Zak’s Greek Restaurant
Just picking off a few out-of-the-way places. Have driven up to West Lakes, in the north-western suburbs. I’m not familiar with the area. I’m on the outskirts of the Westfield shopping centre here. The restaurant is situated by the lake, but it’s too dark to see much now. I’ve chosen to sit outside.
I ask for something interesting. I’m recommended the Mousaka.
Layers of grilled eggplant, potato, seasoned beef and cheese bechamél served piping hot in the dish.
This dish takes a whole to eat, as it remains at lava temperature for the whole time I’m eating it. The first layer down is the bechamél cheese, and underneath that, eggplant, which is completely charred on the outside. By itself, the eggplant’s skin would be inedible, but here it just adds a slightly unpleasant charcoal taste. Under that is a layer of mince, and then some seasoned potatoes under that. While there’s nothing wrong with this dish, it’s basically a lasagne, and not an outstanding one at that.
Baked filo pastry parcel, filled with vanilla semolina and citrus custard, served with ice cream and dusted with icing sugar.
I use the spellings on the menu, because they can sometimes be regional variations, rather than spelling errors.
The dessert menu is the usual Greek fare – baklava, kataifi, galaktobouriko. Not exciting, but I’m hoping they can execute this stuff better than most.
The galaktobouriko has a nice crispy, salty, honey-flavoured crust. Inside is a pasty semolina custard. It’s strange to have the pastry be the exciting bit, and the filling be more mild, but it works here. The ice cream here tastes like medicine. It’s a very interesting taste, but I just can’t put my finger on what exactly it is.
These two creamy components don’t go together, but are each independently good.