New Greek restaurant brings the full Hellenic dining experience to Durbs

There are plenty of hits on the food front at Nikos Coal Grill Greek, writes Shelley Seid

Zorba's Dance was pumping from the speakers, we were wolfing down excellent taramasalata, and the conversation was at full volume when Katherine broke a glass.

We may have been in Durban's newest Greek restaurant, but this was not a riff on the usual smashing of plates.

Rather it was the result of an overabundance of enthusiasm (and at Nikos Coal Grill Greek the crockery is trendy, indestructible enamel).

Anyhow, it didn't matter. No one heard. It was far too noisy and before you could say Acropolis, four staff members discreetly cleaned everything up.

It was a great evening.

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The food ranges from the hearty, homely spanakopita or soutzoukakia that your schoolmate's yaya would rustle up, to a more modern take on Greek cuisine - corrugated baklava, for example, or roasted spicy cauliflower.

Oddly, with a reasonably strong Greek community in Durban we had to wait for Nikki and Peter Triandafillou to come from Johannesburg to create the sort of space Durbanites find so appealing.

Nikos, named for their son, is airy, open, easy-going, not too pricey and utterly unpretentious.

The spot with its screed walls and distinctive Mediterranean-style tiled floor could comfortably exist on the bay at Santorini.

That the view is of Adelaide Tambo Road and the Spar car park is hardly worth mentioning.

In fact, everyone behaved if they were part of a small island community, screaming hello, dragging chairs from one table to the other and consuming copious amounts of everything, occasionally punctured by Katherine and her ilk breaking tableware.

There were four of us and we ordered enough food for eight, mainly because it was difficult to decide what to leave out.

There were a couple of misses as well as plenty of hits.

The flatbread was doughy, the hummus with lamb mince was bland, but this was easy to forgive.

The table groaned under the weight of the brinjal stack, two plates of the best tarama I've had in years, tzatziki, hummus, fried calamari, toasted pita and a souvlaki or two.

There was not a millimetre of space for the kolokithopita (the world's best pumpkin pie) but it can be had next time. We will be back, as will most of Durban by the sounds of things.

NEED TO KNOW

When to go: Anytime between noon and 10pm.

How much do you need: Mezze from R35 to R65 per serving; dips average at R25; souvlaki from R100 to R170 and puds from R55.

Details: 54 Adelaide Tambo Drive, Durban North, 031-007-0375.

• This article was originally published in The Times.