Frosoulla’s

Not been here in a while so decided to check it out again last night.
The staff were really pleasant and accommodating and made us feel welcome even though we booked very late in the day for 9.30pm. We got 3 starters between 4, the dolmades were delicious, the kelftedes and calamari were also good.
The main courses were decent, although there was confusion with one of our groups order which meant she had to wait on her main course. Maybe it’s because it was the end of the night, but could have been avoided and sauce for 2 of the other main courses was also forgotten. I had a halloumi kebab but there wasn’t that much halloumi, although it was tasty with a Greek side salad and roasted veg.
Not been as good as previous, although wouldn’t write off. I feel that perhaps the kitchen were rushing to close hence the mistakes but the front of house were not.
³⁄₅

Twas Ladies’ Night and three of us decided to live on the edge and try a cuisine never sampled before at Frosoulla’s. This restaurant is just around the corner from my flat, and I’ve spent the entire time I lived in Battlefield meaning to try this place out (even before, when they were the Greek Golden Kebab). Something always got in the way, but this time I managed to actually get through the doors without something else coming up! Huzzah!
To be clear, this is my first Greek restaurant experience, so while I know about Greek food as a whole from a home cooking perspective, I’m not sure what’s traditionally on offer at a restaurant.
While two of us awaited the third member of our dining party (read ‘pig-​out brigade’), we turned convention of its head and had the coffee-​based cocktails at the start of our meal rather than at the end. What rebels! They were warm and tasty, and very welcome on a cold evening.
We weren’t waiting too long, just enough time to finish our drinks and order up. We flirted with a shared mezzedes menu, but we couldn’t agree so just ordered separately. For starters I had the manitaria gemista, which was stuffed mushrooms with feta cheese and herbs coated in breadcrumbs, deep fried. These were tasty, though one of my friends got the falafels and I found myself lusting after them.
For the main, I ordered the kleftiko, which was listed as the House Speciality. This was a large piece of tender slow cooked lamb with herbs, and I ordered this served with potatoes (though the option for rice was there). Now, although the menu described it as large, I wasn’t quite prepared for how large! The serving was very generous indeed, and I had trouble finishing. It was so tender, and the meat fell away from the bone so easily. I’d definitely have it again, though may consider skipping starters next time.
Finally, pushing the boundaries of our bloated tummies, after a bit of a break we opted to have dessert! I had paklava and ice cream, and the other two ordered the sticky toffee pudding. It was a super tasty treat, though I sorely regretted it later when I had the food baby waddle all the way home!
Now, as for service… we were in the restaurant midweek and at first we were the only people in the upstairs area. In spite of this, we found that the service was slower than we’d have expected. In fact, a second group came in after all three of us were seated, and their orders were taken first, and their food also arrived before ours. We were also left to our own devices for quite a while after the food was finished… while we like that we weren’t being rushed, we had to wait quite a while to get our bill. Not a big deal, we were chatting and having a good time, but it may have been problematic if we’d been in a rush. The staff were friendly and chatty, though, so I find it easier to forgive.
All in, I would definitely be back. Just a few niggly bits, but I’m not sure that was typical of a normal evening. To a future visit! ^^

Frosoulla’s is the recently spritzed version of the much lauded Greek Golden Kebab in Battlefield. I had been meaning to go there for years, but the limited opening hours and its location always meant I chose somewhere else. They have now converted the old restaurant into a Greek deli, and opened this new, more conveniently open place across the road.
The interior is a quite classy-​looking black, but is slightly diminished by cheap-​looking placemats and cutlery. I’m being pedantic though, it’s comfortable and intimate, and the music when we were there was an innocuous enough mix of old style Hollywood, Greek, and 80’s «classics». The guy serving us was perfectly pleasant, though almost too offhand and laid back. We liked the menu options, and for once there was plenty on the lunch (Sunday Roast) menu to keep us from going a la carte. It was £12.95 for three courses, unfortunately two was not an option. Dammnnnn! :)
We decided on the courses Meat Keftedes to start for us both, then Beef Stifado for me. For my third course I chose Triple Choc Fudge Cake, all washed down with a couple of bottles of Mythos of course.
We were quickly tucking in to our keftedes, and they were a bit unusual. They weren’t nasty, but they were overly soft and strangely moist — as in too delicate — and lacking in herbs. I’m no expert, but my partner is Turkish and they cook virtually identical dishes and she confirmed that they were just not right. The accompanying salad was overdressed and mostly soggy.
Not an auspicious start really, the mains however were much better, my stifado had been oddly morphed into a steak pie with the addition of a puff pastry crust, but it was a large portion with extra rice, too much in fact. It was an amazingly rich sauce and was up there with the best stifados I’ve had, regardless of the end of a piece of meat that had obviously stuck to the pan. I had to help my partner with a couple of her roast potatoes and they were excellent, crisp on the outer, fluffy on the inner. Great!
And to finish another slight disappointment, the triple chocolate fudge cake, well it wasn’t, it was a light chocolate sponge with a rich chocolate top. The whole thing could have been a two, but I will give a three on the basis of the very credible mains. Not bad, but definitely not the standard I expected.

This is my 1^st visit to the new Frosoullas restaurant, formally the Greek Golden Kebab across the road, on Sinclair Dr. There had been talk of a new last visit to the Greek Golden Kebab a few years ago. I have to admit I was a wee bit saddened that the old place would be going, as it was like going back in time to 1970’s and there was a quaint kitsch charm about the old place. But progress waits for no man, so I guess it was time for me to move on, or just across the road in this case.
I have to admit I was skeptical that the food would the same, in this new swish tiled new purpose built two floored restaurant. I am happy to report the food, was exactly the same as I remember, from the old place.
For starters we had:
Salt & pepper calamari — £5.35
Tender rings of deep fried calamari in a light crispy salt and pepper batter. Served with fresh lemon wedges
A large portion for a starter. The calamari was cooked well crispy, not greasy and no rubbery texture to the meat, it was served with a salad, dressed with a nice vinaigrette and a garlic mayonnaise type dip. Only minor thing, and I’m really nitpicking, was it had one lemon slice, but it needed a wedge, as described in the menu. All in all a good starter.
Manitaria Gemista (V) — £4.95
Stuffed mushrooms with fetta cheese and herbs. Coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried until crispy
I was between this and the keftedes, which I’ve had before. I was happy I went with this one. The portion was also large, 5 large mushrooms served with the same dressed salad, as the calamari. I marked it down slightly as the filling had burst out of the bottom of most of them, when it was served. However this wasn’t enough to spoil the taste. The feta didn’t overpower the mushrooms and each individual component of the dish worked well together. Out of the two starters this was the best.
On to the mains:
All the char grill items come served with a choice of chips potatoes or rice, being the cultured devils we are, we both opted for chips.
Mixed kebab — £12.95
Large skewer of tender chicken and lamb pieces, marinated in house herbs, olive oil and lemon.
A skewer of lamb and chicken served with the same salad as we got with the starters, pitta bread, chips and tzatziki. I was a bit disappointed with the meat here, both the lamb and the chicken where dry and needed more spices. My wife asked for some of the red wine sauce, that was served with the Adana kebab, which the staff dually obliged at no extra cost. This really helped lift this dish, and maybe they should serve this a standard as it made a big difference. I probably wouldn’t order this again.
Adana Kebab — £12.95
Middle-​eastern lamb kofte patties served on hot pitta bread and smothered with our house roasted tomato and greek makedonikos red wine sauce and topped with a dollop of creamy tzatziki.
This was delicious! 5 lamb patties served on strips of pitta and coated in a red wine sauce and topped with tzatziki and two dark olives. Also served with chips and our now familiar dressed salad. The patties had a deep meaty taste, and not dry like the skewers of the mixed kebab. The red wine was a perfect foil for the patties and the topping of tzatziki helped it along nicely. The strips of pitta under the patties strangely worked for me. All in all this was the star of the show, I could have had this as a starter and a desert.
Ive not got much of a sweet tooth so, just my wife ordered, so I could annoyingly taste hers when it arrived.
She opted for a Greek mix, which was a combination of the two below desserts costing £4.20.
Kataifi — £3.95
Shredded, angel hair filo pastry stuffed with nuts and drizzled with honey syrup, served with ice cream
Paklava — £3.95
Crispy filo pastry layered with nuts and drizzled with honey syrup. Served with cream or ice cream.
The Kataifi was reminiscent of shredded wheat with a nutty filling. A bit dry, but not bad, but paled in significance compared to the Paklava. A crunchy, nutty, syrupy delight served with ice cream and two dollops of squirty cream. One of our friends ordered a fully serving of Paklava, and I have to say it was much bigger than the two portion in the greek mix. If you’re a grubber like me, I would opt for one of the full portion desserts instead of this option.
The rest of the group opted for sticky toffee pudding and apple pie. All of which I tasted, and would some up in one word generic. I would defiantly order a full portion of Paklava the next time.
Overall, the food was good. They need to vary up their salads a bit, maybe serve a cabbage based salad with the kebabs. And work of their skewer kebab seasoning more flavor please.
The new restaurant is nice enough a wee bit like a tile shop show room, but not offensive enough to put me off coming back.

I really want to like this place, but feel that there are small things that are missing or could be said to give a better customer experience.
This is still a pretty new place and I’m sure over time things will change and a little more character will add to the restaurant.
I enjoyed the food here and would consider it very good value for money the staff are nice, but the restaurant lacks in that personal touch, on the stairs there where family pictures from an older restaurant but there where no captions underneath, you would never know the story behind them.

Before tonight I could only think of humus and feta cheese is you mentioned Greek foods… after tonight I wish that was all I could think of.
So, despite the previous reviews, I’m gonna pour scorn buckets over this (A&J style). I really, really, really, wanted to like this place. so much so, that was not going to leave a review at all rather than leave a negative. If I was just reviewing the staff or the service alone it would have been a comfortable 3 or 4 stars, but the food tonight was a severe let down.
I’m not a «foodie» and wouldn’t consider myself a great cook, but when out and the food being served is below par for my own low standards it’s never gonna be a good start…
Being so close to where I live I was hoping to find a «regular» haunt, but alas, the search continues. As mentioned before, the folk here were super friendly and couldn’t fault the service. But the meal I had (the lamb special with fragrant rice) was dry, bland and over cooked. The starters were greasy and uninspired. The portions were massive but fortunately we weren’t that hungry. The place itself was very busy and the atmosphere good so hoping ours was a one off.
We will be back for a second review… iust not any time soon.

–Excellent service, reasonably priced food and drinks. Large portions.
–Oh, and excellent company
I’ve been using Unilocal since February 2013 and have found it to be a very useful source when I’m out and about on the lookout for somewhere to have a coffee or grab a bite.
With that in mind, I thought it high time that I actually met some of the good folks behind the opinions that have steered me right when I was a wee bit lost. I missed out on the last shindig, so I was pleased to get the chance to pop over to the other side of the river for a wee Greek Night.
Friday, 7:30pm, 34 Sinclair Drive, the restaurant formerly known as ‘The Greek Golden Kebab’.
Well, the odd turn of the century décor aside, the restaurant is very cosy and a pleasant place to eat. There were nine of us and we were directed to a long banquet seat, running from the upstairs entrance to the window.
Whilst four of our crew chose the mese –definitely not for the faint-​hearted — the others went for the more conservative starter/​main course combo.
The starters were the usual Greek dips — taramasalata, humus, tahini and tzatziki. The mese munchers were treated to a selection in reasonably sized portions of each. They were kind enough — or just couldn’t finish it all on their own — to allow us a wee taste of each. They were definitely home made and all very tasty, with the notable exception of the taramasalata, which was just far too salty.
Alas, that was the starter I’d opted for. Well, Goldilocks and the Three Bears comes to mind. Think of the biggest, daddy bear bowl of porridge you can imagine and you’ve got the picture. We’re talking HUGE. Did I mention that it was super-​salty?
The mese looked amazing. And so much of it! They just kept bringing it on. Incredible value for just under £19. Honestly, unless you’re absolutely ravenous, you won’t be able to do it justice.
I wimped out and chose the Stifado. Delicious! I was a bit thrown by the puff-​pastry topping, but the slow-​cooked beef melted in your mouth… Mmm! Team mese, whilst still capable of conversation, were starting to flag. Let’s face it, they were working their way through a week of calories and the annual salt allowance of a South African Miner in one sitting.
The beer was reasonably priced too at around £3 a bottle. I didn’t check, but I’m sure the same will apply to the wine. They were also very happy to supply you with cool tap water with ice.
Definitely a thumbs up for Frosoulla’s.

For International Food Night #2, Rocco G suggested we visit the famous South Side Greek restaurant, Greek Golden Kebab. Sadly, after some 40 years it closed two weeks before our outing and opened over the road under the new name Frosoulla’s.
It’s a nice space with a small amount of seating downstairs and then a larger dining area upstairs. There is a high ceiling with chandeliers, lots of black and white — it’s modern, but still a bit outdated at the same time, more like the early-​2000 idea of modern. Anyway, it’s unoffensive so not really a big deal.
There was a large table of 9 of us and we were seated along the wall on bench seating. Bench seating is such a pain where there’s a large group, I kind of wish that places wouldn’t do it. Especially when it’s sweltering hot and you stick to the seat as well. I had a look over the menu, which is really long and features a lot of options as well as a mezze (4 course meal). I couldn’t face that much food after a long, hot day coming back from London so I went for taramasalata as a starter (with pita) then a chicken shis kebab and a side of halloumi.
The taramasalata was an incredibly generous portion — honestly, far too generous for one person to eat on their own. I’m going to guess and say it was the size of a tub you’d buy in a supermarket, something like 200g worth. It was obviously made in-​house though, as the flavour was really strong and fishy, verging on too salty but thankfully more palatable with the bread.
For main, I was impressed by the shis kebab which was again, a huge portion served on a massive plate with rice as well as tzatziki. The kebab had chicken as well as peppers on it and the chicken was juicy and succulent even though the pieces were massive. I was very impressed (but alas, I couldn’t eat it all!).
The halloumi wasn’t great, it was a lot more chewy than how I cook it at home. I like mine to have a crispy outside and soft inside, whereas this seemed more like it was lightly grilled. I also ordered a cocktail which was a huge disappointment — firstly, it didn’t even taste alcoholic, and it looked like a really sad mojito. It tasted more like soda water than anything else, and I could see the grains of sugar floating around and not mixed in properly. So be warned, this is not a place for cocktails even if they do seem like really good prices.
I liked visiting this new south side place, I wish I had been able to see what Greek Golden Kebab was like before it closed but at least I know you can get a lot of food here for a pretty good price.