Greece

Mamakas

Mamakas ( 80 Ossington Avenue ) is a huge departure from the Greek restaurants that most Torontonians have come to know; where you can expect a variety of shishkabobs, mounds of overly garlicky tzatziki, hot dog buns masquerading as something akin to garlic bread, and Greek salad largely composed of iceberg lettuce with tomatoes, cucumber and feta as more of a decoration than a part of the salad.  This is not Mamakas.  Mamakas serves simple Greek cuisine and relies on an abundance of fresh herbs and quality ingredients like heirloom tomatoes, fresh fish imported from Greece and Protected Designation of Origin (P.D.O.) feta cheese. After going down a Wikipedia rabbit-hole we learned that, following a protracted legal battle, feta cheese has been a protected designation of origin product in the European Union since 2002.  Only cheese produced in a traditional way in certain areas of Greece from sheep or goat’s milk can be called P.O.D. feta, or at least that’s my understanding – who knew.  Anyways, that being said, because of all the special ingredients at Mamakas, it’s not inexpensive, but it is certainly tasty.  We tried the Tzatziki, Taramosalta (dip made from salted and cured fish roe), and Melitzanosalata (smoky eggplant dip).  They were all thick, rich and luxuriant.  The tzatziki had lots of fresh dill, which is lovely change from the tzatziki we’ve had a other Greek restaurants.  The dips are served with house made pita that is slightly grilled and comes to the table hot.  A lot of the other items we chose were by simply seeing them being carried by the wait staff and intriguing our interest.  Everything is plated and presented attractively.  We had the tiganites patates, which are essentially large, hand-cut French fries served with fresh herbs and garlic sauce.  The herbs were also fried and combined with the salt, fries and garlic sauce made for a super yummy and decadent dish.  It is not easy to elevate the humble potato in new and fresh ways.  We also had the Horiatiki salad which was composed of heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, P.D.O. Feta, kalamata tapenade, fresh oregano – no iceberg lettuce here!  However, we did have to pay $19 for the privilege of eating these finer ingredients.  We have to admit, the tomatoes were pretty spectacular, but we find a lot of local Ontario tomatoes are pretty great in the summer and without the big price tag.  Next, we had two vegetarian dishes which we also enjoyed: Manitaria (Hen of the woods mushrooms, garlic, lemon and mizithra cheese) and Imam Bayildi (slow roasted eggplant, tomatoes, onions, parsley, walnut and P.D.O Feta Cheese). We especially enjoyed the eggplant.  I’m not sure if the P.D.O. feta cheese is used as a point of Greek pride, or for its superior taste, or as a more elaborate ingredient.  We had one of the two fish of day, sea bream.  It was served butterflied, boneless and grilled and it was just superb.  It was accompanied by a rich emulsified lemon-butter sauce with a high yum factor.  Overall Mamakas was a good experience.  They have extremely attentive service staff, which I guess if you’re paying that much, you should expect.

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