I’m not quite sure if this restaurant qualifies at Greek unless you consider standard pub fare such as Lasagne, Hamburger and Porterhouse Steak as the best things to ever come out of Greece.

As with most things in life, people tend to be prompted into writing a review such as this when things are really good or really awful. We picked this restaurant based on reviews on the Internet and I can honestly say it was one of the worst restaurants we’ve been to in Melbourne.

To be fair there are some Greek starters and Mezze dishes on offer. But the portion sizes are tiny and you would have to spend a fortune to get anywhere near full.

Luckily you can fill up on the enormous hunk of bread with olive oil that they bring you at the start of the meal.

We particularly enjoyed the trio of dips: a small saucer of yoghurt, some of that nice rocket and cashew dip you can buy from Coles and an unidentified orange dip. With less than a tablespoon of each dip there was plenty to go round. All accompanied with 8 more huge hunks of bread. I did ask the waiter about the unidentified orange dip. I’ve not seen that one in Coles. He didn’t know what it was as they ‘had just changed the menu and he was still familiarising himself with it’. He offered to find out. Maybe he did but alas he did not come back to enlighten our table.

By this stage we were all too full of bread to be tempted by the mains on offer. We did try a selection of Mezze dishes ($25 for three) and to be fair they were pretty tasty but as warned by the waitress pretty damn small. We particularly enjoyed cutting the aubergine into five pieces because by now the whole situation seemed quite comical.

I had brought some candles for them to stick into a dessert for the birthday we were celebrating. The waitress informed me that unfortunately they don’t do desserts. I was quite shocked to which she replied ‘I know, I couldn’t believe it either when I started working here’.

I asked if they could put the candles in a hunk of bread of instead. I liked the irony of it. The waitress came back to tell me they were going to get a cake ‘from somewhere’. And they did. So that was nice of them. We each enjoyed a mouthful of cake and the birthday boy even got 2 strawberries.

I’ve not eaten in many Greek restaurants in Melbourne. Maybe they are all like this. In any case I wouldn’t recommend this one to my worst enemy. Well, maybe I would to my worst enemy but certainly not to anyone I like.

Well I haven’t been back to Korchi since I did the review - but isn’t that a hoot? I’ll have to sneak in now and have a look

And what did you think of Korchi?

i had to tell you that i finally made it to taste of korchi today and they had your review (blog one complete with your pic!) up on the wall at the entrance. it was just as if they’d clipped out a review from the age cheap eats or good food guide!

you’ve officially made your mark as a food blogger.
~R

Welcome back fellow food blogger!

I’ll be on more regularly now that stuff is slowing down. Looking forward to much much food.

All the Best,
J

BUM prices are pretty good - the cost of meze range from $6 to $9 per plate. Two dishes would serve as a decent feed, especially if you get as addicted to the peasant bread as I am! And don’t forget the $25 three meze and retsina (wine) deal - it is great value, and you will be seriously stuffed afterwards. EG and I couldn’t even finish our dishes.

Gingerboy prices are expensive. Entrees range from $13.50 to $16.50. Mains will cost you around the $30 mark. Dessert tasting plate was a whopping $34. Wine by the glass will set you back a minimum $8. A small (and I mean small) bowl of steamed rice was $6.50 (ahem). But to put it into context for you, EG and I shared three entrees, one main, stirfry veg, rice, dessert platter, a glass of wine each and coffee - and it cost us $134.50. Uh huh, not cheap. Worth it? Well I certainly had some memorable tastes (that laksa brulee for starters!). But this is certainly not a restaurant I’d want to dine at often - I’d be broke!

R