Vrisaki

Head into the backstreets of Wood Green, squeeze through a narrow kebab takeaway entrance & you emerge into the windowless dining room of this no-nonsense Greek-Cypriot taverna. Though you can order à la carte, most evening diners skip lunch in preparation for the enormous ‘special Greek mezdes à la Vrisaki’, which for £36 delivers enough dishes to cover your white paper tablecloth & necessitate some double-decker balancing. Cold mezze (hoummos, taramasalata, tabouleh) is accompanied by warm pitta & followed by hot dishes (grilled halloumi, calamari), seafood (prawns, sea bass) & meat (spicy sausage, chicken). There’s crispy, sticky baklava for afters. Service can be gruff, especially at busy times, but boisterous groups of faithful regulars (knocking back the ouzo & inexpensive wines from the largely Greek list) are having too much fun to let this bother them.