Vrisaki Restaurant & Take Away
Permanently Closed
Traditional Greek Cypriot dining with large meze & charcoal kebabs
Traditional Greek Cypriot dining with large meze & charcoal kebabs
"A list of where to eat hummus in London would be incomplete without a nod to the Cypriot immigrants who first brought the dish to the mouths of Londoners. Greek-Cypriot restaurant Vrisaki was opened in 1970 in the still Cypriot north London neighbourhood of Palmers Green, and where else can someone order a meze dish of hummus for £3.50? Cypriot hummus includes garlic in addition to lemon and tahini and it has a grainier texture than Lebanese hummus, closer to the Turkish variety that uses less tahini. Competing with the likes of tarama and tzatziki, it is loaded with garlic, though less so than the notoriously punchy tahini mezze (called tahini on the menu, but known in Greek as tashi.) If dining with a large group, it is best to order the hummus as part of the Vrisaski set meze, which offers a colossal amount of food for just £22.95, and can be followed by an equally generous main course servings of tsippoura (grey bream), keftedes (pork and beef meatballs), or kleftiko (lamb shank slow-cooked in white wine)." - Joel Hart
"Twenty years after its late-1990s heyday, Vrisaki is still the most famous restaurant in Palmers Green, and has been a hub for the community surrounding Myddleton Road for as long as it has existed. Photos of celebrity patrons on the wall — Pauline Quirke, Antony Costa, Sven and Nancy — and out of date Evening Standard awards suggest faded glory, but the food here is still worth it. Diners with ordering FOMO are well served by the comically large set meze, which runs through the menu’s entirety in two dozen mini portions of dips, salads, cured meat and seafood. The less greedy should just skip straight to the grilled meat: three kinds of souvlaki, sheftalia (softer and more pillowy than the Paneri equivalents), or Flintstone-sized chunks of lamb souvla, slow-cooked over charcoal. As always, take-away is unbelievably good value and a large open kebab supplemented with vegetarian meze or keftedes (Greek-Cypriot meatballs) could feed two for less than £15." - Jonathan Nunn
"Myddleton Road is the last distinctly Greek pocket in Wood Green. But some things never change. For decades, the blue Vrisakis sign has been inviting hungry Greeks and non-Greeks alike to experience the city’s most famous souvlaki. Photographs of nineties and early-noughties celebrities fight for space on the wall, from when the restaurant was once a trendy, secret gem. It’s no longer much of a secret, but it’s still a gem. As well as the grill, it does a respectable mezze offering, known for gargantuan portions, and everything from the food decor reflects the character of a classic London-Greek establishment. But: the souvlaki is not the move here. Instead go for the doner kebab, which is made daily on the premises and filled with freshly chopped onion and parsley, a new addition to late-night memories of the slowly rotating elephant’s foot." - Chris Cotonou
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