Sometimes you want to break away from your dining experience that more or less is consistent with the following: pasta, galbi, pizzas, samgyupsal, chicken and repeat. Why not introduce something fresh to the menu?
One restaurant I frequent these days is… none other than Itaewon’s Greek souvlaki restaurant, Santorini, located in the alley behind Hamilton Hotel.
The interior of the restaurant is aptly decorated, colored brightly in white and blue to remind visitors of the real place.
I always order pork souvlaki there. I can’t say I ever tasted authentic Greek souvlaki, but if anything, I wouldn’t imagine the dishes offered in the restaurant to be too far off from the real deal. I always order the souvlaki, and if I deem the day special enough, order a side of cheese saganaki, which is basically deep-fried chunk of cheese (nothing can possibly go wrong here!).
Portions are generous. Most meat dishes come with a small ball of rice, generous portion of pan-fried potatos (which are delicious!), some vegies on the side… and of course with pita bread and tzatiki sauce (yogurt & cucumber-based sauce) which, in my opinion, you can never quite have enough. Don’t go crazy with tzatiki though, as additional orders of tzatiki don’t come free.
If you have a group of four, I recommend ordering 3 main dishes with a salad. Even that should be enough food to go around and more. Also, if no salad is ordered, small portions of salad for each person is given out with meat entrée orders. So you could actually just end up ordering 3 dishes and effectively still have salad for everyone (tricky tricky!).
Though I don’t recall their exact names, I tried Santorini’s spinach pie (with flaky crust, yum!) another pork dish (recommended!) and the pork souvlaki. Like I mentioned before, I recommend the pork souvlaki to those who haven’t had Greek food before.
I always liked Greek cuisine, especially the meat dishes for spices and herbs that are used — I am a huge fan of big flavors, so I love how Greek oregano, parsley, rosemary, basil and other herbs come together.
Price is what you would pay at other equivalent restaurants in Itaewon. Appetizers cost between 8,000 to 15,000 Won; meat souvlaki dishes cost around 18,000 to 20,000, on average. It may seem a little pricey, but keep in mind that 2 meat dishes can feed 3 people.
Santorini is a good place to change things up a bit to your usual dining pattern. But be warned: even an attempt to break away the mundane pattern can quickly be part of that pattern you are attempting to break!
The Good
- Greek cuisine is definitely not a common find in Seoul — and their food is pretty decent
- Generous portions
- Salad comes free with order of meat dishes
- Recommended dishes include pork souvlaki, cheese saganaki and spinach pie
The Bad
- Quite busy during peak hours, reservations recommended a day before
- Charging minimal amount for tzatiki sauce makes the venue feel rather… stingy
- Parking is a little tricky as the restaurant is located on the alley behind Hamilton Hotel
Contact
- 02-790-3474
Directions
- Get out at Itaewon subway station exit #1. You will see KFC on your right. Make a right, walk uphill and make a left at Bliss. Walk a little bit and you will see Santorini on your left, on the 2nd floor. (Subway station to Santorini on food will take less than 1-2 minutes)
Map
Reference: Restaurant interior and menu shots are taken from a SLR community website; the interior and menu shots are taken from a review site of Santorini; the first photo of this post is taken from a Naver blog that reviewed the restaurant.
