Etta’s Greeklish Eatery

Another wonderful article from my daughter, Melissa Arditti, which I am posting now.  Take a  look at other articles she has written in the past by going here:  http://blissfulmuse07.blogspot.ca

Get Me To the Greek: Etta’s Greeklish Eatery 

I’ve been out of the loop for the last while with all the new restaurants opening up. I admit that I’m a bit of a creature of habit going to the same places over and over again, so I decided that every once in a while, I’ll try somewhere new.  My lovely fiancé, Bill, usually is my partner in cuisine and so he’s pretty easy-going. When I rattle off a list of restaurants, if he is particularly hungry, the one syllable “food” is usually the response, which means, I'm open to just about anywhere as long as they feed me good food! 

Last night, we decided to check out Etta’s Greeklish Eatery located at 5975 Wyandotte St E, here in Windsor, Ontario. The one problem is that there isn’t a lot of parking on the street, so be forewarned, you may want to plan ahead or be prepared to walk. Luckily, we got a spot right in front! Most people don’t eat at 4 pm on a Saturday night, but hey, when you’re hungry, time means nothing, right? 

Walking in, the restaurant was pretty empty, which again was to be expected at the time we arrived. We were greeted by a rather enthusiastic waiter and he told us to sit wherever we wanted. 

So let’s just jump right into it.  The dinner menu was plentiful, so you have a good variety of dishes from pork, beef or chicken souvlaki, all the way to the well-known gyro pita. 

On special that evening was Kokkinisto, which was chunks of beef with an aromatic tomato sauce and pasta. We’ll take 2!  

I also wanted to start with a Greek salad. How can you go to a Greek restaurant and not have at least a little feta cheese? Mmmm!

Greek salad
Photo by Melissa F. Arditti

Kokkinisto (looks are deceiving, there was SO much pasta underneath!)
Photo by Melissa F. Arditti

Well the waiter wasn’t wrong when I overheard him tell another table (as we started our meal, more and more people started to stroll in) that they don’t “scrimp on the portions here.” Our meal as you can see above was pretty large.  Lots of deliciously tender beef, tons of pasta and just the right amount of such a flavourful tomato sauce. No complaints, except that the menu was a bit confusing saying we were entitled to potatoes, rice and veggies and we never received any. I think there was some confusion due to this being a “special.” However, the food was amazing that our starter salads took care of the veggie part and the mound of spaghetti took care of the carbs.

For dessert (sorry no pic), I was awaiting to hear the choices but I guess they were feeling generous and were offering everyone a free slice of dessert, something we endearingly called “galatic bootycall” with a chuckle from our waiter. Okay, so that’s the non-Greek wording for it, but if you ask for that, I’m sure they’ll be able to tell you the actual pronunciation and realize it is called ghalaktobouriko. It had some kind of custard in it, with a honey wrapped filo dough. It felt a bit similar to baklava.  A nice little touch to show appreciation to your customers! It was very tasty and a good way to end the meal.

Overall, we had a great dining experience! Excellent food, bright atmosphere, and friendly and quick service.  By the time we were getting our coats on, the restaurant was pretty packed. Etta’s is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so there’s no doubt that we’ll be stopping in again. Opa! 

Go check them out on Facebook: Etta's Greeklish Eatery