Review: Enjoy a Culinary Adventure Through Cyprus & Greece with Ouzeri’s New Menu
Ouzeri, Cape Town’s trendy Wale Street eatery is delighting hungry customers with new tastes and flavours just in time for the summer holiday season.
Celebrated for its contemporary Cypriot and Greek cuisine, Ouzeri is now serving up a host of exciting new dishes for summer. The new menu remains true to its core of balancing tradition and innovation, by paying homage to the rich culinary heritage of Cyprus and Greece. But, there are also plenty of new bites to experience on the menu, aimed at embracing the bounty of fine South African produce.
To create the new dishes featured on the updated menu, Chef Nic Charalambous has once again drawn from his rich heritage of Cypriot and Greek cuisine. The dishes show a commitment to preserving traditional culinary practices to bring South Africans an authentic taste of Greek and Cypriot cuisine.
With the launch of Ouzeri Charalambous delved into his family recipes, drawing inspiration from recipes passed down through generations and traditional recipes discovered while travelling and interpreting them through his unique modern lens.
This season the chef is once again drawing from his travels and heritage, his most recent trip to these Mediterranean Islands forming the basis for the menu. With this new offering, Charalambous says he paid close attention to how he could further explore the traditional diets of the region, incorporating a diverse array of interesting pulses, grains, and abundant greens into his dishes.
The chef has also doubled down on his dedication to finding the right balance between contemporary and authentic Cypriot Greek cooking, focusing on highlighting the regional cooking of the regions, respecting the history behind it, and then working to bring into focus the different flavour profiles through exemplary local ingredients.
“It has been really exciting for me to learn more and more, and then to pass that knowledge onto the team who then showcase this to our customers. It’s this importance of establishing a connection between the origin of a dish, the landscape, climate, geography and culture, and then also merging that with Cape Town’s own identity,” says Charalambous.
This connection is exemplified in the unique, new dishes on the summer menu. Take for example the Apaki, originating from Crete, which sees mountain herbs used to cure and smoke pork loin. This season the traditional dish has been made with the help of local artisans and producers. The famed Cape Town butcher Richard Bosman is making the Apaki for the restaurant where it is then cooked over wild rosemary from Meuse farm, recreating the flavours of Crete in a truly local sense.
Another great example of this deep connection to the flavours and ingredients is the Gamopilafo, a traditional, celebratory Cretan wedding dish. While traditionally made with mutton, goat, or rooster and finished with goats’ butter, Nic brings his twist to this dish by using the finest lamb and mutton from the Western Cape along with Cream of the Crop’s cultured butter to replicate the taste of the goats’ butter.
If I had to pick a favourite from the new menu, it would be this flavour-packed dish. Every mouthful is an absolute flavour bomb, and I couldn’t get enough of the hearty dish. If you love heartwarming lamb stews, then you will adore this South African take on a traditional staple. It’s got all the markers of the type of dish you would expect at a ‘family gathering’ … but, if your family had a talented chef in its midst.
Looking towards Cyprus, the Skordosxithia, a hyper-seasonal broad bean dish, sees the beans braised in a traditional Cypriot method involving vinegar and garlic, and elevated with chargrilled pork belly glazed with a tangy vinegar sauce.
Another showstopper, the beef tartare, hones in on Central Greece, the local steak served with elements inspired by skordalia which uses walnuts in place of potatoes.
Those who seek the freshness of the sea, will be transported to the sights and scents of Serifos, where aromas of wild fennel fill the air, with the new tuna dish. The fish is briskly charred directly on coals and dressed in a textured charred spring onion salsa. The dish is further enhanced with a sauce of fennel, cucumber, and Ouzeri’s in-house fennel flower vinegar, and finished with a sprinkling of pickled fennel flowers.
Some of my other highlights from the menu included the Anari dumplings with burnt tomato butter, tomato salsa, and oregano as well as the Prawn Savoro starter with Rozendal Hibiscus vinegar, currants, and seasonal leaves. If you love prawns, then this fresh starter will help set the scene for an incredible meal to follow. The Anari dumplings are pure comfort food, and can’t be beat if you’re after something more substantial to enjoy all on your own.
To wash it all down, don’t forget to try an Ouzeri signature cocktail. The Negroni is a must for gin lovers, while the Ouzo Spritz is a refreshing summer sipper that is worthy of any celebration.
Ouzeri’s new menu promises an unforgettable journey through the flavours and memories of Cyprus and Greece, brought to life with the Cape’s finest ingredients, perfect for the summer season. If you’re yet to visit this extraordinary Cape Town restaurant, these new menu offerings are the perfect excuse to finally book a table. The sharing-style menu lends itself to a great night out with a group of friends or even a romantic date for two.
For more information check out the Ouzeri website.
