Stalactites

Stalactites

177-183 Lonsdale St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9663 3316

The famous 24/7 Greek restaurant! P wanted to go out for dinner before our movie - we were going to go to The Taiwan Cafe but there was a 15 minute wait. We decided to walk along Lonsdale Street, but then it suddenly started pouring rain, so we decided to go in Stalactites instead of walk back to Swanston Street. There is usually a waiting time for Stalactites as well but they gave us a table straight away =)

I haven't been to Stalactites for a few years - it's always the restaurant people go to after a late night partying (apart from McDonald's =P). Don't really know what stalactites has to do with Greek food - but the restaurant has all these fake stalactites on the ceiling, doesn't look very realistic but anyway =P

We used to always order a Souvlaki each and a bowl of chips, but we decided to go for something different this time. A waiter came and asked if we were ready to order after only a minute of giving us the menu - you'd think that's good service but it felt like they were rushing us in and out or something =/ P wanted to order a Mixed Dips - tarama, melitzanosalata, tzatsiki & hommus $9.00 and 2 pita breads $1.70 each.

Mixed dips & pita bread

I knew the dips were pre-served already but it seriously came out half a minute after we put the order in. So I guess the pita breads are warmed up constantly - wouldn't they burn or get hard?! The tzatziki was slightly spicy - was interesting and different to what it normally is like. Not sure what the powder sprinkled over the hommus was - couldn't really taste it. The melitzanosalata was P and my favourite - eggplant! Even though he doesn't like eggplant normally =) The tarama was very tasty too - fish roe =) For some reason the next table's tarama was a lot more orange compared to our pink one - makes me slightly wonder what it's meant to be..

P decided to order from Dimatra's Traditional Home Cooking menu - Lemonato - oven baked lamb with oregano and potatoes in lemon and extra virgin Greek olive oil - entree $16, main $24, all served with a side of bread. I told P he should get an entree size but he said we always order 2 mains and some chips so he ordered a main - massive regret!

Lemonato

By the time we finished our dips and our mains came, we were half full already. This dish was ginormous! The lamb pieces were very tender and quite tasty but it was very oily - though it does say it's in extra virgin Greek olive oil =P and P loves his olive oil! Though P felt a bit sick after eating a little, don't know how Italians can drink olive oil like it's water =/

P was so full he only ate one piece of the bread and left the other 2. I actually think this bread and butter doesn't really go well with the dish or the style of restaurant, you'd expect like a roll or something?

I went for the typical Mixed Souvlaki - combination of lamb and chicken from the spit, crisp lettuce, tomato, onion and homemade tzatziki all rolled in warm pita bread $12.50

Geez it was so big! I couldn't decide if I wanted chicken or lamb so I got the mixed, but then realised it's a strange mix of flavours. The chicken was quite tender but the lamb was quite dry and tough =/ I was a third through the roll when the paper wrapping started to wet and break from the sauce and my souvlaki broke and half the meat fell out =/ It turned out a very messy eating experience. In the end I took the paper off and ate with knife and fork - should have paid extra for an open souvlaki lol.

 So full we couldn't finish our food! And I very rarely leave food I hate wasting =( Next time P really should listen to me =P

Food~
Mixed Dips - 8/10 - all the dips were tasty! Would have been better if the price included the pita breads (who orders dip without bread anyway?!), 'cause now I feel jipped they made me pay for more

Lemonato - 5/10 - I didn't mind this but P didn't like it very much - he said it was too oily for his liking but I thought the lamb was quite tender and tasty

Mixed Souvlaki - 6/10 - was pretty good overall but the lamb meat was really quite tough and dry =(

Atmosphere~
2/5 - quite loud and roudy in there, but what do you expect on a Saturday night =P

Service~
3/5 - very prompt, but like I said, don't know if that's 'cause they want to get us in and out quickly =P When we asked for water they gave us water from a jug on the table which was at room temperature - that was a bit disappointing =(

Probably won't come here for a while - until the next time I need their 24/7 service! =P

C.
xo