The Olive Grove, Cambridge. Satisfactory Greek lunch in quiet surroundings

30th July 2015
A trip to visit our friends in Cambridge included a lunch stop at this recommended Greek Restaurant. It is a short walk off the main college/museum drag of Cambridge, near the town shopping centre, and is an unassuming sort of place which on the day we went, in the middle of the tourist season only had a few lunch clients. It may get busy at nights, and there are lots of reviews on TripAdvisor.
They have a web site on http://the-olivegrove.co.uk/ which explains that they have been a finalist in a food awards competition. This is very definitely Greek rather than Cypriot or Turkish and is reflected in the food and decor. When we were there, we witnessed a consignment of kitchen supplies arrive, and it confirmed that they are using imported or locally Greek produced ingredients. Who would have thought that haloumi comes in a big tin?
We decided to opt for the set two course lunch menu at £12.95. I had a look at the main menu, and think that it is a bit more expensive than I would expect to pay in a local north London Cypriot restaurant, but may be they cannot be compared. I cannot speak as to the authenticity of the cuisine, but it seemed Greek enough.
For starter I chose Tigania (spicy pork bites,onions,oregano,peppers & white wine)

This was a bit like a mini pork stew, and I would not rate it as particularly spicy, but it was tasty and hot enough scoring an 8.1 on the CHOF scale. I would guess that there is no such thing as really hot food in Greece, so that may have been a very authentic part of the experience.

For main I chose Kontosouvli 

(hand made pork neck skewer, pitta nest served with  fresh chips & tzatziki)

As you can see this is not exactly as described on the menu in that there is no pitta nest and the fresh chips were sauté potatoes and there appears to be some bulgar under the salad. It was hot enough also at about an 8 and tasted fine, but the meat was a bit fatty and gristly and not everything was edible. As you can see the portion size is adequate, but not generous. There is a lot of attention to appearance which you do not get in Cypriot restaurants typically.

The restaurant was mildly pretentious making a big thing out of being a finalist is in the food competition (but not revealing the final placing). It was the better side of ok, but I am a tough judge of this kind of food having been the victim of some mega meze's