This restaurant is so freaking awesome.
I cannot think of a more appropriate introduction other than…
YUMMO!!
I dined at Perama with some always-entertaining food blogger friends Maria, Betty, Richard and John. We were looking forward to a great meal at a much applauded restaurant. However, what we got was a blow your socks off experience.
Greek Salad $11.00
We started off with the traditional greek salad. The vegetables were incredibly fresh and crunchy. The feta was creamy and perfectly salty. The tasty olives were my favourite part of the salad.
Mixed Dips: Tzatziki, Split pea, Tarama $13.50
All three dips were fantastic. However, it was the tzatziki dip that I kept coming back for and it was also the first dip to wiped clean from the dish at our table!
Pickled Mushrooms $5.00
The dried shitake mushrooms are pickled in white vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, fennel and coriander seeds. It’s rich woody flavour works impeccably against the pleasantly sour pickling liquid.
Pickled Cabbage $4.00
The pickled cabbage is a genius mixture of zucchini, leek and celery in white vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and garlic. This didn’t seem to be a huge blimp on anyone’s radar, but I absolutely adored it. It must’ve picked up on my love for it, grew legs and sat down next to me.
BBQ Haloumi Cheese $17.20
The char grilled Cypriot haloumi cheese was well liked by my always-beautiful dining companions but was a little too smoky for my tastes. It was also a lot more softer and less salty than the haloumi that I am used to consuming. The dried fig was delicately sweet and was also a burst of dark floral flavour in my mouth.
Cheese Filo Triangles $6.00
The pan fried filo pastries are filled with an exceptional creamy ricotta cheese and a danish white cheese. The pastry was luscious and flaky, whilst the filling was tantalisingly salty.
Vine Dolmathes $6.50
The vine dolmathes are stuffed with a rice and vegetable filling and served warm. The vine leaves were incredibly delicate and came apart very easily. The rice and vegetable stuffing were slightly citrusy and cooked to perfection. I could quite happily eat this everyday!
Pork Belly Baklava $18.00
There was a lot of ‘noise’ about Perama’s pork belly baklava. It is an exquisite stack of flaky filo pastry, pork belly meat, date, pistachio, crispy pork crackling that is drizzled with a date and mastic sauce. This was out-of-this-universe amazing! If you love pork crackling… my guess is that you will adore this.
Fried School Prawns & Calamari $18.50
The lightly floured and deep fried calamari and school prawns are accompanied by a drizzling of lemon ouzo mayonnaise. I have a weakness for deep fried food and this was wonderfully fragrant and very yummy. However, by the time this dish landed on our table I was feeling the effects of a full belly and could only munch on a few knowing that there were a couple more courses to come and dessert.
Lamb Skaras $29.00
Lamb Skaras is slow braised lamb shoulder with oregano, olive oil, wine and garlic. It is then chargrilled with lemon and olive oil. The lamb was incredibly tender but still had a firm texture to it. This was also one of my favourite dishes of the evening.
Stuffed Calamari $31.00
The stuffed calamari is filled with jasmine rice, currants, flaked almonds, mint and prawns. It is served with a tomato, honey and cinnamon sauce. The cinnamon and honey brought a lovely sweet flavour to the tender calamari and the soft rice.
Vegetarian Pastitsio $26.50
The vegetarian pastitsio is layers of pasta, spiced and herbed eggplant and lentils and topped with a bechamel sauce. This is one of those vegetarian dishes where you don’t miss the meat because it is so good!
Bougatsa $13.50 & Caramel Baklava Ice Cream $13.50
The bougatsa is a mandarin flavoured milk semolina custard wrapped in filo. It is warm, sweet and comforting. The pastry is very similar to the cheese filo triangles, except it is dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon.
The caramel baklava ice cream is sliced layers of vanilla bean ice cream, caramel sauce and crumbled baklava. I really loved how this was not sickly sweet and was actually really refreshing.
Ekmek $13.50
The ekmek is a classic dessert dish from the peasants of Byzantine Constantinople. It is a toasted sour dough brioche with a honey syrup and a buffalo clotted cream called kaymaki. It seemed to have been soaked in the honey syrup and was quite sweet. Some of my always-humourous dining companions thought it was too sweet, however I didn’t mind it. If I hadn’t been so full I could have happily eaten the whole thing.
Rice Pudding Thiples $13.50
The rice pudding thiples is a fantastic take on a traditional greek dessert. The fried, honeyed pastry is layered between a mouth-watering creamy rice pudding, crushed walnuts and a warm compote of spiced apples. This was my favourite dessert and I am going to try and replicate this at home.
The verdict
This was a divine dining experience and I cannot recommend this restaurant more highly. We ordered the $50 banquet and an extra dish of the Pork Belly Baklava for an additional $4pp. Vegetarians are well looked after and the restaurant is more than happy for banquet items to be changed. There is also no corkage fee when you order the banquet. This must be the best value banquet in the whole of Sydney!
Here are our favourite dishes:
John – Lamb Skaras and Pork Belly Baklava
Richard – Pork Belly Baklava
Maria – Pork Belly Baklava
Amy – Vine Dolmathes and Pork Belly Baklava
Betty (Vegetarian) – Caramel Baklava Ice Cream
Perama
88 Audley St,
Petersham NSW 2049
Phone: (02) 9569 7534
www.perama.com.au
Opening Times – Tuesday to Saturday from 6:00pm – 10:30pm
Please share this:Tags: bougatsa, Caramel Baklava Ice Cream, Ekmek, greek pork recipes, greek roast lamb recipes, haloumi recipes, Modern European Restaurant, My Favourite Places Eat, Places to Eat that are Always Busy, pork belly, pork belly baklava, Rice Pudding Thiples, Unique places to eat, unique pork belly, Vegetarian Pastitsio, Vine Dolmathe
Comments
Maria
July 11, 2010 at 2:21 pmLove your beautiful photos Amy! We had so much fun, thanks heaps for recommending the place!! xxx
Richard Elliot
July 11, 2010 at 2:31 pmSuch a wonderful evening, the banquet menu was amazing. Looking through your photos there were so many highlights I’m not sure I can be restricted to one any more!
The olives in the Greek salad were great. Did you noticed that they were slashed, but still had their stones in? In my ignorance I’ve no idea why there were cut. Any clues?
The char-grilled haloumi I think was the only dish that divided opinions. The first bit of haloumi I had didn’t have any of the ‘char’ and I actually thought it was a bit bland. The charring brought a lot of flavour, but was perhaps a bit overdone.
Fantastic choice Amy!
mademoiselle délicieuse
July 11, 2010 at 2:55 pmGaaahhh, so this is what I missed out on! Not to worry though, as it definitely rates highly on my to-try list.
john@heneedsfood
July 11, 2010 at 4:18 pmOh that food! THAT GORGEOUS FOOD!! Thanks for a night of food and great company! Richard I think they sometimes slash black olives to help with the pickling process
Karen | C&C
July 11, 2010 at 4:55 pmI’m still recovering from last year’s epic feasts where we had over 30 courses and ate through the whole menu! 🙂
Since then, Perama has become my 2nd home. I simply can’t live without it.
grace
July 11, 2010 at 9:04 pmno doubt about it–you’d have to roll my overstuffed body out of this restaurant…and i wouldn’t regret it for a second. 🙂
OohLookBel
July 12, 2010 at 1:14 pmOh what beautiful fooood! I must get there soon. Your photos are making me droool!
Lisa @ bakebikeblog
July 12, 2010 at 2:38 pmI LOVE Greek food – and this all looks DELISH!!!!!!
angie
July 12, 2010 at 3:26 pmOoo up close and personal shots of the food! Even more droolworthy =p
Helen (grabyourfork)
July 12, 2010 at 9:35 pmI don’t think anyone eats at Perama without waddling on their way out! Always great to share a meal with good friends too 🙂
panda
July 12, 2010 at 9:55 pmi love all the colour and flavours in the dishes!
anyway, just letting you know i’ve awarded you with the ‘sweet blog’ award. when you get a sec, swing by my blog and pass the award along!!
tasteofbeirut
July 13, 2010 at 4:36 amThese shots are beautiful and your Greek restaurant experience sounds like one I would love to live soon!
sweetlife
July 13, 2010 at 11:55 amoh I can understand how these dishes would blow your socks off they look fab!!great pics, glad you had a chance to visit with other bloggers
sweetlife
Iron Chef Shellie
July 14, 2010 at 12:31 pmWOW….. EVERYTHING looks and sounds amazing!! I like the idea of pork belly baklava!
Tina
July 14, 2010 at 9:57 pmWow – your excitement has me all excited…! And <3 all the great pics
Rhonda (TheDaintyBaker)
July 18, 2010 at 11:24 pmThree letters… O.M.G … greek food is the bomb!!! Must try this place out soon!! ps. very cute blog 😉
Rosa
July 19, 2010 at 3:43 pmThose dishes all look fantastic! What a great place to eat.
Cheers,
Rosa
velva
July 20, 2010 at 1:00 pmWhat a wonderful evening. I would love to eat there too! Thanks for sharing it with us.
monica
July 25, 2010 at 12:19 amthe pork belly baklava looked heavenly ! I think that should convince my friends that Greek foods are yummo 😀
betty
July 29, 2010 at 6:18 pmperama was great 🙂 xx