New Tastes...

Sokrates, Sale

Last night for my birthday meal out, I went to a Greek restaurant in Sale recommended by Emily and Smeed (who were in our party). There was a group of 7 of us, and we all opted for the mixed meat buffet, which was where you paid £20.50 each and had a selection of dishes brought out in stages and put into the centre of the table for all to share. I had been told that a massive amount of was food provided, so much so that I was warned not to eat lunch! The four girls shared wine, which I was pleasantly surprised to find quite dry but really palatable and refreshing, as Greece is not particularly favoured when it comes to wine.

The first course to be brought out was lots of different dips with pitta bread, dolmades (vine leaves stuffed with flavoured rice) and a huge Greek salad. There was the traditional yoghurt and mint tsatsiki, houmous, sesame tahini and fish based taramasalata as well as a garlic and mashed potato mixture, a tomato and butter bean one and an amazing concoction that had red peppers and feta cheese in. We were brought two huge baskets of pitta bread, and more was offered if required (it wasn't); I had to be careful not to fill up on it as it is a definite weakness of mine, especially as the dips were all really tasty so it was hard to stop!

The next course was still part of the appetisers, this time deep fried calamari, falafel and grilled halloumi cheese were brought out on a platter. My personal favourite was the falafel, as it was really flavoursome, if all veggie food tasted that good I would happily turn. The cheese was very salty, but I am aware that it is a feature of halloumi, so just made sure not to eat too much to save drinking all my wine! 

Next came the first lot of meaty treats. There were marinated chicken wings, 
pork souvlaki sticks, spicy sausage similar to chorizo and lamb shish kebabs. It worked quite well as a few of us, including me, didn't eat chicken wings, yet a few disliked calamari, so we shared it out equally and none was left behind. The souvlaki sticks were beautiful, I don't know what the marinade was but I'd love the recipe!

The final round was the main courses, moussaka, beef stifado and a chicken breast casserole type dish that had cream, mushrooms and onions in. I love moussaka anyway, but this particular one was perfect, and the beef in the stifado was incredibly tender, it must have been bubbling away all day.

We couldn't finish everything on the table, because we were all completely stuffed, and had been since about course two I think! The bill was £30 each for the wine drinkers and a bit less for the boys who had been on beer and whiskey (!) and that was including a tip, which considering I had to be practically rolled out, I think was pretty cheap! Would recommend any locals take a trip there!