Gazi Greek Cuisine in Melbourne by George Calombaris

Gazi Greek Cuisine in Melbourne by George Calombaris

Melbourne is popular with its coffee. You can find cafes almost every corner in the city but there is something you should know about Melbourne, the Greek restaurants. There are quite a number of Greek restaurants in Melbourne and I strongly recommend you to try as you can’t find a good one in Malaysia.

If you are looking for a popular Greek restaurant, just go and visit Gazi. Gazi offers a very good range of Greek cuisine. It is owned by George Calombaris. George is the judge of MasterChef Australia, the bald guy and he lost tremendous of weight recently as I attended his event in Malaysia some time ago.

The restaurant is packed and luckily we made a reservation. The first impression of the restaurant, it is dark and it has the most unique ceiling ever. Are those clay pots?

Let’s get the dinner started

Marouli Iceberg ($9.50)

Marouli is Iceberg lettuce salad with oregano, lemon and kefalograviera.  I’ve never seen lettuce salad prepared this way but the taste is good.

Soft Shell Crab $12.00

Crab Soft shell or we called it soft shell crab. It is deep fried and compliment with mint, coriander, honey and mayo. Lovely.

golden deep fried saganaki cheese is next on the hit list, and is delivered piping hot and bubbling in a cast iron pan, served with cumquat jam.

Cheese Saganaki $14.50

This is an interesting one. Saganaki cheese is deep fried to golden colour and presented in a hot cast iron pan with balsamic honey and figs. This is something you should try in Gazi.

Chips – ($8.50)

Bored with the usual fried chips or we called it French fries? Gazi’s version of Tiganites patates (chips) comes with oregano and garlic oil feta cheese. Yum yum.

For main, we have chicken and fish.

WOOD FIRE SPIT • Chicken $28.00

The grilled chicken breast comes with white beans, tyrokafteri (hot pepper and cheese dip) and walnut dressing. This is quite interesting for us as we seldom have grilled chicken with beans and tyrokafteri. The chicken was tender, didn’t over grill. This is another unique dish by Gazi.

WOOD FIRE GRILL • Fish -180g $23.50

The next main is wood fire grilled sword fish (180g). The perfectly grilled sword fish comes with walnut dressing.

For dessert, we have something unique from Gazi.

Loukomathes $10.50

Loukomathes is a Greek dessert. The taste is similar to Chinese “you tiao” or “yau char guai” but in roundish shape. It comes with honey, Nutella and crushed hazelnuts and you will have no regrets ordering this.

It is an eye opener having Greek cuisine for the first time. Some say Gazi is a bit pricier than the rest but with the menu created the man, George Calombaris, I am sure you don’t mind the few extra dollars.

Nope, this is not a sponsored post.

Gazi Greek Restaurant Address, Phone and Website:

2 Exhibition Street, Melbourne

Phone: +61 (3) 9207 7444

Website: http://www.gazirestaurant.com.au/

Wilson Ng