Dan Pitt’s Opinionated Compendium of Downtown Palo Alto Restaurants
© Copyright 2018 Dan Pitt
Dan Pitt’s Opinionated Compendium of Downtown Palo Alto Restaurants
© Copyright 2018 Dan Pitt
I dined at Taverna four times in June. Summer is the perfect time to go, as the weather here mirrors that of the Greek islands from which the restaurant gets its inspiration. I mostly made use of the ten “bites” and eight “small plates”, not so much the five “entrees”, and always to share. I don’t eat pork or shellfish, which rules out a number of dishes, but they did make substitutions when possible. Twice I ordered the corn fritters and on one evening after finishing the kampachi crudo we ordered another one. Twice I enjoyed the remarkable carrot soup, garnished with feta mousse, Medjool dates, and cocoa nib coffee crumble. I preferred the shepherd meze to the fisherman meze but both are excellent. Twice the shepherd meze featured no pork, just beef pastrami and lamb salami, and when the beef switched to pork they just doubled the lamb salami for me. The housemade dolmas on the shepherd meze are the best I have had, and the soft and hard cheeses and charred toast on the platter are fine both alone and with the other items, which include olives, tiny roasted peppers, and pickles. It’s a lot of food.
Once the lamb rib chop was a small plate and once an entree (though available as a small plate, I learned). The meat was delicious, a little salt probably part of the reason, but on both orders the best meat was that on the bone; the slices on the side were too chewy. Next time I will order that it be cooked medium, not medium rare. The tagliatelle with summer squash and little tomatoes was satisfying both as its own main dish and as a side to the lamb. I’m not a huge fan of salads but the farm salad, as a final course one evening, was large, varied in color, texture, and flavor, and inventive without being freaky.
I ordered dessert just once (I loved the flaky bougatsa with vanilla cream in phyllo topped with pistachio ice cream) but also enjoyed the concluding amuse-bouche of a tiny, roughly 1 cm cube of Turkish delight flavored with orange and thyme (I guessed oregano).
The $35 corkage fee is a deterrent to bringing your own wine but I see no point in doing so. I believe I counted 9 Greek white wines by the bottle plus two by the glass and nearly twice that by the bottle for reds plus one by the glass, most at attractive prices and some with desirable bottle age. There is also an excellent rosé by the glass or bottle that goes with absolutely everything on the menu. There are non-Greek wines on the list, mostly American, many of which are very special and expensive, but I don’t know why anyone would come here and order those.
You can probably tell that I really like the food and the wine. I like the service at least as much. From the person checking you in and those who bring bread and water to your server, the owner Hakan, or owner and wine expert Thanasis, all are friendly and really seek to please. The wine and food advice I received helped me make good choices, and they all made a point of recognizing me on return visits.
The room is bright and cosy with the colors of Santorini. Tables and wicker chairs are small (like many Europeans). Despite some wall linings that supposedly absorb sound, it’s noisy when crowded (and it’s always crowded). Little tables outside facing Whole Foods are bathed in hot sun this time of year; those on Emerson are shadier, but frankly the ambience inside is much nicer.
This is not your typical American Greek restaurant: no moussaka, no kabobs, not even any rice. Taverna hews to the cuisine you will find in the Mediterranean islands but with a dedication to locally-sourced ingredients and our region’s demand for originality and freshness. There are five seats at the bar, also not roomy, and almost no vacancies for diners arriving without reservations.
Sunday, July 1, 2018
I finally tried Taverna, four times; here’s what I think