Richard Bath revisits a Greek institution in Edinburgh and finds it in rude health.
For over a decade Spitaki, hidden away at the end of a suburban street where Canonmills meets the New Town, has been one of my pescetarian daughter’s favourite restaurants (her favourite foods are Indian, Greek and Mexican, in that order).
Although my favourites are Italian, French and Thai, teenage travels through the islands and Peloponnese peninsula means that I’ve always appreciated authentic Greek cuisine, so was delighted to revisit this popular little neighbourhood taverna.
Spitaki is a properly relaxed, pretension-free family restaurant that was founded by brothers-in-law Christos Bampalis and Davey Hastings, along with their partners, twin sisters Nina and Clare (see if you can spot the Scot).
It remains a family affair, with Nina and Clare running front of house, Davey doing logistics and admin, and Christos heading up the kitchen. Just to further reinforce family ties, Clare and Nina’s mum prepares the desserts.
As you’d expect with a kitchen run by a Greek, the menu is a collection of small plates of classic meze and authentically Greek dishes which cost between £5.25 and £11.50.
The recommendation was to order three dishes each, so we opted for the htipiti (grilled spicy pepper with feta – £5.50), gigantes (butter beans in a tomato sauce – £7.50), bougiourti (baked feta, chilli, tomato, onion and green paper – £7.50), prawn sagnaki (king prawns, ouzo, tomato sauce and feta cheese – £9), chicken souvlaki (2 skewers of chicken – £9.50), and keftedes (2 pork and beef kebabs – £9.50).
Arguably the best investment was some outstandingly soft pita bread (£2.50), with which we mopped up the excellently tart htipiti (daughter’s nomination for standout dish) and bougiourti.
My personal favourite was the gigantes, although the powerful ouzo undertones in the prawn sagnaki also made that a dish of note. The chicken souvlaki took me right back to evenings in Santorini, although I found the keftedes a big heavy for a nice summer’s evening, especially as when it came to meat I was flying solo.
We had heard good things about the £9 cocktails, and especially the Greek Margarita (tsiporou, triple sec liqueur, lime, agave) and Ouzo Lemonade (ouzo, honey, mint, lemon juice, soda) but instead decided to head straight for the wine list.
Managing to resist the temptation to order Retsina for old times’ sake, we instead went for the house wine, which was just £11.50 for half a litre (we weren’t told but suspected that as it was a soft wine with citrus notes it must be Savatiano).
Spitaki, 133 East Claremont Street, Edinburgh, EH7 4JA
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