Harry Kambolis’s Nu Greek has been a favorite of mine ever since I had the delish homemade pita wraps when they had their street cart on Granville, well times have changed and the street cart is gone but they’ve moved indoors with locations on Robson street and now with a location in Gastown where So’Cal’s sandwich deli used to be.
The space is larger than Nu’s other locations and the long communal table is a great touch, in addition to the great souvlaki and dips they offer up a daily selection of fresh-baked pastry’s, desserts, breakfast options and some extra choices in proteins for your meal like octopus.
On the day I stopped in Harry Kambolis himself was cooking up the food, I really like it when the owner is in-house but when he’s making your food it’s totally awesome!
I ordered a souvlaki wrap and a small Greek salad, the salads are really reasonably priced-mine was $4. The salad was made up from simple, fresh and great ingredients, the tomatoes were cherry tomatoes, the feta was placed nicely on top and had that perfect salty/creamy taste that this salad needs and the dressing had that nice acidic twang. I can’t wait to try all the other salads on the menu.
The thing that I loved about Nu when I first ate at the street cart was the pita-it’s the star of the show in my eyes, freshly made from scratch everyday it’s a reason to come to Nu alone! On my visit there were 3 different pita to choose from-original, oregano and a sun-dried tomato pita-I went with the oregano and my protein choice was lamb. I’ve had this wrap before but with a plain pita and absolutely loved it, the homemade tzatziki sauce is thick and rich tasting without being too heavy and the lettuce and tomatoes are super fresh just like with the salad. Needless to say I gobbled this bad boy up and can’t wait for more!
I also picked up some pita to take home with me to use with dinner that night and Harry was nice enough to throw some extra goodies in my bag.
On the savory side there was a mini spanakopita, the phyllo was buttery and flaky and the filling was nicely balanced between the spinach and feta-I could eat about a dozen of these with some beer!
Next up is the Baklava Muffin, this was really lemony, there was zest all throughout the muffin and it went well with the sweet glaze that was on top, this muffin top was crunch on the outside and rich and buttery on the inside. I’d definitely go back for this again.
Lastly Harry included a current and fig scone with an apricot glaze. Again this was a winner, the current flavor was really pronounced and the fig added a beautiful sweetness, the scone itself was nice and crumbly but not dry like the desert.
If you find yourself in the Gastown area part of town and are looking for a solid lunch that won’t break the bank or in need of a sweet mid afternoon treat I highly recommend Nu.
The space is clean and modern yet has a comfort that a cafe needs, you just want to sit back and relax with a great cup of coffee or tea but that’s just the beginning of the great offerings.
I went with the Tuna Confit Sandwich for $10.50, It was a nice steak of tuna that was beautiful confit and was like an ultimate tuna sandwich, it was on nicely grilled bread and had house made celeriac remulode and crisp lettuce, the side salad of arugula and cornichon was a nice touch.
Mary went with the Butternut Squash sandwich with brie, arugula and apple compote on multigrain bread for $10.50. We split sandwiches so we could give an accurate review of each and we both loved this one, the squash and apple compote gave this a sweet tone but the brie and arugula brought the savory to the sandwich. I loved how the squash was sliced thick like a piece of meat! We’d both order this again in a heart beat.
We started with ALL of the flavors of macaroons!, staring at 12 o’clock and going clockwise we have chocolate, rosewater, vanilla bean, black sesame yuzu, pistachio and finally passion fruit. At $2 each these are now officially the cheapest macaroons in the city, there absolutely delicious and were tender yet slightly chewy. My favorite flavors were the vanilla bean, pistachio and the chocolate. The rosewater was light on flavor yet still tasted like perfume to me and the black sesame yuzu had an after taste that didn’t agree with my palate.
I ordered a white chocolate, coconut and calamansi mousse cake for $6.20. Calamansi is a tree fruit that looks like a lime and is indigenous to the Philippines and grows year round there-it’s the yellow jelly under the decoration, it tasted like perfectly ripe mandarin oranges that you would eat at Christmas time, it’s mainly used to flavor drinks and foods and isn’t generally eaten by its self. The cake was absolutely amazing, the outside was a light cake and that surrounded a mousse inside, the calamansi was on top and was best of you took some of everything in one bite. Both Mary and I loved this desert.
Mary had what I can only describe as a chocolate domed raspberry and chocolate mouse filled plate of awesomeness!, the chocolate on top was not hard but firm enough to hold everything together yet buckle under the weight of your fork
this was the inside so you can get a sense of what this bad boy is all about. It was gobbled up quickly by both of us and another table next to us had it as well and loved it. Again this was $6.20.
Mary also had a Dulce de leche latte and loved it, it’s Bel’s answer to the caramel Macchiato done with in-house made dulce de leche.
when we were talking about what deserts to try I was going to originally go for this but changed my mind to the white chocolate dessert, when our plates arrived the server brought this out as well and thought I should try it so the house compted me this as well as the macaroons. It was a classic baked vanilla bean cheesecake that was nice and dense like a New York cheesecake is, Mary and myself really enjoyed this a lot and a big thanks to Bel’s for letting us try this and the macaroons.
The food was solid and the one thing you could count on was quality ingredients and the fact you got a good lunch or dinner for your money, in recent years they have become franchised out it’s looking like from the few different locations I’ve been to and some are better than others definitely. What caught my eye was this:
it sounded like a great deal so I headed in and went up to order my soup and sandwich. In the case they have all the sandwiches layed out and they all looked really good.
They have a few of the items on the menu still from when I worked there but I was going with something new that i haven’t had before. I remember that the food for each store would come in during the middle of the night-basicly fresh from the big commissary kitchen they had in East Vancouver for sale the next day, now the kitchen is closed and I’m not so sure that things are brought in fresh everyday.
Mediterranean Chicken Sandwich half and Chicken Noodle Soup $6.99. The whole sandwich was $7.99 and looked super fresh in the case but my half was LIMP like a wet noodle and was very sparse on toppings, when I went up to exchange my soup spoon for a clean one (the one I was given was coated in baked on crud) I noticed that all the sandwiches that were the variety I was having were all still in the case so the sandwiches for the deal they have are pre-made not in the case which leads me to question if they’re skimping on the toppings on these. If I had this again at another BG cafe I’d have it not grilled-the lettuce goes slimy and gross.
This was the only choice of soup they had but hey-you gotta love chicken noodle soup right! The broth was really thick in a bad way and also very salty, the noodles were mushy but the carrots were OK. This is when I realized that I was eating something what was almost like a red can off the shelf with the slogan “mm good”
Mechanically separated chicken, I lost faith at this point and stopped eating my soup. Some might ask-what about the nice looking piece of bread on my plate with my meal, well,,,
it was the end of a loaf of bread to start with and second it was HARD AS A ROCK and obviously several days old.
