Restaurant Review - Spyros

Tonight Hiroshi and I went to a greek restaurant in Harajuku for date night. Harajuku is a fasion district and has tons of young people wandering around. At first we took a wrong turn and ended up going in the complete opposite direction. Luckily the weather has cooled down though and it was a nice evening walk. Summer evening walks are great when the humidity is gone and the temperature has come down to 'warm'.

We eventually found where we were going after wandering through some back streets. I have actually never been off of the main streets in Harajuku and was surprised to see the number of funky galleries and fashion boutiques. Definitely a place to do further exploring in the future. Like in the fall when the weather is bearable :)

The restaurant is a bit hard to see as it is on the third floor ... as is the sign. (For those of you who want to know how to get there, go down Omotesando-dori on the left hand side and keep walking until you get to just before the koban (across from the toy store). Turn left on the little side street and walk down about 150 meters or so. The restaurant is on the left, on the third floor). The decor is pretty simple - white walls which make it nice and fresh. It actually fits well with the design of the whole area.

We ordered the set menu. I was in heaven! Real olives! Oh, olives, my loves, where have you been the past five years?? It was wonderful to have olives with actual taste again. The feta was also super delicious. The set menu was volumous - there was an olive and veggie plate with dip to start. Then the greek salad (to die for) followed by tomatoes stuffed with couscous. Then came the mousaka and a shrimp stir-fry like dish. At this point I was full; however, the lambchops were still to come! The lamb was fatty but really good. I wasn't too keen on the mousaka - something about the spicing, but Hiroshi liked it. The stuffed tomatos were good too, and I think I'm going to have to play with that to come up with my own recipe. The couscous was nice compared to rice, which can be quite bland and boring.

After all that fabulous food we had a small desert and coffee. While small it was just perfect - a bite of sweetness for a bursting stomach. I should also note that we had greek wine with our meal. At first it was very green tasting and sour; however, once the food arrived it accompanied the meal well.

All up, the set menu, two cofffees and two glasses of wine cost 10,000 yen (about US$100). A bit pricey, but very filling. And they have real olives! The service was a bit slow - we had to hunt them down to get water and had to ask for them to bring cream/milk for our coffee, but they timed the dishes well. Just as we finished one, they put another one on the table. So all in all, a nice restaurant. If you have a hankering for greek, check it out.