Greek with chic
Tzatziki, £2.75
Baby red mullet, £5
Feta, £2.50
Stuffed calamari (with crab, pine kernels and rice), £8
Baby goat, about £35 for two, depending on the market
Barbary duck cooked with pineapple and orange stuffed with couscous, about £18 per duck, depending on the market
Giant prawns grilled on charcoal and served with lemon oil, spring onions and garlic sauce, £12
Kateifi, £2.50
Galactobureko, £2.50
THINK Greece or Cyprus and a taverna decked out in checked tablecloths, candles in bottles and cheery bouzouki players is a popular image. Not so at Halepi, a Greek Cypriot restaurant in trendy Belsize Village, where Noel and Meg Gallagher and Neneh Cherry are among the more famous diners.
The decor may be modern and refined - plenty of light wood, arty photographs taken in the owners' native Cyprus, a cobbled stone floor - but the food is homely and gutsy. The extensive menu gives no flowery explanations of dishes. Starters include houmous, tahini or taramosalata (all £2.75); among the main courses are fillet steak (£12.50), spring chicken (£7.50), hand-dived scallops (£12 for three, but the price can change with the market), or lamb chops (£8.75); and there is a range of Greek Cypriot desserts (all £2.50).
An in-store grocery that sells Greek Cypriot foods - right down to Greek bottled water, Loutraki - offers customers the chance to take a taste of the restaurant home, and the genial owners, brothers Kostas and Stavros Kazolides, are eager to talk with customers about their food and the products on sale.
Two dishes stand out as the most popular: the milk-fed Pyrenean mountain lamb, which is cooked in goose fat or olive oil and slow-roasted with rosemary, black pepper and a touch of lemon; and the suckling pig, which is boned, stuffed with wheat and dry fruit, and cooked in its own juices. Both are only available at certain times of the year and have to be ordered in advance as the meat is bought in specially from Rungis market in Paris. The price varies with availability but in season costs roughly £35 for the lamb for two people, and £100 for the suckling pig for up to 8 people. Kostas Kazolides says: "The lamb is either leg or shoulder and it's the youngest lamb you can buy in Europe. It's got a very, very sweet meat that melts in the mouth because the fat content is high."
Among the best-selling casserole dishes is kolokassi, a stewed leg of pork with colocass (a potato substitute commonly used in Cyprus), celery and stuffed cabbage (£8.50). And the fish menu includes all the favourites: sea bass is the top seller, and turbot, halibut and monkfish all feature. All the fish, which is mainly landed in Cornwall or Scotland, is wild and line-caught as opposed to farmed, and is served simply grilled. Again, prices depend on availability, but a fish dish generally costs around £16.
Wary of straying too far into the realm of trendiness, Kazolides offers more traditional Greek Cypriot dishes too - kleftiko (£9); souvlaki either made with lamb, pork or chicken (£7.75) or with Aberdeen Angus fillet (£12.50); grilled calamari (£9.50, depending on the market); and moussaka (£7.50) are all popular choices.
The wine list is long, and Greek wines feature among a selection from the rest of the world. Kazolides particularly recommends the Amethystos Fume Domaine Lazaridi (£16.50 per bottle), and the cabernet sauvignon from Domaine Hajimichalis (£16.50 per bottle).
The Belsize Village restaurant is the second Halepi in London, and was originally designed to be an overflow for the first outlet in Leinster Terrace, Bayswater, which became London's first Greek Cypriot restaurant when it opened in 1966. The restaurant has 100 covers and is open until midnight six days a week, with an average spend of £25 a head, including wine. n
Halepi, 48-50 Belsize Lane, London NW3 5AR. Tel: 0171-431 5855
