Restaurant Review - Santorini

It was heartening that – despite the economy, the chilly weather, and a location a little off the path – the family-run, two-year-old Santorini Restaurant in the "Valley Street Business District" was bustling on a recent Friday evening. While we may have preferred the livelier front room, the waitstaff had to shepherd our party of two into the quieter "overflow" area where we could really focus on the good food.

Here, surrounded by Greek island photos and the same tangerine walls and white-clothed tables as in front, we eavesdropped on our neighbors oohing and aahing their giant grilled fishes.

Pita and a small plate of hummus greeted our arrival with the menus. Despite the tempting simplicity of ordering a fish (choices of the day are numerous and markered on a whiteboard at the entrance), we opted to go for the classics.

The Zeus Combo is a godly sampler of warm moussaka (the Greek version of lasagna without noodles), pastitsio (a noodlier version), spanakopita (delicate spinach-stuffed filo), and gyro meat arriving on the rectangular white dishes the restaurant favors. The pile of thinly shaved lamb was succulent on its own, though a side of some cool tzatziki sauce and more bread wouldn't hurt.

The appetizer was more than ample for two, and could have easily served as a heavy entrée. Upon first sight, my husband promptly downgraded his dinner choice to the large spinach salad, drowning his extra cash in a few incongruous-but-sufficient margaritas.

Most dinner options come with a generous choice of Greek soup or salad, rice or potatoes, and the vegetable of the day. Lentil soup was served in a shallow but big bowl. While thinner than lentil soup tends to be, it somehow achieved amazing flavor from mere beans, tomatoes, celery and carrots.

The spinach salad was smaller than we had already come to expect; it appeared our neighbors' side salads were the same size as our "large." But, no matter, the theme of the evening remained intact: the medley of standard but tasty boiled eggs, bacon, tomatoes, and mushrooms with creamy dressing on the side was still more than enough.

I opted for more moussaka, this time vegetable. Layered potatoes, eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes, apparently cooked in a clay pot, were topped with an inch-thick pillow of béchamel, a custardy sauce I've learned to appreciate after trying unsuccessfully to make it myself. The string beans enjoyed the same thin tomato base the lentils used to great effect. The lemon potatoes were the first hunks of potatoes I may have ever had that didn't suffer from even a hint of dryness.

House-baked, mouth-watering desserts like baklava (filo layered in honey and nuts), galabtoboureko (lemon custard with filo), and ekmek kataifi (shredded wheat with honey and nuts, topped with cream), were as tempting as the super-strong Greek coffee (grains in).

Our gracious waitress humored us by describing the options and the tradition of turning one's empty coffee cup over and reading the fortune from the grains an hour later. But, we kindly had to decline, holding our bellies.

Check please, and can we get this all wrapped?