Going Greek on Mardi Gras

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For many years, I stared at an abandoned store space when I walked out of my parking lot everyday. Then rumors emerged that a Greek restaurant was going in…I still stared at the empty space everyday. Many months later, construction permits appeared but nothing was happening. Many more months later, a plywood wall went up outside the space but nobody knew what was going on, not even my friends who own the bars on either side of the space. It was like watching a movie on pause but advancing it one frame at a time.

Then one day suddenly, it opened for business.

Looking for a place for dinner on Mardi Gras, we decided to celebrate the day our way, by doing Greek.

Opa is a beautiful restaurant dominated by its bar in the center of the dining room. One side of the exposed wall is accented with a full length metal and stained glass trellis of circles that extends up to the ceiling and transforms into a wood overhang overlooking the dining room.

Antho

Feeling like something different, we started with this $10 cocktail made with cucumber vodka, lemon, and dill. The Antho was refreshingly and sour with a good dose of dill flavor. It certainly stood out from the usual sweeter and fruiter cocktails favored by the popular demands.

Grilled Octopus

The octopus was absolutely tender (supposedly braised for 4 hours) with a nice hint of grill flavor. There were some crispiness on certain pieces but unfortunately it was overshadowed by a slight heavy hand of salting. The chickpea fondue was done without any dairy product. It resembled very much like a dryer but tasty version of chickpea and tomato stew. The sauce on the plate was supposed to be chili oil but somehow we couldn’t detect any spice from the oil. $12

Kokorestsi

Not sure if this was done in the traditional way of roasting over a pit. This $10 plate of lamb sweetbreads, liver, and heart arrived in the form of a nicely packed ball with pieces of intestine on top. The sweetbread was a bit elastic however the flavor was excellent. Being a muscle, the heart was very tender and could have passed for being a piece of veal. The intestines on top supposedly bind everything together; they were flavorful but chewy. Taken as a whole, this was a very interesting and flavorful dish with each component having its unique texture and flavor. There was a lot of grizzle in the sweetbread which the kitchen should have taken better care in the preparation.  I though the fries were an odd complement for the kokoretsi but their crispiness and seasoning did a good job in cutting the heaviness of the dish.

Toourlou

A savory dish of stewed zucchini, greens, gigante beans, okra with a poached egg on top.  This is a vegetarian’s delight at $11. The vegetables were delightfully prepared with the right crispiness and yet allowing its flavor to come thought. And…everything tastes so much better with a runny egg on top.

Rabbit

The meat was braised in wine, then shredded and mixed with the house-made pasta, olives, capers, carrot and topped with keafalotiri cheese shaving. This was a very satisfying comfort food dish with a well balance of flavors. The meat was absolutely tender. It tangoed so well with the delicately soft pasta and the sauce that it made me forget the pasta was more done than I prefer. When I placed the order, I was wondering how much meat I would get for this $16 dish. I found my answer as I kept digging into the dish and rewarded with fork full after fork full of meat. I definitely had gotten my USDA recommended dose of daily of protein.

Baklava

For $8.00, you do get a large piece of layered phyllo with chopped walnuts, honey and spices folded inside. It did not have that hit-you-in-the-face sweetness, the walnuts still had a nice snap to the bite and the filling was not gooey. There were some nice pieces of fig in the fig ice cream on the side. It was very nice on its own as well as quite delightful as a pairing with the baklava. Although neither the baklava nor the ice cream was over the top sweet, there was sufficient sugariness in the dish to stop me from finishing the dessert without going into a diabetic coma.

Greek coffee

That was one of the more interesting serving vessels we have seen for Greek coffee. Unfortunately, the coffee was not as interesting as the vessel it was served in. It lacked the intensity that we were expecting and it also wasn’t the most flavorful rendition, but the serving vessel was worth the price of the admission.

Opa is a beautifully built restaurant with intricate finishing touches. The service was attentive with our waitress kept checking up on us and our water glasses were never less than half-filled. It was also a very slow night. As any newly opened restaurants, the kitchen has its ups and downs. The food was well thought out with its execution almost there. There was grizzle in sweetbread and tiny bones in the rabbit meat that could be easily taken care of with a little more attention paid to the prep processes. We have subsequently returned to Opa and enjoyed a few cocktails at the bar while watching “beautiful”

Samson Street

and the cars going in and out of my garage across the street through the huge opened windows on a Spring night. An interesting conversation with the bartender over beer led to his creation of an interestingly made beer cocktail for us with Victory Prima, vodka, and a Greek liquor with a name that I couldn’t pronounce.

The Urban Dictionary defines “opa” as “A word that Greek people use for no apparent reason at all” but I find it plenty of reasons to visit this place.

Opa!

http://opaphiladelphia.com/

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