In true Greek style, on a Sunday The Dolli offers their interpretation of ‘The Sunday Table’- What a great idea. A lunch spread so beautifully prepared, technically a buffet, but unlike regular mass-produced ones, low in quality, I wanted to eat everything I saw laid out on this one. Greek cuisine is Mediterranean and normally naturally healthy, which is also a winner- You can eat lots of nutritious food, still being interested and not feeling like you are a prisoner, held hostage and only forced to take the quinoa and cucumber sticks to dip into some humus. (Humus I do love by the way) What I am trying to say is this- The Greek food repertoire is varied and delicious but also good for you at the same time. Olive oil is in charge, lemon sauce, – You will see it paired with fish everywhere as a go-to sauce. The Greeks do not feel the need to destroy their dishes with copious amounts of butter, it is not in their DNA.
This is what I saw at the table- Vibrant salads, multiple Mezze options (part of the furniture) Fruits de mer, served on ice and all looking like super products. This and more, there is choice, a lot of options but still small enough to deliver quality overall. I ordered some dumplings and prawn tempura, but they were stone cold- Was this the intention? I understood that it might not be achievable today to serve them hot, but I couldn’t get on board with cold dumplings or cold tempura. This was one of the weak areas where they were not ‘cooking them to order.’ Or they did and left them sat to get cold. I don’t know the answer so I can’t tell you that unfortunately.
The langoustine from the fruits de mer was ridiculously fresh, sweet, subtle, and tasting of the sea. I took a little bit of everything from the table: tzatziki as standard, feta cheese, olives, a couple of Greek pies, salad, and lots of different Greek dips. It was all super.
It was going so well so I decided to treat myself to a dessert in the day (Only normally reserved for the evening on weekends) I was in an indulgent mood. The chocolate fondant was made to a good standard, with chocolate sauce on the side, ice cream and some edible gold (which doesn’t bring anything), plus some caramelised popcorn, (Could have done with a few more of those) All in all, it was a satisfying end to the meal.
For our dinner on a Sunday night, normally we like to eat ‘junk food’ or street food. Our go-to is the weekly Sunday burger wherever we are. But I wanted a Souvlaki badly; I was craving it so I asked the chef if he wouldn’t mind doing this for us. I stupidly didn’t get a photograph of it, and it was the tastiest thing we ate at The Dolli. The meat on this was lean, quite juicy, decent size cubes sat on top of homemade pitta bread (They even made one gluten free) it came with a couple of sauces and oh my god, it was just so satisfying for our Sunday night meal. I was wolfing this down not paying attention to how I must have looked eating it! Like an animal devouring its prey… They made us a good one. Thank you chef. Don’t you just love Sundays? I hope they continue to show us how Sundays are done at The Dolli.
