The greek goddess Athena

 This Fun Frank Friday begins at the restaurant Athena, in North Scottsdale at the 101 and Scottsdale Road.  Athena is the Greek goddess of many things, one of which is wisdom.  This is something we should have paid a little more attention to as we were not wise enough to remember to bring the camera.  As a result we had to rely on our cell phone camera which doesn't have the same quality for pictures.  So sorry.  When we arrived at the restaurant, they had two large seating areas separated by the bar.  Our host greeted us and promptly sat us in a booth where it was quiet and nice ambient lighting.  At first I was really concerned when I looked around and noticed that there was only one other party sitting in the restaurant.  This is normally a sign of a dying a restaurant.  But it was still early as I like to beat the dinner crowd and I thought to myself, I'm sure more people will show up later.  Our waitress soon came over to take our drink order.  We asked what type of soda and she replied, "We serve Pepsi products".  Our next reply was "thank you for playing we will just have water with lemon".  We did make it known that this was our first visit to this restaurant and we would appreciate any explanations and recommendations she was willing to give.   She was very helpful in the suggestions she made, and as we were contemplating our appetizers, she brought over our complimentary bread and butter.   I would like to tell my friend, Mike (currently in Armenia) that this was a true European loaf, a hard crust topped with sesame seeds around a light airy center.  After snacking on the bread, the first of our two appetizers came. 
People have a lot of misconceptions when it comes to octopus.  Some say they don't like the flavor and some say they don't like the texture.  Here at Athena they have solved both problems.  Their GRILLED OCTOPUS (OKTAPODI SCHARAS) Char-grilled, marinated octopus, tossed in olive oil and red wine vinegar was the best octopus I have ever had.  This includes the time I was in Southeast Asia.  Most octopus that I have had, have always had somewhat of a chewy texture and when prepared wrong can be downright rubbery.  This dish was grilled lightly and marinated which brought out true flavors.  It was surprisingly tender.  I have had steak that was more chewy than this octopus.  The red wine vinegar accented the grill flavor well.  If you can get past the word "Octopus" I highly recommend you order this when coming to Athena.
Next we have something for the adventurous diner.  FRIED SMELTS (MARIDES) Lightly battered smelts, fried crispy and served with garlic spread.  This is a fun appetizer to share.  The smelts are served without heads, battered and deep fried so they are crispy on the outside but still soft and flaky on the inside.  The smelts do have a fishy after taste but the garlic spread was an amazing way to balance the fish flavor.  The garlic spread also made a GREAT dipping sauce for french fries.  This was a truly authentic Greek dish and not for the faint American heart.

Our entrees came out quickly.  Patti ordered the Gyro platter which included thin slices of beef and lamb gyro, topped with onion, diced-tomatoes, sprinkled with feta cheese, it came with pita bread, tzatziki and french fries.  This a typical dish most people will have when they choose a Greek restaurant.  The pita bread was really fresh and she needed more of it to balance the large amount of meat that comes with the platter.  The meat was well seasoned, tender and juicy.  This dish is typically eaten by taking a bite of pita topped with a little meat, some of the vegetables and a dab of tzatziki sauce.  It was very enjoyable to have a fresh tzatziki sauce made from fresh cream and cucumbers.  The large amount of food was more than enough to take home as left overs.  Yea!  Lunch!

I couldn't decide what I wanted, so instead of just having one, I went with the ATHENA COMBINATION PLATE.  It consisted of roasted Leg of Lamb, Moussaka, Pastitsio, and Dolmades drizzled
with Avgolemono sauce with Greek green beans on the side.  The lamb was tender and moist, lightly seasoned on the edges.  The Moussaka consisted of layers of eggplant, potato, ground lamb, beef and spices topped with a light béchamel sauce.  Even though this was mostly vegetables, this is a heavy "stick to your ribs" type of entree. The Pastitsio include macaroni with braised ground beef and lamb topped with a light béchamel sauce, oven-baked and sprinkled with parmesan.  This reminded me a lot of a type of lasagna.  You would think with the pasta it would be a heavy entree, but I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth and creamy each bite was.  As I gobbled it down, it did not seem nearly as heavy as the moussaka had.  The dolmades are grapevine leaves stuffed with a blend of ground lamb, rice, topped with egg-lemon sauce. On the side of it were also vinegar roasted potatoes.  This was one of my favorite bites of the combination plate.  The flavors from the lamb with a hint of bitter from the leaves was a surprising contrast to the sweetness of the egg-lemon sauce.
You can't go to a Greek restaurant without trying their Baklava.  This is a truly traditional dessert and at Athena it is obvious that it was freshly made by an authentic Greek chef.  Baklava is roasted walnuts & almonds flavored with ground cinnamon & cloves rolled with filo & baked crisp then finished with a light syrup & honey.  Truly one of my favorites when it comes to desserts. 
When we first arrived at the restaurant and they handed us the menus, included with it was the chef's specials for that night, a three course option.  On that paper was a dessert listed that was not on the regular menu.  The chocolate almond bread pudding so intrigued Patti that she had to ask if it could be ordered separately from the other special courses.  Our waitress was happy to inquire not only if we could order it but to also make sure there were no raisins in the production of it.  Patti was debating between this special bread pudding and Loukoumades (Puffy fritters drizzled with honey, sprinkled with walnuts, cinnamon and powdered sugar).  Our waitress shared with us that as delicious as the loukoumades were the portions were such that you would want to share it.  Since I was already ordering Baklava, Patti opted for the bread pudding.  The bread pudding is served warm, a dark chocolate flavor complimented with almonds surrounds the heavy bread  with a sweet honey sauce drizzled on top.  This is definitely more bread than pudding.  If you can find it on the menu, I would order it again, just be don't deceived as there is nothing pudding-like about it.
As we were finishing our desserts, our waitress quickly came by and discreetly dropped off a single loudoumades for us to sample.  These are extremely delicious Greek donuts!!!  And next time I will be ordering them.

There seems to be many exciting things on this menu that will bring out the Greek in you.  Once you have tried Athena's you might not want to go back to the typical Greek chain restaurants.  And if you haven't tried their grilled octopus or the fried smelts before, try it now!