek or even Mediterranean to me, despite the obvious Greek ingredients.

For dessert, we shared rice pudding which was topped with a lot of whipped cream and toasted almonds. I loved it. But again, it didn't seem too Greek.

Pros: Kefi is cheap and cheerful! We shared two bottles of inexpensive but forgettable Greek white wine, and if we hadn't I think we would have ended up spending only about $25 each!? There are no entrees on Kefi's menu that cost more than $17, and most were in the $10 - $15 range. As my mother would say, you can't beat that.

Cons: We were seated all the way in the back of the subterranean part of the large bi-level restaurant, and the acoustics back there made it hard to hear it other as there were lots of people excited to eat at Kefi and it was very crowded. Our table was also right next to a door to the kitchen so there was a lot of traffic in and out. Finally, the service was terrible. Our waitress was very hard to track down and had disappeared entirely by the end of the night.

I'm willing to give Kefi a few more tries. Especially if it means eating more of those meatballs!

**

Details:

Kefi

505 Columbus Avenue (between 84th and 85th Streets)

New York, New York

(212) 873-0200

Dinner for three with two bottles of wine: $175