Gardens of Salonica

There are not a huge number of options for Greek cuisine in the Twin Cities and if you are out of the South Minneapolis area, your choices are even more limited. But quietly up in Northeast, while the neighborhood has undergone quite the gentrification in the past 10 years, Gardens of Salonica has been gracing the sidewalks with its art and tempting the taste buds with Greek cuisine since 1991.

Much like 112 Eatery, this is a restaurant that I sit down in and don't feel like I am in Midwest Minneapolis. This is likely due to its location in a row of businesses that are in what appear to be quite historic buildings. The dining room has windows out to the street and the heavy, creative sculptures of boulders extend from inside the room all of the way out onto the sidewalk.

When we arrived for lunch, Gardens of Salonica was hopping with business. It was nice to see people out enjoying their lunch hour on a Thursday. The menu is varied - offering everything from gyros to more intricate entrees, and of course the wonderful dips that are synonymous with Greek cuisine. We started with a selection of dips including fava, tzatziki and and tyro. The fava dip was the smoothest blended hummous-type dip I have ever had and was a nice difference from the typical garbanzo-based hummous. It was very delicious and even better with a small squeeze of lemon. I love tzatziki and enjoyed this version with small strings of cucumber, versus chunks, and a generous amount of dill and garlic. The tyro was a feta based dip and it was expectedly tangy. If you aren't into that blue cheese like tang, this dip would definitely not be for you. They were served in generous portions and with big stacks of warm pita bread.

For my entree I sampled a selection of the boughatsa (tm). Yes, you read that right, there are items on this menu with names that are trademarked. My first reaction to seeing this was distaste. It made me think of a chain restaurant menu and wonder if the items arrive frozen and are simply heated up and served. While I doubt this, it was certainly the anomaly of my visit. All three of the variations I tried (spinach feta, mushroom kef, leek lemon garlic) were quite good but the winner was the leek lemon garlic due to its unusual flavor combination. It was sweet from the leek but the lemon and garlic brought it back to a more savory flavor. I had that experience where you take a bite and go "oh, that is interesting" and then on your second bite you say, "and I like it, too!".

The service was swift and efficient and I liked how there were plenty of staff on hand to help bring extra pita or dips as needed.

I will add that this is a restaurant laden in garlic. You don't smell it in the room, but the dishes are all well-garlicked. I went back to the office and felt the instinct to want to cover my mouth the rest of the day when in close proximity to other people. Thus, you had better like garlic to go in the first place and this is not a restaurant for a blind date or business meeting.

Thumbs Up: Efficient good service, nice atmosphere, nice dip selection
Thumbs Down: Very loud room, could be too much garlic unless you are prepared, trademarked food items

Gardens of Salonica 19 5th Street NE Minneapolis www.gardensofsalonica.com