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| - I pass AE on the light rail all the time, and it always looks deserted and empty from the front. I finally got off the train and went in for lunch, and was surprised how bustling and packed it was inside during weekday lunch.
At first, i was excited about the menu. They have avgolemono, which is one of my favorite soups. So I ordered that, and the spanakopita side as suggested by other reviewers.
Avgolemono means egg and lemon in Greek. There was plenty of lemon in the soup, but no egg. It was basically lemony (read: sour) chicken broth with yellow rice and some diced tomatoes/carrots. The egg in this soup usually tempers the lemon, so without it, this soup was just sour. Exceedingly.
My spanakopita order was about 4-5 spinach cheese triangles, all crispy and flaky on the outside, and spinachy-cheesy inside. The outside was of course fine, but the inside suffered from over-seasoning. I could only taste oregano, and not the spinach or the cheese. And the spinach seemed over done, because it had surpassed "wilted" and "cooked" stages, and moved on to "squishy" and nearly brown-green. It came with a side of tzaziki (too sour, unnecessary dip for the triangles) and pita (dry, cold and nearly inedible).
I also got a fresh lemonade, which was pretty sour (not a bad thing, I should note. Too many places oversweeten their lemonades). You get a giant styrofoam cup, one size, and as many refills as you could drink.
I didn't mind the counter-order service, the cafeteria style tables, the plastic utensils, or the cheesy decor at all. But I do mind the American-Greekiness of this place. It could stand to be more Greek, less pandering.
1 star for extensive menu.
1 star for easy location (less than 1 block south of Roosevelt train sta.) and no-fuss seating/ordering service.
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