Bahari - the Hellenic palate

My sister picked this Greek restaurant in Richmond to celebrate her birthday. It was as packed as this picture shows. I think the tables might have been arranged slightly differently because I think we were at the table at the front of the picture on the right, though the table was around the other way - or we might have been behind the photographer perhaps. Anyway - very Melbourne, very busy, simple decor - well hardly any really, simple chairs and tables. It's in Swan Street and says it serves 'Gringlish food', which the chef describes as Greek food with an English twist or English food with a Greek twist. Not sure I saw much evidence of the latter - or the former really. Though he did say that he tried some different things because he could get food here that was unavailable in Greece.

The chef and owner Philip Vakos is from Tasmania of Cretan origin - well I assume so as he has two Cretan grandmothers. So not Greek really. Bahari, which sounds Indian to me, means spice in Greek and apparently the food of Crete is spicier than that of the rest of Greece. His favourite spice is cinnamon. The website is presented as if I should know who he is - and indeed if I watched Masterchef I would, for he was a contestant in 2010 but crashed out near the end. This does not seem to have prevented him making a successful career in restaurants. Prior to Masterchef he was an auditor - now how far away from cooking is that? Well probably no further than Stephanie Alexander having been a librarian I suppose. He began with an existing Greek restaurant in South Melbourne and has been in Bahari for four years. He is very personable and he was working the room at the restaurant at the end, obviously he knew many of his customers as he was greeting them as long lost friends. So he is either a naturally friendly guy or a very good marketer.

The food was indeed very very nice and just a little bit different sometimes I guess. The saganaki was huge - which is not normal - it's that triangle in the middle of the picture below. Haloumi usually comes in little bits. Maybe it wasn't haloumi. The prawns were a little different - wrapped in that noodle kind of pastry called kataifi. I guess the main thing was that we had a banquet. Now I arrived last - my sister, husband, daughter and daughter's fiancée had arrived early apparently and had been there for some time and had already decided on the banquet So really I didn't know what the options were. I saw a slightly negative review on Trip Advisor that said they were forced to have the banquet when they really wanted a smaller meal. I should ask if that would have been an option or if you had to have the banquet with its limited options.

We began with the standard trio of dips - no surprises there although the bread was very, very delicious and the dips were tasty. Then we had some kind of arancini - well they can't have been arancini because they're Italian, and if it's supposed to be a fusion of Greek and English, I don't quite see where arancini fit in. Along with the arancini were the aforesaid saganaki and prawns. Then we had pulled pork and chicken skewers, served with a Greek salad, a Cypriot cabbage salad and lemon potatoes. All very nice, but I actually think 'my' lemon potatoes are better. (They're not mine - I got the recipe from the net.) Nevertheless it was all very delicious, but we couldn't manage dessert or to finish the salads. Indeed my niece took the leftovers home in a doggie bag - well doggie box.

So very nice and I guess not too expensive either. Yes I would recommend it if you are over that way but I don't know that I would make the effort to go from the other side of the city - like I had to. We chose it as being sort of halfway between ourselves and my niece. Honestly I can't fault it but I don't think I shall be going over there again - too far. If you go that far it needs to be really, really special.

I'm still not sure about Greek food. Along with what was Yugoslavia it's a sort of bridge cuisine isn't it? Between the European biggies of France, Italy and the Germans and the Middle East. More elements of the Middle East I feel than what we think of as Europe - although Greece is Europe too. So more Middle East but without the amazing spiciness. Bahari may mean spice but it's subtle spice. Maybe I've got poor taste buds and I can't taste subtle things. It's also not often associated with haute cuisine, though George Calombaris has given it a red hot try. I wonder are there Michelin starred restaurants in Greece - that are Greek that is? I'm sure there are 'international', i.e. French style ones. But Greek?

Souvlaki of course is now almost an Australian national dish - well there are a heck of a lot of Greeks in Australia and particularly in Melbourne. At one point we were the second largest Greek speaking city in the world - after Athens. Not sure that we still are as, of course, the children of those original Greek immigrants of the 50s now have children of their own. I'm willing to bet though that most of them would describe themselves as Greek Australians rather than just Australian.

Anyway it was very nice and I just wish you could buy pitta bread like that. Maybe I should have yet another go at making it myself.