Review: Ari's Greek Restaurant

This weekend turned out to be "date weekend", never mind date night, for my girlfriend and I.  To kick off the weekend's festivities we decided to go with Ari's Greek Restaurant, picked from our  2012 Entertainment book.  Driving down Hampton Avenue, I've always seen Ari's and had settled in my mind that one day I would give them a try.  The ambiance of the restaurant is very unassuming; it's a quaint place that has a nice-homey feel to it.  While it doesn't have much in the way of Mediterranean style decor, the flower-scape that welcomes you upon entry definitely makes up for that.  The wait staff at Ari's was great, very inviting and personable which is a always a plus.

Now let's get to the food.  I have to tell you, I've only had Greek food from a real Greek restaurant once in Chicago at Pegasus, so my exposure to the cuisine has been minimal.  I did expect the menu to be more extensive than it was.  Rachel even commented that it felt a little Americanized to her, but we put all reservations aside and found some great dishes.  We started dinner with an appetizer of Saganaki a.k.a "Flaming Cheese."  Saganaki is Greek cheese that is lightly breaded and flash-fried served with a side of bread or Pita.  It is brought tableside where the waiter pours a shot of Brandy over it and ignites it with a lighter yelling Opa!  If you ever get a chance to visit any Greek restaurant, you must try it just for the theatrics alone.  Ari's Saganaki did not disappoint.  it was nice and crusty outside while remaining rich and creamy inside.  For our main dishes, I ordered the Chicken Slouvaki with sautéed Greek Potatoes and Rachel ordered Ari's Famous Gyro Sandwich with a traditional Greek salad.  The Slouvaki consisted of marinated & grilled chicken breasts with feta, tomato, onion, and tzatzike sauce all rolled inside an amazingly fresh pita.  This sandwich was nothing short of fantastic for me.  All of the ingredients were fresh and complimented one another perfectly.  The potatoes, omg!  From now on, whenever I prepare sautéed potatoes I will have to add black olives to them.  The potatoes tasted as if they weren't seasoned which is a good thing in this case because the black olives added just the right amount of saltiness; accompanied with red bell pepper and onions, those were some of the best potatoes I've eaten.  The Ari's Famous Gyro was pleasant as well; prepared traditionally with lamb carved from the spit.  Believe it or not, we had plenty food leftover so we did not have room for dessert.

I highly reccomend Ari's Greek Restaurant, especially to those that are newbies to Greek cuisine.

Ari's Greek Restaurant

3101 Hampton Ave.

St. Louis, MO 63139