3 /5 Jackie McMillan: (3.5 stars)
Looking out over the manicured green lawns of Bexley Golf Club, the Aegean 2.0 feels like a holiday in regional NSW. A DJ is setting up a minimal lighting rig at the edge of the parquetry dance floor. There’s a man selling tickets to a multi-tray meat raffle. Despite the club setting, we’re seated by an affable host who asks whether we want to be “in the thick of it” or on a quiet edge. Most tables are sized for groups, and, with the menu offering a good value Greek banquet ($49/head), it lends itself to group dinners. Drinks are cheap too: bottles of wine start in the low thirties. At the top end, the Pikes Riesling ($57) has a sharpness that suits Greek cuisine.
Food comes out almost immediately. The first wave is dips—taramasalata, fava and tzatziki—with hot pita and a Greek salad that shows off great produce. Resplendent with garlic and dill, the tzatziki is an easy favourite. It extends to suit the next wave of dishes, where crisp zucchini fritters with soft wet interiors join dolmathes, spanakopita—done like a flatbread quesadilla—and pan-fried halloumi. It was no drama to get the kitchen to switch out salt and pepper squid and fried prawns for fat tentacles of barbequed octopus with lemon and olive oil.
Hot on their heels, our mains arrived, draped over perfectly cooked lemon potatoes. Two skewers of chicken souvlaki were balanced on tender slices of roast pork and soutzoukakia. The latter are a Greek and Turkish dish of lean lamb meat balls flavoured with cumin and garlic, generally served with a spicy tomato sauce. Portions are generous but, after a bit of ribbing for not eating it all, takeaway containers are happily supplied.