+Ousia

28/11/2008

+Ousia
Category: Taverna/Piraeus



Address: 5 Paleologou str., Terpsithea Square, Piraeus, Tel. 2104222005

Another down and dirty place where working class Greeks with good palates like to dine. If you’re waiting for a ferry to the islands and have an hour or more to kill, it’s worth the walk from the docks.


Niki mentioned it to Mary and Mary mentioned it to my sister. The Ikarian connection at work here, since +Ousia, a tiny place in the center of Pirea is a stopping point for islanders en route to the island via ferry. I admit, I never would have found this place or even bothered to eat here, but when I did a few weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised.

The restaurant’s main space is very small and pleasantly retro, with old maritime prints, crocheted curtains and an air of gentility from a slightly past era. We sat outside, in the enclosed tent which takes up a part of the pedestrian way on the plateia.

The menu is centered around some of the classic dishes of Crete (despite my Ikaria connection to it), with things like dakos, kallitsounia and fried snails. There are a few “international” offerings, such as a double burger, a chicken burger, and spaghetti Carbonara. One of us did in fact order the Carbonara, which was competent and very rich thanks to the generous addition of cream (a no-no in the traditional version).

The Greek fare is good and homemade. We loved the cabbage dolmades, which were cooked to comfortable softness and did not contain meat. (They come with a spoonful of yogurt.) The htipiti is spicy and the lima beans in tomato sauce, a classic, is very good. A house specialty which we liked, too, were the fried mushrooms with rosemary, a pleasant break from the ubiquitous grilled pleurotus that appear on every menu in Athens. I liked the fact that strapatsada is considered a main dish on this menu; it was pretty good. But by far the winner of our cheap and easy night out were the Greek fries, cut into rounds and perfectly fried so that they were both puffy and crunchy. I hadn’t had potatoes that good in a long, long time.

I don’t know if I’d go out of my way to head to +Ousia all the way from the northern suburbs, but if it’s not too far and you’re in the mood for good home – cooked fare in a pleasant, off-the-beaten path kind of place, that’s cozy and offers prices for most people’s pocket, then +Ousia fits the bill.