My sister’s 8th anniversary in Australia was last month. She was craving Greek food and wanted to revisit Yiamas but we decided to try a new place instead. Diethnes had been on my radar for a while thanks to good customer reviews; finally it was time to see if it lived up to the hype.
The restaurant is located on Pitt Street, but it’s quite hidden below ground level. Inside it’s very spacious and has a warm 80s kind of feel. Our waiter overheard us while browsing the menu and asked “¿hablan español?” (do you speak Spanish?). He was a super polite and helpful Argentinian.
As per usual we ordered a bunch of dishes to share, nothing too exotic: a Greek salad, anchovies, octopus and souvlaki.
The Greek salad came first. The menu has different prices for small and large servings, as well as for local and imported fetta cheeses. I don’t know which one we ended with but my guess is that it was the large one with imported cheese, although it didn’t look that big. The salad was okay but a bit heavy on the vinegar.
Greek Salad ($17.60 large with imported fetta cheese)
Next came the anchovies served in olive oil. The serving was quite small for the price, but the anchovies were alright.
Anchovies ($9.10)
The grilled octopus, marinated in olive oil, fresh chilli and aromatic herbs, was also on the small side, and I’m sure we did order the large size. The flavour was good, the meat was well cooked (not butter soft, though), but it lacked an X factor.
Grilled Octopus ($26.10 large)
Finally, the lamb souvlaki arrived and I wondered if we had ordered enough food. The serving wasn’t very big (maybe I was comparing with other Greek restaurants…?). The flavour was good, but the meat wasn’t as tender as advertised in the menu. BTW, it comes with garden salad and chips, or steamed vegetables (our choice).
Lamb Souvlaki ($24.50)
Although it was not the best Greek food I’ve had in Sydney, nor the best value for our money, it wasn’t bad, and service was excellent.
Diethnes
336 Pitt Street
Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 9267 8956
www.diethnes.com.au
Other Greek feeds:
Steki Taverna (Newtown), August 2011
3 Olives (Newtown), November 2011
Xanthi (Sydney CBD), August 2012
Yiamas Greek Taverna (St Peters), October 2012
PS: I just realised that I’ve been to Nostos a few times and haven’t blogged about it. Outrageous!
The anchovies looks so good!
It’s so disappointing when you look at the price of something on the menu, then the serving comes out and it’s clearly not proportionate to what you’re paying! The lamb souvlaki looks decent here though…
Doesn’t look like too bad a meal and great service always adds a pleasant element to dining out :)
A restaurant experience goes past the food. I have dined at places where I have been blown away with the service and the food was very average, but the whole experience was awesome.
service means alot to me.