Taverna is a new Greek restaurant run by a Dio Deka alum in the kitchen. We recently tried out their lunch, which they started a few weeks ago for late in the week and weekends. I think the server mentioned that they were in the process of expanding their lunch days.
We had:
the olives and feta. Their feta was briny, tangy and fresh tasting.
The souvlaki with llano seco pork with mustard seeds. Well grilled overall. Mostly very tender except for one or two pieces and very well flavored. Liked the mustard seeds and the sauce. Loved it.
Oktapodaki- the octopus was really tender and well seasoned. The Santorini fava was a little on the bland side. They didn’t have experience dealing with pea shoots though. As you can see from the picture, they needed to pick the young ones and throw away at least 80% of the shoots. Overall, the octopus was the star, and it was a very good dish and very happy to order again.
Half of the Kotopoulaki- salad with oregano-scented phyllo- and sesame-breaded chicken. They split it for us. I thought the breaded chicken was interesting. But the real star of the dish was the greens, and especially, the beets. The lettuce was very fresh, and the baby beets were very tender, sweet and juicy. Farmers market quality stuff. Could dial back the ratio of chicken to salad, I thought, since those chicken was pretty big.
The meal came with some pretty decent bread and butter. Really liked the pork and the octopus. They recommended the lamp rib chop, but that seemed to be pretty American versus Greek, so we didn’t spring for this pricey dish. Would love to focus on the seafood portion of the menu. If the other dishes are of similar quality as these, then I think Palo Alto’s got a good new Greek choice.
Menu:
Cheery dining room. Everyone was sitting outside on the sidewalk that day, so it was fairly unoccupied inside:
Right across from Whole Foods.
