Ziziki's Taverna - Opa!

The Foodie Adventures Trio, aptly nicknamed the “taste buds” by one of our favorite followers, decided to check out Ziziki’s Taverna in Addison for our latest review. We had seen Ziziki’s at the 2010 Taste Addison Festival and heard really great things about their hummus, so when it was time for our next adventure we were all really excited to try it.

The décor is homey yet modern and the patio area looks like a lot of fun for the summertime. We were seated immediately and after taking our drink orders, the waitress brought over a small saucer with a handful of kalamata olives and some bright green olives that are imported from Sicily. Man – if you like olives, these will rock your world. They aren’t pitted and while I normally hate having to nibble around the seed, I actually liked it better that way. It made me feel like I was somewhere on the Mediterranean coast eating olives freshly picked from the surrounding trees. While the olives were delicious, buyer beware: you only get one tiny saucer of free olives for your table, so you better savor these little salty trinkets or be prepared to shell out a few extra bucks. That may not be a big deal, but we thought you should know :)

For our appetizer we ordered the Trio Platter, that way we could maximize our exposure. It came with artichoke hummus, eggplant spread, tarama and grilled pita. Luckily our waitress asked if we wanted to substitute hipiti dip for the tarama. She explained that tarama is a Mediterranean caviar spread and hipiti is a spicy roasted red bell pepper and Feta cheese spread.  Which one do YOU think sounds better? No brainer, right? We did the switch and were very glad. The artichoke hummus was awesome – tangy but not overly tart, the eggplant dip was really creamy and had excellent flavor and the hipiti dip tasted like greek pimento cheese (for all you southerners out there!). They didn’t give us a ton of pita bread with our trio upfront and after the olive situation we assumed we would have to pay for more pita…..but as it turns out we didn’t! You can totally have more pita bread – as much as you want! Yuuummmmmy.

For our entrees, Britney and Haley split the greekburger (ground leg of lamb char-broiled topped with cheese, lettuce and tomato) which came with roasted potatoes and I ordered the chicken souvlaki (skewered medallions of herbed chicken breast, served on hand made pita topped with onions and Ziziki sauce) which also came with roasted potatoes. The greekburger was perfectly cooked and seasoned, and the roasted potatoes were crispy and extremely flavorful. The cheese on the burger happened to be the hipiti dip from the appetizer trio, and instead of a bun the burger was sandwiched between the grilled pita bread.

The chicken souvlaki was awesome as well. The chicken skewers had a ton of Greek flavor and the Ziziki sauce was the perfect compliment. I made it into a pita wrap and it was delicious.  In addition to my potatoes, there was also a little salad of pickled red onion, herbs and feta which rocked and was an awesome topper for my wrap.

By the end of the meal we were seriously stuffed. Britney even gave me half her greekburger to take for lunch the next day – thanks Brit! While Ziziki’s Taverna is a tad bit pricy, we LOVED it! We will definitely go back and we recommend it to everyone with a love of Greek cuisine. I can’t wait to go back and am still dreaming of those green Sicilian olives……vision of olives dancing in my head…..opa!

http://www.zizikistaverna.com/

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