The Greek at the Harbor

This month we review a Greek restaurant that lies right where you expect it: on a harbor.  The Greek at the Harbor is located at 1583 Spinnaker Dr in Ventura, CA. 93001 in the Harbor-Town Marina Resort.

The Greek at the Harbor boasts several awards, including Best Greek Food in Ventura County in 1996 by the Ventura County Star Readers Choice poll and Best Overall County Restaurant in 1996 by the Reporter's Readers Poll.

As you walk in your are greeted with many Greek items and photos on the left wall featuring many of the performers.  On your right you'll find a full bar.   Further in you encounter a decent size dance floor and to your right, the patio outside.  The patio is quite spacious and is protected by a plastic border that lines the upper half of the wall.   The indoors of the restaurant stretches on, and the tables are nicely spaced apart.

First, the food.  Lunch is cheaper than dinner, and at lunch you can get pita sandwiches and omelets.  My fellow diners and I had dinner reservations.  (They recommend reservations (805) 650-5350).  We started with the saganaki, flamed at your table, naturally.  Our waiter even cut little pieces for us.  We also had the avgolemono soup, which was mild.  I'll say now that the Greek at the Harbor has a large capacity and we thought they might serve tour buses, so keeping food on the milder side of spicy makes sense.  I would have liked a little more lemon, but that's just me.

We had many of the mezedakia, including the tzatziki, the taramasalata, the melitzanosalata, the humus, the tabouli (which was again, understandably bland), and the skordalia (which was excellent).  Each item had plenty of garlic, save the tabouli of course.

If you can't tell yet, the Greek at the Harbor is all Greek food; no burgers or nuggets.  Items that might be of interest in the mezedakia area that we didn't try are the lahanadolmades (stuffed cabbage leaves), gemitsa (herb-stuffed tomatoes) or the hot sampler (dolmades, keftedes, falafel, spanakopita and tyropita - $9.95).

All entrees come with soup or salad and their charbroiled specialties include rack of lamb $18.95, a mixed chicken/lamb souvlakia $16.95 or a singles item souvlakia (chicken or lamb) for lunch $7.25 and dinner $15.95.

The have your traditional favorites: moussaka, pastichio, dolmades, keftedes, gyros and two items I saw a lot of: the salonika chicken and the lamb exohiko.  Take each respective meat, stuff it with spinach and feta cheese, wrap it in filo and then bake it and serve it with vegetables and potatoes for $7.95 lunch and dinner $14.95.

They also have seafood, vegetarian, filet mignon, lobster, shrimp, pasta, you name it.   I could go on forever about the extensive menu but I won't.  I think you get the idea.

I was disappointed, however, when it came to desert.  We were informed that they were out of galactobouriko.  For me, this would have made the evening perfect.   I settled on a Greek coffee and some baklava.  The rizogalo was not bad either, and for you purists, it comes without raisins.

What you really go to the Greek at the Harbor for is the entertainment.  The shows starts about 7:15 and goes on for quite awhile, never stopping for long.  The entertainment included at belly dancer who balanced a sword on her head while dancing, an owner who balanced at wine glass (upside down with wine in it) on his head, and a fine young dancer who did a head-forward flip, you could say you're plunged headlong into an evening of fun.  

After an impressive belly dancer performance, a distinguished gentleman (perhaps an owner), an owner (who was also helping out waiting tables) and the fine young dancer took the stage and presented a very impressive, polished performance to a variety of Greek music, including the Los Angeles based Hellenic Sounds. (OK, there are three owners, Makis & Lynn Mikelatos and Jerome Dabour, but I can't for the life of me put the names to the faces in my memory).  The restaurant has an extensive sound system which made the music clear and strong.  Only as we were getting up to leave did the floor open up to have diners join and dance, but this is understandable.  The curse of the Greek restaurant is that no one leaves and you don't "turn-over" tables and bring in new customers because the one's already there stay forever.  So if you invite people to dance, they stay forever and you don't make any money.  The show was impressive enough, and I was content to leave and walk in the night air along the Harbor.

The Greek at the Harbor, 1583 Spinnaker Dr., Ste 101, Ventura, CA 93001. (805) 650-5350 F (805) 650-5348.  Coming south on the 101 take the Seaward exit to Harbor and Harbor to Schooner Dr and make a right.  coming north on the 101, take the Seaward exit and make a left onto Seaward Ave.  Go under the freeway to Harbor where you'll make a left and then a right onto Schooner Dr.  Look for the taller tower in a strip-center type plaza on the Harbor.  Lunch is served daily from 11am - 4pm.  Dinner is served Sunday through Thursday 4pm to 10pm and Friday 7 Saturday from 4pm to 11pm.