The legacy that Greek philosopher Aristotle’s left was to the world was in the realm of science, Mathematics, physics, logistics and linguistics. At Aristotle’s restaurant, this restaurant’s philosophy is producing Greek food at its finest. Beautifully and delicately plated food, bursting with flavour, combined with a sophisticated feel of the restaurant and top notch staff, makes you feel like you’re in for a high quality dining experience.
Mary, the experienced owner and manager takes on a role much larger than than that. She architecturally designed contemporary interiors, high ceilings with rope and glass lights, mirrors throughout. She is also evidently hardworking on the floor, greeting the guests, delivering food and checking in on people’s meals. It is a very well run establishment.
Historically, Greek food and dining has been a shared experience and thus, Aristotle’s has its menu with this in mind. There are meze plates, small plates, larger plates, salads and sides. Perfect for a birthday or any celebration, you can also order the very reasonably priced ‘Aristotle’s Table’ banquet with a range of favourites for the whole table.
Our waiter Miguel, quite possibly one of the most engaging waitstaff I have encountered made us feel welcome from the outset, suggesting some options to think about whilst we perused the menu. Miguel helped us select some cocktails from the wide range. There were so many interesting choices named after greek notables, and one in particular even came out decorated in fairy floss. For the non drinkers, you can also get mocktails which looked, and tasted just as good.
I had my eye on some of the menu items and ordered those along with some suggested items. We begun with the seared scallops which we sitting in a shell atop marinated and pickles kohlrabi, with cauliflower purée, fennel and pastourma (air cured dried beef). These were a great combination of flavours.
Then came out the cured hiramasa Kingfish, a beautifully presented plate of cured kingfish with ouzo cucumbers, greek yoghurt, black garlic, lemon, mint and parsley. Delicate flavours and very fresh. After this was one of the highlights, ‘Aristotle’s Haloumi’ which came out in a hot plate to retain the beautiful consistency of the cheese. It was dosed in honey, balsamic, oregano with a topping of walnuts, pomegranates and red grapes – this is quite possibly the best Haloumi we’ve had.
We also got the chargrilled octopus which was well cooked, they boil and then marinate and bbq it. It is nicely styled on the plate with garlic, chili, parsley and preserved lemon.
After this we were deciding whether to order a large plate as they do some ‘greek spag bol’ or spit roasted meats of your choice, however we decided on a few more small plates as we were intent on dessert. From the small plates menu we got the delicately tempura battered zucchini flowers that made the taste of the flowers obvious and sprinkled with grated Kefalotyri cheese, truffled honey and lime. Followed up with our last dishes the Barbequed Cypriot sausages and the Greek Village salad. The sausages came out flaming and seasoned with lemon and tzatiki and it was good to pair with the traditional salad.
We had been very keen for dessert and trusted the advice of the waitstaff, and tried the Walnut Katafi that cane with clotted cream, yogurt sorbet and red fruit. We also had one of my favourite things, the classic loukoumades (or Greek donuts) that were sitting in a bowl with cinnamon honey syrup, walnuts and vanilla bean ice cream.
Overall, this was Greek food at its finest. The ambience was buzzing, lots of guests enjoying their Saturday night and the wait staff made for an extremely pleasant experience.