Greek and Cypriot food seems to be having a bit of a moment.
Well, that’s at least according to the trend reports I’ve read in work and judging by the number of Greek and Cypriot restaurants that we’ve been to in London lately. During two previous trips we had meals at Oma and Agora and on our most recent visit we tried out Zylia.
Located on the edge of the newly opened Arcade Food Hall in Covent Garden, Zylia bills itself as a “Greek Cypriot taverna” and is one of the city’s hottest new openings in the last few months.
It’s owned by Athenian-born chef Nick Molyviatis, the co-owner of Singburi and former head chef of Kiln, Agora and Oma, alongside Cypriot restaurateur Barry Karacostas.
Zylia’s dining room is pure sunshine vibes with its knick-knack adorned picture rail, woven lampshades, wafts of smoke from the charcoal grill and myriad beers cooling on ice.
Their menu comprises of a mix of mezze, salads and grilled meat and fish. At the bottom end of the grilled meat scale, chicken souvlaki weighs in at £13.50 whilst a sharing beef chop with Corfu sofrito sauce will set you back £68.
A gargantuan bottle of ice cold Keo lager immediately put me in a holiday mood. At £7 for a 630ml bottle, it was belting value for central London too. Mrs G kept things classy with a glass of crisp Three Bowls Assyrtiko (£9.50).
There was a little bit of a wait for starters as the till system had gone down. So, we were brought complimentary olives (£5) – an excellent mix of preserved lemon charged green olives and grown-up savoury black olives.
Next followed a couple of dips, the standout of which was creamy and salty taramosalata (£7) topped with the crunch of carob rusks.
A chunky charred aubergine and pepper dip (£7.50) was a bit subtle on the smoke but it was packed with fresh green herbs.
They were accompanied with a generous basket of very good mixed breads (£6) - pita, flatbread and a sesame loaf, all with a compelling kiss of char.
A Greek salad (£14.50), which included sweet tomatoes and crunchy cucumber and a nuggets of salty and tangy feta cheese, let the quality of the produce do the talking,
Sheftalia (£14), caul fat wrapped pork sausages, were plump and juicy things. The coarsely minced squat sausages sang with green herbs and spices.
Finally, (£15) beautifully tender sweetbread saganaki were sat in an emulsified citrus spiked sauce. Unfortunately, it was a race against time to eat them before the sauce made their crisp crumb soggy.
We were impressed by the summery cooking at Zylia and the rise in popularity of Greek and Cypriot food is a trend that I can most definitely get on board with.
The Details:
Address - Zylia, 6 Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9HZ
Web - https://zyliataverna.com/
Telephone - 020 3837 5719
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