GREEK TO GO ~ Ottawa

When you're relatively new to a city, how do you pick new restaurants to try? You can open up a phone book and look for 'Chinese Restaurant' and you get a dozen places that all have the same name, serve pretty much the same dishes and charge relatively the same prices. Or you can rely on friends and co-workers, but you may not have the same tastes.

Now in the 21st century we have the internet and many peoples reviews (hey hey, look, that's what this blog is doing!!!), but on sites like Restaurantica.com, yelp.ca, or restaurantthing.com everyone gives their opinion, and I find half the people like and the other half dislike the place that it almost voids the whole process. So unpredictable. So what do you do? Well, since I'm on the search for the Holy Grail of Wings, I've got to experiment and try any place. I've got to take chances and just pick and place and go.



So, the search for good wings brought us into a search for good Greek food hopefully form Greek To Go (GTG). Actually, wings were an afterthought when I saw it on their menu. The plan was just to get their Souvlaki Platters for 2 (which is $18.99 if you do pick up).

GTG was not as close as I originally thought, in an area I'm not familiar with, and it isn't well marked. In fact, its part of another restaurant called Christopher's. At night, the sign is not really lit up (for Christopher's, as the bulbs are almost burnt out) but the GTG sign is just a banner really. GTG is mainly just a counter at the front of the restaurant. The rest is Christopher's, which is clearly a tavern. It was after 9pm, all the lights were off, aside from the GTG counter, and a bar at the back with 6-8 guys, all sitting at the bar. I saw 2 young guys who had just finished their wings, and their bones looked like the wings could be decent, even if the tavern from the 1970's didn't.

Drove home and opened up the platter first: chicken souvlaki, roasted Greek potato, rice pilaf, Greek salad, 1 pita break and tzatziki sauce. Well, that's what your supposed to get. The 'potatoes' were two slices of potato. There was only 1 skewer of chicken (but it was plump chicken). The pita bread was really 1/4 of a pita bread, and the tzatziki was the smallest possible container (about a spoonful) - good thing we ordered an extra.

The chicken was meaty and plump. But, there was no flavour to it. No spice, no zest, no flavour what so ever. So was the tzatziki. So was the rice.

The salad was definitely a step up. It was bountiful with its bell peppers, tomato, olives, feta dressing and one of my favourites, peperoncini peppers (they were huge).

The pita quarter was toasted (ie hard). It was not helpful in making a wrap, or mopping up the dressing or tzatziki. I tried to eat half but it was just too much like cardboard. Well, the main dinner wasn't pleasing the palate, but maybe the after-thought chicken wings would fare better.

2008 THE SCORE 3.0: Greek To Go ~ Ottawa

STYLE:	Breaded, deep fried
PRICE:	$7.10 for 1lb (appox 9 wings) $0.40 @ Christopher’s
SAUCES:	Mild/Medium/Hot Suicide Honey Garlic	0/1
HEAT:	Meh, there was a tingle
SIZE:	Small to medium	1/3
WETNAP FACTOR:	Not saucy, more of a moist wing	1/3
CRISPINESS:	Chewy – not quite mushy but not quite crisp	1.5/3
FLAVOUR:	Ok – nothing special	1.5/3
SIDES:		n/a
CLEAN UP:		n/a
WING NIGHT:		n/a
OTHER:	Greek food was mediocre – attached to the restaurant Christophers, which is an interesting tavern
TOTAL:	Not the best, but it is a Greek take-out place. But the Greek wasn’t that great either.	5/13*

The chicken was breaded, than deep fried. The sauce was suicide, but the wings were not wet. If there was a sauce, it was absorbed into the breading of the wing. Having travelled for at least 10 minutes (and it sat at least 10 minutes at GTG as well), the wings were not crisp. The skin was a bit chewy, but I can't slight them for that - fresh wings out of the frier is always better than ones delivered or picked up. It was a meaty wing, but they were not very big at all. One-bite chicken.




I ordered a suicide sauce. There was a very mild tingle. I would really put it into a medium-hot sauce, but more medium. The flavour was pretty straightforward hot sauce. With a slight vinegary smell.

FINAL SCORE: The Greek food was just not worth ordering again. I don't think I would dine at the tavern. The wings were ok, but there are better take-out wings out there. The best bet is dine in at Christopher's, but like I said, I don't think that is happening any time soon. You win some, you lose some. 5/13*

(please note, this is not my photo, it comes from here. I couldn't get a photo in the dark of the place. Can you see the GTG sign? Me either.)

Greek To Go/ Christopher's
680 Brookfield Road (and other location) Ottawa,

greektogo.net

GTG Menu HERE