By James McElwee ’10
THE ROUNDUP
Cyprus Grill of Phoenix, located in the Town and Country center on 20th street, offers all sorts of traditional Cyprian and Greek food.
The restaurant features a variety of Mediterranean cuisine, including sandwiches, gyros and organic salads. Many appetizers cost less than $4, and entrees average around $10.
Cyprus Grill has a walk up counter, so order and then grab a seat either inside or outside.
I visited the restaurant with my family and we sampled a variety of dishes throughout the meal.
Cyprus Grill offers a really stunning tzatziki, a cucumber, yogurt and garlic dipping sauce, served with pita bread or on their pita sandwiches. The pita bread tasted fairly good with the tzatziki sauce.
They also have really good falafel that is crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside. It goes really well with their aforementioned tzatziki sauce.
The pita sandwiches were also pretty good and their gyro was excellent. I would order tzatziki sauce on the side, or add a little feta cheese, to make it even better.
Of the other pita sandwiches, the lamb and chicken souvlaki were good. The chicken and lamb may have been a bit dry for my liking, but still made a decent lunch fair.
The hummus was okay, but I would add a little lemon juice to add some much needed acidity.
Cyrus Grill also offers more traditional Greek dishes with their own touches.
Spanakopita is delicious phyllo dough filled with spinach, feta cheese and fresh herbs. When I have had this before the dough was crisp and crunchy, but in this case it was softer, and the spinach seemed sour.
Dolmades are a combination of rice and either lamb or beef wrapped in a grape leaf. I thought Cyprus Grill’s version could have had more flavor, and I would have preferred larger pieces of meat in the mixture.
All in all, Cyprus Grill has a few reasonably priced gems and is an affordable, more casual take on authentic Greek dining. I recommend their appetizers, pita sandwiches and of course tzatziki if you visit.
It receives a 2.5 out of 5.
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