Alvaro’s birthday was a couple of weeks ago. He said he wanted something Greek, Mediterranean, or along those lines for dinner. I gave him a handful of choices, from which he chose the same place were we celebrated his birthday 3 years ago, the Macedonian restaurant Europe Grill. This place is in a corner of South King Street, very close to the unit we used to live in. We tried it based on good reviews I had read, and found it fantastic. It was about time for a revisit.

Most grilled dishes come with a complimentary cabbage and potato salad, dressed with oil and vinegar. Very simple yet a perfect side to the copious amounts of meats you’re likely to consume.

Complimentary cabbage and potato salad

Bonnie and I shared the lamb cutlets, which came with 2 pieces of cevapi (grilled mince meat in a sausage shape), and the mixed seafood platter, with grilled calamari, octopus, fish fillet and prawns. The cutlets were not medium-rare as requested, but nonetheless delicious and tender. The cevapi were tasty too. The seafood was great except for the fish, which was terribly overcooked, and therefore dry.

Lamb cutlets ($28)

Mixed seafood platter ($35)

Al had a huge plate of char-grilled calamari, which I tried and was fantastic.

Char-grilled calamari ($24)

Gladys ordered the Europe Grill mix: pork chops, chicken, 2 cevapi and pleskavica (a patty of mixed mince meats). The serving was massive and what I tried was delicious. She gave a good fight but was defeated by the size of the platter.

Europe Grill mix ($23)

Other dishes ordered at the table were beef Strogonoff, chicken Strogonoff (??), Hungarian goulash with mashed potato, a soup with beans, and pork medallions wrapped in prosciutto, served with chips. Guess which one looked the most appetising to me? :)

Beef Strogonoff ($28)

Chicken Strogonoff ($26)

Goulash ($22)

Soup

Pork medallions ($28)

We were absolutely stuffed but it was a birthday and we had to have cake. I baked a whole orange cake based on Sara’s recipe, only that I used navel instead of blood oranges, and honey instead of sugar. The result was great. We brought some Gippsland double cream (51% of fatty goodness) to spoon on the cake.

Whole orange cake

Side note: if you have low to zero lactase production (most of us do after age 5 or so) and so can’t break down lactose in milk, you may be fine with real butter and high-fat cream (ie, made from cream only, with no added crap) because high fat means low sugar (lactose = sugar). If casein is the issue, then ghee would be your best bet if you want to do dairy at all.

I finished my meal with a Macedonian coffee, which is basically Turkish coffee, strong and thick. With all the food and wine I had that night, the caffeine didn’t work at all and I crashed heavily in bed.

Macedonian coffee

Europe Grill
506 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9557 4217