Xanthi

I was sad that I didn’t win their Instagram competition & get a free meal :(The food is really rich and, from what I’ve been told by my Greek friends, hits the mark for Greek cuisine.
We ordered so many dishes as it was a big group, I can’t actually believe I managed to get pics of everything (yes I was THAT person). My Faves for the night — their coleslaw, yummy bread/​dips & the green/​purple veg that they toss with lemon.

I have been to Xanthi for lunch twice now, on weekends.
The food is magnificent — the menu is seasonal and there is a fantastic variety of dishes. The the last time I visited we chose to have sharing plates, breads, only one of us having a main course. The friend chose the duck, which was lovely, but very small, however the waitperson DID say that it was a small serve. It came with cooked pears. She could have had a side dish of vegetable or salad but chose not to as we had shared our entrée-​style selection with her.
We tasted as many of the small dishes as possible. The dolmades, okra, polenta chips, tasty sesame coated balls, lamb in filo pastry, etc. Each dish was delicious, hot and enough to share between four (or five).
The final cost was very reasonable for the four of us, including two glasses of wine, about $ 20 per head.
Our duck-​eating companion paid about $ 35 including tip.
The nice thing is that you can see chefs and kitchen staff working on meals. I quite like the open-​kitchen effect. It is an interesting feature.
All our waitstaff were lovely & efficient except for one who was a bit out-​of-​sorts.
The décor is nice, has a good atmosphere, quite exotic. There is a section outside the restaurant too which looks inviting.
I have it on good authority that this restaurant has evolved from a very successful predecessor in the suburbs. I wish them well.
I would go again any time.

SETTING: I came here for the Chef’s Club promotion, available Tuesday nights through the month of July 2012. The $ 30 special started in June, I believe, but was different last month — a standard entrée-​main-​dessert package. This month, $ 30 buys you a generous assortment of what Westfield’s website describes as Chef David Tsirekas’ «signature Greek Cha.» What makes the Greek Cha «signature?» Unclear, since «Greek Cha» isn’t an option on Xanthi’s regular menu, but maybe they’re referring to some of the dishes served.
FOOD: The bites on offer included (with regular menu prices where offered in some form as a stand-​alone dish):
Greek salad ($ 13) — aged feta, chunky tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers and kalamata olives. This Mediterranean standard bearer came to the table underdressed and slightly bland, but I preferred that to it being overdressed (true of many things in life, probably). I came back to it in alternate bites to cut through the richness of the other dishes.
Tarama and pita bread ($ 8) — tarama, I’ve learned, is a dip made of salted and cured salmon roe with pureed potato, garlic and lemon juice. Eerily pink from the roe, the tarama tasted much better than it looked. Surprisingly mild and not too briny, it reminded me of a light salmon whipped mousse. The pita bread performed the carbs role adequately, though it was quite doughy, and almost underbaked.
Spinach and feta pie ($ 16) — spinach and feta cheese, encased in a filo pastry roll. My order came with two. The spinach cheese filling was great, though the pastry-​to-​filling ratio was a bit high. It’s an easy fix to tear some of the excess pastry off.
Fried school prawns — far and away, my favorite of the group. The baby shrimp were fried and thus could be eaten whole — no labor-​inducing, slightly sadistic prawn beheadings tonight. What made the dish unique was the use of a honey-​based fish sauce to coat the prawns, which gave the dish a sweet kick to offset the salty prawns. Almonds added another crunchy texture.
BBQ haloumi cheese ($ 13) — my serving came with 2 grilled haloumi slices and diced honey peppered figs. The cheese was firm and generally fine, if a bit overly salty from a mysterious olive purée addition. The fig was delicious.
BBQ octopus ($ 14) — a plate of chopped octopus served with a roasted red pepper, onion, tomato and cayenne pepper sauce. The sauce was tangy, sweet, and lovely. The octopus could have been more tender (achievable with a long braise), but was probably the best you can get from a grilled preparation. It was definitely eatable and reasonably tasty.
Lamb chops — the only major miss of the night. The chops were way overcooked and nearly impossible to chew. The tzatziki sauce that accompanied the dish was very bland.
Patsavoura ($ 14) — bunched up filo pastry soaked in honey syrup, with a cinnamin and clove nut filling, and served with a dollop of cream. This dessert was a good, light finish, and wasn’t overly sweet.
SERVICE: The restaurant was busy because of Chef’s Club, but there were too many misses to ignore. I never spoke to my waiter again after I placed my order — not even to order a drink, which he said he would come back for. I did spot him later in the evening, drying off wine glasses — a priority, clearly. The timing of food service was also off. Nearly all of the dishes came to the table within seconds of each other. I actually had to tell one of the servers to instruct the kitchen to slow things down. The kitchen earns plaudits for speed, but the result of all the dishes coming at once is that many will get cold before I even get a chance to try them. Finally, I sat around for 15 minutes after finishing my dessert because my server disappeared for the rest of the night, and the other staff didn’t bother to check in with me to see if I wanted or needed anything else (the bill would have been nice).
VALUE: Here’s where Xanthi makes up for the lackluster service, at least with Chef’s Club. I was worried about the portion sizes before hand, but I shouldn’t have been. Every dish except dessert could have fed two people. Likely, I was served the equivalent for two persons partaking (maybe they did had to do this to make the dishes minimally presentable). A great value nevertheless.
RATING: 3.5 stars, but I’m rounding it up to 4 because of the $ 30 pp price, a steal for a fine dining experience at Westfield.

Absolutely beautiful food… too bad about the service.
Excellent interiors, wonderful atmosphere and inside the restaurant it is nice and small and not too noisy. The perfect place for a celebratory dinner.
We ordered the set menu with the option of the spit roast, we chose lamb of course, along with three other dishes from the tapas style menu. The pork belly is to die for, all I remember was a lot of naughty sounds as everyone was eating the pork belly baklava.
However, we did not receive the grilled octopus and they ran out of lamb on the spit roast. They offered us a replacement meal, we chose the quail but it wasn’t quite the same as spit roast lamb.
The whole meal took over three and a half hours, which is typical of a traditional Greek feast but it was just way too long between courses.
They also managed to bring us the wrong wine and after waiting 30 minutes for our Greek coffees that we ordered before dessert, we decided to cancel the order and call it a night.
Our experience at Xanthi could have been a lot better if the service was up to scratch. While the staff were lovely and apologetic, it was just one too many mistakes for one night.

The Inner West’s loss was the city’s gain, when chef David Tsirekas closed Perama early last year, and opened his new restaurant Xanthi, on level 6 of Westfield Sydney.
The décor of the restaurant has a distinct Turkish feel, with royal blue glass lanterns, luxurious draped fabrics, and colourful rugs covering booth seating.
My group and I decide to share the Lunchtime Express Menu, which at $ 30 pp, including a glass of wine, beer or soft drink (note all wines served are Greek wines), provides great value.
The Menu:
Dips selection — Tarama, Split Pea and Tzatziki
Greek salad
BBQ Haloumi
Peppered Figs
Fried Calamari
Lamb Skaras
Caramel Baklava Ice Cream
The food and the service were both excellent. Some of our favourite dishes were the Haloumi, which I can never go past, and the Lamb which literally melted in your mouth. Oh, and the Caramel Baklava Ice Cream was divine! There was a lot of food — we were certainly not hungry by the time we finished our meal. The dishes were also served quite fast, so it’s perfect if you’re in a hurry, or needing to get back to work.
I love Xanthi and will certainly return.

Gorgeously decorated with luxurious curtains, mosaic tiles and brightly coloured glass lamps, Xanthi sets the bar high before the food even comes out, but it does not disappoint.
Our group of 10 ordered the lunchtime express menu, which left us sated and satisfied. For $ 30 we were treated to all the staples — the amazing haloumi (complimented perfectly with figs and a squeeze of fresh lemon), vine dolmathes, crisp calamari and lamb skaras.
However, the climax of the meal was the caramel baklava ice cream, which was the perfect combination of creamy ice cream and crunchy nuts, and oozing with thick caramel sauce.

Entry is through a little tiled crack in the wall, which for some reason reminded me of the 300 Spartans protecting the Hot Gates from the invading Persians. That’s relevant, I promise you. .. because Xanthi is a Greek tapas restaurant. Sparta. .. Greece. .. yeah? Fine, I’m man enough to admit that’s tenuous at best.
So, the highlights package:
— The hostess seeing we were a table of guys and offering to introduce us to the table of girls next to us. I genuinely appreciate match-​making in my wait staff. It shows they care, y’know? Either that or they just like seeing blokes get shut down.
— The BBQ haloumi. Ye cats! Drizzle of lemon and bam, oral orgasm.
— Salt & pepper calamari (proper, thick cut, irregular pieces) with an entire crumbed, fried onion surprise buried in the sizzling bowl.
— Stunningly coarse/​rough-​chopped pork meatballs. (Call me petty, but I enjoy being able to see every single ingredient in my meal without taking someone I don’t know’s word that it’s in there. SCREW YOU, I DON’T HAVE TRUST ISSUES.)
— Flash-​fried school prawns. Yeah, I cut the heads off. I’m adventurous, but not that adventurous. I’ll take a Segway over a skateboard every time. It’s just as thrilling, only safer.
The cost? $ 70/​head with generous helpings of a damn fine sauv blanc.

Booked a dinner with three friends, all of us great fans of Perama. All of us foodies, one a chef. We were prepared for things to be different but not for the quality of the food to have taken such a fall.
First off they tried to seat us in one of the booths they’ve squeezed into a corridor. The table and booth chairs are so close together we would have spent the meal with the table digging into our bellies, so we refused. We’d booked weeks ago but we ended up on bar stools out in the shopping centre with pounding bass music coming from behind us. Staff were apologetic but offered us nothing to try to make up for it at this stage. Never mind, we were there for a great night of David Tsirekas’ delicious food and our company, so we weren’t put off by this.
We ordered the banquet with dolmades, haloumi and zucchini fritters, then the legendary pork belly baklava and lamb skaras. Dips came out first and we were disappointed that the tzatziki has changed. The consistency is now much moister, no longer hung in muslin for two days as it was. The dolmades were good but lacked the acidic punch they used to have, and the zucchini fritters were larger and softer than the crunchy little morsels they once were. The generous basket of bread was gone, replaced by five small slices for the four of us, an awkward serving.
However the wine was good, the cocktails delicious (try the drunken cucumber) and the company fine, so we were not in a negative frame of mind until the pork belly baklava arrived. For starters, it’s not a baklava anymore, more of a barek or bougatsa. At this stage we all started to wonder if there was some salt shortage because the pork and the crackling were almost totally unseasoned. You would hit the occasional big piece of salt but otherwise it was sickeningly sweet and bland. The crackling was more like packet pork rinds than the thin, flavor packed square it used to be. The filo was not crisp except on the bottom which was so thick it was hard to cut. The ‘baklava’ was so sweet and stodgy that one of us couldn’t finish it. The restaurant manager came to enquire how we were going and we politely expressed our disappointment in the lack of seasoning etc. She was concerned but hoped the lamb would be better.
Alas, no. All the ingredients were there but again, where was the salt? It was meltingly tender, the beans were crisp and flavourful, the potatoes soft and delicious, but the dish had never seen a flake if salt in its existence. The lamb also had some large fatty bits, which is a delicious indulgence if well seasoned, and rather nauseating if not. Stricken, we asked the bar staff for salt and were immediately given a small bowl of it (the existence of a line of these bowls made us suspect we were not the first to have this issue). This improved matters, but there’s a big difference between meat cooked with salt on it and meat with it only sprinkled on afterwards.
The restaurants manager returned and was very concerned that the salt drought continued. She offered us another dish but we were pretty full so we accepted a dessert wine instead, which was a honeyed sauterne of Greek origin and quite delicious.
The caramel baklava ice cream was good but the final disappointment of the night was the bougatsa. Stuffed with sweet semolina we struggled to find another flavour in it. We spotted a passionfruit pip and a piece of unidentifiable orange flesh but we couldn’t detect any fruity flavour at all.
We settled the bill ($ 70 a head) and flexed to get the blood flowing after sitting on the bar stools for so long. We were sad that a great restaurant had disappeared into a shopping centre and become so mediocre. From a tiny kitchen which once served up the most delicious, innovative Greek food in Sydney, it is now a much larger, impressive-​looking open kitchen that serves food that can be bettered in any local Greek taverna. Such a pity.

This place rocks. The food is phenomenal, wait staff are chatty, and the sommelier excellent. There was 2 of us and we had a ridiculous amount of food (that we couldn’t finish) and a bottle of wine for $ 70/​head. I’m sure you’d get away a bit cheaper in larger groups — we ordered too much because we wanted to taste everything.
I can’t recommend anything in particular because it is all spectacular. Also, book ahead. And despite the fact that it was busy, it was very quiet.

Having been big a big fan of Perama, I booked a table for Sunday lunch at Xanthi.
Wonderful food, very helpful sommelier and lovely wait staff (nice to see familiar faces from Perama days).
We ordered the pickled cabbage, dolmathes, fried school prawns, pork belly baklava, goat from the spit and greek salad. I have to admit it was way too much food for 2 people, but there were too many things we wanted to try, it was hard enough to just stop there.
Everything was delicious, I can’t wait to go back and try everything else on the menu!
* Note: If you want to get in on a Friday/​Saturday night, the wait staff mentioned that they are now consistently booked out 4 – 6 weeks in advance. I can understand why!