Hellenic Republic, Brunswick MELB

Close to a month ago WL brought me here after seeing how excited I get whenever I gushed about George Colambaris's restaurants. I love the idea of hearty meals shared around the table and we all know the Greeks and Italians do this best.

Semi-casual atmosphere, efficient service and friendly staff - next thing to do is to pick our meal, of which, is no simple task for first timers and so, the sharing menu became our next best bet. Feed me more, please :p

Mezzethakia - selection of small tastes including pickled vegetables, pita bread, taramosalata, kefalograviera saganaki, pastourma and kingfish. Sadly, our table was not big enough to accommodate the many little dishes presented to us and I felt a little rushed to finish off each plate in order to make way for the others. Portion wise, was a little small albeit being well presented.

Grain salad - always a big fan of grains and salads and thought this was one of the yummiest versions I have had. Slightly sweet and packed full of flavour.

The next course was the main which compromised of slow roasted lamb shoulder, chicken from the spit, lahanosalata (cabbage salad) and tzatziki. One of my favourite courses as we all know how well the Greeks are with turning their protein into succulent, drool worthy morsels. A meal combo that I won't mind ordering again at subsequent visits.

Dessert came in the form of loukoumades and risogalo. Loukoumades was polished off in less than a minute. Crunchy, fluffy and sprinkled with a good dose of sugar, followed by a generous drizzle of syrup or honey. The risogalo was a milder version in contrast as it was not as sweet although secretly sinful from the addition of a salted caramel layer.