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Kalidonis Taverna
ADDRESS: 85-95 Woods St, Darwin City OPEN: Weekdays from 12pm to 2.30pm and 6pm to 10pm and weekends from 6pm to 10pm CONTACT: (08) 8988 0488 Dine and takeaway available
EMORFIA and Nikolaos Manikaros are hoping to bring a little slice of Greek culture to the top end of the CBD. Tucked away on the corner of Woods and McLachlin St, Kalidonis Taverna has quietly become a restaurant diners are revisiting again and again.
Everything they dish up is made in house — just like their parents and grandparents do.
Even the sausages are lovingly made from scratch.
Ms Manikaros said cooking up food to share with people was a way of life for her and her husband.
“Our passion is our Greek cuisine and it’s our traditional food that we want to pass on and show people the real stuff,” she said.
“We cook as our grandmas did but we add on our own secrets. “We put our bit into it. “It’s the way Greeks cook.” Ms Manikaros knows her way around a kitchen and how to cook up that perfect souvla as she first started cooking in a restaurant when she was just 15.
“I had my own (kitchen) at 15-years-old, we had our own restaurant in Katherine and then we went to Greece and opened one there but in Greece it was different because we were cooking the Australian way,” she said. They have been open for the last six months. The husband and wife duo were approached by Theo Kalidonis, the owner of the property asking whether they wanted to open up their own taverna.
They jumped at the opportunity and haven’t looked back.
“My passion is your delight; I put all my passion in the food,” she said.
The role is a full time job though with Ms Manikaros at the restaurant 24/7 preparing delicious meats, salads and desserts.
As for the most popular items on the menu — souvla, saganaki, a trio of dips, calamari, the mixed grill and the moussaka - practically walk themselves out the door.
“We do a souvla which is on the spit cooked the traditional Greek way and it’s lamb souvla,” she said.
They also do a delicious char grilled fish cooked with herbs.
As for the sweets you can tuck into galaktoboureko — a filo pastry filled with custard goodness and baklava — filo pastry layered with nuts and drizzled in a honey syrup.