Sunny weather, dining outside with friends and fresh vegan Greek delights makes for a little piece of feel good holiday time. But more locally than Santorini.... we visit Stratford.
After going to the press night of the launch of the Real Greeks vegan menu and wanting to go back to enjoy more I was delighted to see their vegan menu expanding and bringing us some dishes that would be hard to find elsewhere.
The Real Greek is the UK’s only group of truly authentic Greek restaurants, serving a contemporary Aegean experience, that allows guests to relive the flavours, passion and fun of Greek dining, across 15 sites.
A vegan menu specially designed by TV presenter, restaurateur and author of Greek Cypriot descent Tonia Buxton features meat-free versions of Greek classics, like jackfruit Moussaka, and mouth-watering plant-based dishes, such as Chickpea Filo Triangles.
For those of us who want to taste Greece’s hero street food dish, there’s a dedicated Athenian street-food style Souvlaki menu, featuring flatbread wraps filled with chips, falafel and vegan jackfruit.
We loved sharing an array of freshly made houmous and Santorini Fava – which is yellow lentils blended with herbs and spices – with Greek flatbreads. The Chickpea Filo Triangles were huge! So luckily we shared. They are jam packed with chickpeas and a touch of sun dried tomato and chilli.
The Jackfruit Stifado with button mushrooms and shallots was delicious and went down well with a couple of freshly made not in the tin stuffed vine leaves!
We had to have a taster of the vegan ice-cream…. and it was lovely. Great to be able to have a creamy dairy free ice-cream to really put you in the feel good holiday mood.
The Real Greek brings us a culinary heritage of the Eastern Mediterranean, taking in the best of Greece’s gastronomic traditions, from its 6,000 islands to the mainland and mountains to the latest innovations of the capital’s restaurant scene.
It sources core ingredients directly from the finest suppliers in Greece. Its olive oil, which can be found in everything from the Houmous to the salads, is pressed from an ancient grove in Crete, home of the world’s oldest living olive tree.
They told us;
“The Real Greek works with chefs in Athens to keep on top of the latest trends from the capital, whilst the creative direction of the kitchen is led by Tonia “the face of Greek food in Britain.” Tonia brings a passion for authentic Greek cuisine, born from an early apprenticeship in her mother’s kitchen in Cyprus.”
We had a super time and have all said we will be going back.
The service was utterly fantastic and made the experience even more special.
Thanks to The Real Greek.
Paul Kerton, aka Hench Herbivore, partner Gemma Nichols, National journalist Selene Nelson and VV TV founder Karin Ridgers.
