Kafe Meze - West End

With the new season of Green Jam happening in QPAC every Friday, I now find myself hanging around West End around dinner time looking for food on friday evenings. Last week, we decided to get some Greek food for dinner. Having dined at Lefkas, Little Greek Taverna and Zeus, we decided it was time to give Kafe Meze a try.

Situated on Mollison St in the middle of West End foodie precinct, it looks like a refurbished residential house.

We were given a table on the veranda at the back of the house. 

The one page menu consisted of quite a number of very authentic dishes, 

Chilled water was provided to us, and our order was taken shortly after.

Our meal started off with the Keftedes, which are Greek style roasted chicken meatballs. It was slightly tangy in flavour, and not as lemon-y as I would have imagined it to be and it was also very dry. I appreciated the herbs mixed into the meatballs though, it really added some depth to the dish.

We then had three portions of Souvlaki, two chicken and one lamb. It was again not as lemon-y as what I've had at Lefkas or Little Greek Taverna, but at least it was much more moist than the Keftedes. The chicken was far more moist and juicy than the lamb, and I noted that whilst I usually don't mind lamb in Greek food, as the marinades and sauces are so strong as to cover the gamey lamb taste, but in this instance, I found the marinade and herbs had not been sufficient to cover the gamey taste of lamb, which was quite disappointing.

In terms of mains, we shared a portion of Moussaka, was introduced to me as a Greek style eggplant lasagne served with mince and bechamel sauce, and was served with salad and a side of lemon potatoes as well as salad. This is the first instance where I have ever tried Moussaka, so I am not in a position to give much judgment on whether it was good or bad, but I found it to be very mild in taste, potentially like comfort food, and very soft in texture. Perhaps something added to give it a bit of contrast would have made it more enjoyable for me. As with the other dishes, the sides here were very bland, particularly the lemon potatoes, which I enjoy when very strongly seasoned with lemon, like at Lefkas, this made the dish rather disappointing to me.

Our final shared main was the Grilled Ortiki (Quail) served with salad and pita bread. The quail again was grilled to a very dry and tough state despite being very oily, whilst the salad and chips were refreshing.  The pita bread was also quite dry, hard and bland for my taste.

Price Range: $25 - $40 per person

Taste: 4/10

Value: 4/10

Service: 4/10

Environment: 4/10