Just had dinner at Kouzzina.

IWISHFORDISNEY

<font color=darkorchid>Cant get enough of the mous
Joined
Jan 30, 2004
Messages
5,407
We went up to the parks for the day and had dinner at Kouzzina. We were just a walk up and they took us no problem. The restaurant was about 1/2 full when it opened at 5pm. I have to preface this by saying I am Greek and most people like Greek food prepared they way they are used to having it. About half the dishes I thought stood up to my own recipes the other half were good but not as good as my own.

Apps - Greek Salad which was very good. They could have put a bit more lettuce under the cucumbers, tomatoes and cheese. However you did get 4 huge pieces of very good ripe tomatoes, cucumber sliced leghthwise about 1/2 cucumber and a very large peice of good quality feta cheese. The dressing was very good homemade lemon vinegrette.

They dont offer dolmades seperate but I asked for them because I saw them listed in the combo platter. They were very agreeable and let me have 3 good sized dolmades for $4.99. They had a good taste but were served cold. I prefer my grapeleaves warm and with hamburger mixed with the rice filling. Also with egg lemon sauce and not just lemon sauce. However if you were not Greek you would probably like these if you didnt have your moms to compare them too.

Spanakopita (spinch pie). The crust was flaky and buttery, the filling could have used more feta and a little less mint. (Again just a personal preference) They do serve this with a tomatoe, onion, and olive salsa. This was fantastic esp with the bread they serve which was multigrain brown bread.

Calamari, was a huge portion and cooked perfectly. A little heavy on the salt for me but my DH liked it the way it was. The dipping sauces were a garlic yogurt and spicy/sweet yougurt. Sounded weird but was very good. I liked the garlic one best.

Entree we shared Pastitsio. Thankfully we shared this because it was huge and served in its own souffle type dish. This was cooked to perfection and tasted just how I was used to. The noodles were definately homemade, the cream sauce was light and mixed well with the layers of red and meat. I highly recommend trying this.

For dessert we had the Loukoumades or as I call them honeyballs. Little donut holes with honey sauce and sprinkled with cinnamon. A very nice treat and great to share.

Overall it was a good meal. If I had it to do over again. We would probably just order our own greek salads and share the pastitsio again. We left stuffed and had way to much left overs. So we give it a thumbs up. I probably would not order the dolmades or spanakopita again but that is just because how I am used to these being prepared and it varies from one houshold to the next as does say an Italians gravy.

My son had the pizza meal. They let him switch out his sides for a salad and icecream sundae dessert. He said the pizza was good. But had some of my food so he only ate half but it was a big pizza.

The atmosphere was lively as they were yelling Ooopaa and repeated said Yasou to you. Kind of made me giggle we dont talk that way at home. But they kept up with the theme of the place. They did accept our TIW card.

Edited to add******** Total bill was $63.98 including tip for 3 of us.

The waitstaff was a bit weird. Kind of disjointed. Some were happy some looked miserable and the gentleman filling up drinks only filled some of the tables water and coffee and not others. Just bizzare to me. That would be my only real complaint is that it was noticable some didnt like the change of pace.
 
Thanks for the review. Glad to hear that a Greek enjoyed the food. I was rather skeptical about the restaurant - as in they likely 'dumbed down' the food to make everyone like it.

If you say it's rather authentic, I can't wait to try it!!
 
Thanks for your review!


NC B. and I were considering this for our trip in October, however we may not have time to try it.
 
Great review! I was waiting for a Greek to review the place since I'm Greek as well. VERY relieved you liked the pastisio. I saw other posters saying they hate the 'lasagna' but I assumed it was because they were expecting it to taste like lasagna. :) Now I know there's a chance my really picky Greek mother will also enjoy it!

Can't wait to try it!
 

Thank you for the wonderful and very informative review. I'm meeting several friends there in December and I had already kind of picked out what i would eat.

I love Dolmades but I've only had my Mom's. Hers were made with ground beef and rice in the grape leaves and were served hot. Cold sounds just strange. I had planned on getting the Spanakopita and the Pastitsio. The Spanakopita sounds good but maybe I should skip an appetizer. I've never had Pastitsio but it sounds similiar to Moussaka but without the eggplant. My mom used to make that and it's a favorite. Are they similiar?

Thanks again
 
Great review!

I was a Spoodles fan, good to hear that the food is still good!
 
Thanks for the review Liz. Sounds like we are going to add this to our list of restaurants for December. Although I am not greek, my DH and I frequent all of the greek food festivals in Pittsburgh. Loukoumades are one of my DH favorites and are sort of hard to get at the food festivals. They only make them at certain times of the day and we miss them sometimes.

Now I am starving for Greek food.:rotfl:
 
We went up to the parks for the day and had dinner at Kouzzina. We were just a walk up and they took us no problem. The restaurant was about 1/2 full when it opened at 5pm. I have to preface this by saying I am Greek and most people like Greek food prepared they way they are used to having it. About half the dishes I thought stood up to my own recipes the other half were good but not as good as my own.

Apps - Greek Salad which was very good. They could have put a bit more lettuce under the cucumbers, tomatoes and cheese. However you did get 4 huge pieces of very good ripe tomatoes, cucumber sliced leghthwise about 1/2 cucumber and a very large peice of good quality feta cheese. The dressing was very good homemade lemon vinegrette.

They dont offer dolmades seperate but I asked for them because I saw them listed in the combo platter. They were very agreeable and let me have 3 good sized dolmades for $4.99. They had a good taste but were served cold. I prefer my grapeleaves warm and with hamburger mixed with the rice filling. Also with egg lemon sauce and not just lemon sauce. However if you were not Greek you would probably like these if you didnt have your moms to compare them too.

Spanakopita (spinch pie). The crust was flaky and buttery, the filling could have used more feta and a little less mint. (Again just a personal preference) They do serve this with a tomatoe, onion, and olive salsa. This was fantastic esp with the bread they serve which was multigrain brown bread.

Calamari, was a huge portion and cooked perfectly. A little heavy on the salt for me but my DH liked it the way it was. The dipping sauces were a garlic yogurt and spicy/sweet yougurt. Sounded weird but was very good. I liked the garlic one best.

Entree we shared Pastitsio. Thankfully we shared this because it was huge and served in its own souffle type dish. This was cooked to perfection and tasted just how I was used to. The noodles were definately homemade, the cream sauce was light and mixed well with the layers of red and meat. I highly recommend trying this.

For dessert we had the Loukoumades or as I call them honeyballs. Little donut holes with honey sauce and sprinkled with cinnamon. A very nice treat and great to share.

Overall it was a good meal. If I had it to do over again. We would probably just order our own greek salads and share the pastitsio again. We left stuffed and had way to much left overs. So we give it a thumbs up. I probably would not order the dolmades or spanakopita again but that is just because how I am used to these being prepared and it varies from one houshold to the next as does say an Italians gravy.

My son had the pizza meal. They let him switch out his sides for a salad and icecream sundae dessert. He said the pizza was good. But had some of my food so he only ate half but it was a big pizza.

The atmosphere was lively as they were yelling Ooopaa and repeated said Yasou to you. Kind of made me giggle we dont talk that way at home. But they kept up with the theme of the place. They did accept our TIW card.

I really enjoyed your review. I am also Greek and when I first heard of Kouzzina, I was very excited to try it. However, like you, I am used to having meals prepared like my mother/I make them. I think I am going to pass on this restaurant. Although, I would like to try their avoglemeno.

I am also curious if they will have specials for Greek Easter. We usually travel during this time and I may consider if they offered baked lamb in tomatoe sauce. lol
 
Thank you for your great review! My wife and I have an ADR for our October trip and are looking forward to it even more now. :goodvibes
 
Ok, had to chime in!!
Another Greek here.....Yasou everyone!
Can't wait to go and try it out. My DH loves dolmades with meat, but I am a veggie now so without and cold or hot is perfect for me! I'm glad they have no meat.....:thumbsup2

I miss so many of the Greek dishes because they all have red meat in them but I saw some good sounding stuff on the menu. It's worth a try....("What do you mean he don't eat no meat? " My Big Fat Greek Wedding):lmao::lmao:

Big festival this weekend at the Sacramento Greek Orthodox Church. We will be there everyday!!! Stop by if in the area...
 
Thank you for the wonderful and very informative review. I'm meeting several friends there in December and I had already kind of picked out what i would eat.

I love Dolmades but I've only had my Mom's. Hers were made with ground beef and rice in the grape leaves and were served hot. Cold sounds just strange. I had planned on getting the Spanakopita and the Pastitsio. The Spanakopita sounds good but maybe I should skip an appetizer. I've never had Pastitsio but it sounds similiar to Moussaka but without the eggplant. My mom used to make that and it's a favorite. Are they similiar?

Thanks again

I think the sauce is similar but it is noodles vs eggplant. They used a thick pasta which I had never had but it worked.
 
I think the sauce is similar but it is noodles vs eggplant. They used a thick pasta which I had never had but it worked.

That's what I thought. Even better since I'm not fond of eggplant. My mom finally switched to using zucchini instead of the eggplant.
 
Ok, had to chime in!!
Another Greek here.....Yasou everyone!
Can't wait to go and try it out. My DH loves dolmades with meat, but I am a veggie now so without and cold or hot is perfect for me! I'm glad they have no meat.....:thumbsup2

I miss so many of the Greek dishes because they all have red meat in them but I saw some good sounding stuff on the menu. It's worth a try....("What do you mean he don't eat no meat? " My Big Fat Greek Wedding):lmao::lmao:

Big festival this weekend at the Sacramento Greek Orthodox Church. We will be there everyday!!! Stop by if in the area...


:rotfl2: I was totally thinking this when I was reading your post.:rotfl:
 
That's what I thought. Even better since I'm not fond of eggplant. My mom finally switched to using zucchini instead of the eggplant.

mm! my grandmother used to make it sometimes with zucchini for us too since I didn't really like eggplant. I have also seen some moussaka with potatoes and pasta layered. A little different but not bad.

Usually I'm not a fan of dolmades either but now with goat cheese? I MIGHT have to try them! :) I've seen them hot and cold (on top of salads, etc) and either temperature I'm not a fan when they're made the normal way.

Pretty sure between my mother and I we'll be trying the following (luckily we're on the deluxe dining plan!):

Avgolemono, spanakopita (moms true test about a restaurant! :scared1:), pastisio (mom's 2nd true test to see how good a place is), lamb shank (my test lol), gigantes (come with the lamb but might have to order the side dish for mom), loukoumades, and galaktoboureko.

ugh I'm getting full just typing out all that food! :laughing:
 
Ok, had to chime in!!
Another Greek here.....Yasou everyone!
Can't wait to go and try it out. My DH loves dolmades with meat, but I am a veggie now so without and cold or hot is perfect for me! I'm glad they have no meat.....:thumbsup2

I miss so many of the Greek dishes because they all have red meat in them but I saw some good sounding stuff on the menu. It's worth a try....("What do you mean he don't eat no meat? " My Big Fat Greek Wedding):lmao::lmao:

Big festival this weekend at the Sacramento Greek Orthodox Church. We will be there everyday!!! Stop by if in the area...

Are you sure you and my mother are actually Greek? ;) I've NEVER met a Greek that doesn't eat meat!! :) She's the same exact way lol
 
My experience with greek food doesn't extend past greek salad and baklava but I just read a book set in Greece and most of the menu items were mentioned so I'm really looking forward to trying this in Dec.

It sounds like you guys are loving being down in the 'World. :goodvibes:goodvibes:goodvibes
 
Ok, had to chime in!!
Another Greek here.....Yasou everyone!
"What do you mean he don't eat no meat? " My Big Fat Greek Wedding):lmao::lmao:

"Thats OK give him Lamb" .........Totally my family too. My Grandpop was a riot and genrally spoke half Greek and half English so you sort of had to translate what he was saying. He was a riot.
 
Are you sure you and my mother are actually Greek? ;) I've NEVER met a Greek that doesn't eat meat!! :) She's the same exact way lol

I'm only 1/4 but married to a 100% Greek....hahaha;) so that makes me all Greek according to my dad!

But my bestest buddy is 100% Greek from the islands and eats no meat!!

One year at our church festival they stuck the two of us serving lamb.
The lady in charge said "you two can eat all you want"...we both said, "We don't eat red meat." and she replied, " RED? I cooked all the red out!!!" :lmao:
That's a TRUE story.....

There are a few of us out here. My friend doesn't eat Greek olives...can you believe that?
 












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