Another favourite way of mine to know about ‘unheard of eateries’ (which may not necessarily be new) is spotting them on foot or while gazing out of moving vehicles. You know, like when I am on the bus. =p

My friends and I were making our way to our place of dinner when we walked past Alati. And what caught my attention was how crowded the restaurant was at 9pm. I immediately took out my mobile phone and did a quick search on Google.

I haven’t tried Greek cuisine before. And since Greece is one of the destinations I wish to go to, I made a pact to check out Alati. Since it’s not anytime soon that I’ll be travelling to Greece, I might as well satisfy myself with some Greek food at Alati. Haha.

And the opportunity came (shortly) when a girlfriend was back from Australia and initiated a dinner get-together. Yeah! Reservation was thus made for 3 people via Chope for dinner on Saturday.

And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3), we ordered:-

1) Bread, Complimentary (above) – And I enjoyed my bread very much with the sun-dried tomato mayonnaise.

2) Melitzanosalata, $16 (+ $4, 1 piece pita) (above) – Smoked eggplants with walnuts. What we didn’t expect was that the dip was a cold dish. But it was strangely addictive. Probably because we were trying to put a finger on the taste?

3) Spanakopitta, $18 (above) – Home-made phyllo pastry pie with spinach, leeks and feta. This was pretty good. Accompanied with dill-yogurt sauce.

4) Xtapodi, $36 (above) – Octopus with vinegared onions and confit tomatoes.

5) Grilled fish (+ $10, salt baked) (above) – One could choose between grilled or salt baked (at additional $10). And it’s read from the menu that their fishes are wild-caught from the Aegan sea and flown directly to the restaurant at least thrice weekly. Fishes offered were lavraki (sea bass), tsipoura (sea bream) and fagri (red porgy). Knowing that the latter was not always available and that it’s written on the menu that its meat is dense, sweet and versatile, we decided to go with red porgy ($14 per 100g); We figured the fish meat needs to be dense so that it holds better as we were opting for salt baked. The staff had also recommended either sea bream or red porgy for the salt baked method where the fish was encrusted in a thick layer of salt to keep the flesh within moist and tender. And when our fish was ready, our salt-encrusted fish was brought to us and removed from the salt in front of us. The staff further assisted to put the fish meat onto a separate plate for our easy consumption. And to enhance the taste, we were given sea salt, garlic oregano and garlic olive oil.

6) Mykonos lobster pasta, $95 (serves 2) (above) – With tomato sauce, white wine, lobster bisque and herbs. Now, the spaghetti was awesome. There was something addictive about it which my girlfriends and I (again) couldn’t put our finger on it. Although we highly suspect it’s the lobster bisque which the pasta had absorbed which made it so flavourful and tasty. Unfortunately, we couldn’t say the same for the lobster. Meat was flaky. A sign that it wasn’t fresh.

7) Fyllo-wrapped feta, $18 (above) – With Greek honey and sesame seeds. Although this dish was under ‘appetiser’, we only ordered it after our mains. Cause from its description, it sounded more like a dessert. Haha. And this was pretty good.

8) Loukoumades, $15 (above) – Greek fried donuts with honey, cinnamon and walnuts. Give this a miss. The batter of the donut was bland. I had to drench it with lots of honey before it had a taste; Sweet. Then again, this could be how it’s served in Greece. Maybe it’s me who do not know how to appreciate it. But if one really wants to try a Greek dessert, probably try something else from the menu?

Haven’t tried authentic Greek cuisine (defined as eating it in Greece) before, I am not sure how close Alati is to the real deal. But my girlfriends and I enjoyed our dinner at the restaurant.

I did feel as though I was holidaying in Greece while dining in the Santorini-style restaurant. If one wants, do request for table with the sofa seat which looked totally comfortable and makes a beautiful setting for group pictures!

Service was great too. Our cups were promptly topped up with water, and the staff even offered to change our plates a few times when it was too messy with losbter shells or various dips. Ha.

When my girlfriend and I were onto our dessert, we requested to shift to the tables in front of the restaurant. And we were so engrossed in our conversation that we did not realise we were the last group that was still hanging around at 11pm. To which we realised we were not chased away because Alati closes at mid night. So if one prefers to stay put at one place to have a long catch up, one could definitely consider Alati! But do take note that last order for dinner is at 10pm.

ALATI DIVINE GREEK CUISINE
73 Amoy Street, Singapore 6221 6124, Website, Facebook
	Overall: 7
Opening hours:-	Food/Beverage: 7
Mon – Fri : 12:00 – 14:30 (Lunch)	Ambience: 8
Mon – Sat : 18:00 – 00:00 (Dinner)	Value: 7
	Service: 7
* Closed on Sun