Alpha Restaurant
238 Castlereagh St
Sydney CBD
Alpha is a place that is well known to many. Its sophisticated Greek fit out and modern take on traditional Greek food make it extremely popular. We were visiting for a quick lunch with the hardest decision being what dishes to choose as they all sounded so good.
Pita bread and a dip sounded like a perfect start to the meal. The pit here is delicious arriving warm at the table. We chose the three roe taramosalata. It’s made here with white cod roe, salmon roe and avruga ( herring roe). It was silky smooth and tasted great - especially on top of the wonderful pita bread. We actually ordered three servings of the pita - probably a bit too much but it is so good.
We all know that moussaka doesn’t normally have scallops in it, but it does here and it works brilliantly. The moussaka of eggplant, scallops and taramosalata is such a unique dish that is a first choice by many people. The layers look great and the combination works, deliciously.
Crispy, golden, flaky pastry filled with tasty spinach and cheese. Sound good? You bet it does and they do it well here. It actually does come to the table as a pie and you get slices served. It looks great and it really does taste just as good.
We find it really hard not to order halloumi when eating Greek. Really hard! This time we didn’t evern try to fight the urge at all. The halloumi came fried to a nice golden colour all topped with fig, thyme honey and crunchy pistachios. It certainly was a tasty mix of flavours and textures.
Our final dish was the lamb. Well it was a Greek restaurant - you can’t not have lamb can you? This dish is tender, juicy Greek spiced lamb shoulder served with beautifully crisp roasted potato wedges and lemon yoghurt. The meat literally falls apart and it all has beautiful flavours.
The mix of old and new here creates a great atmosphere. The carved stone walls attract a lot of attention as does the hanging baskets everywhere. Then there’s the contrast with their modern take on Greek food. It’s a clash of different times that works so well.
Alpha is a wonderful place to visit for great food in a lovely room. The warm white feel all around seems so - well so Greek - as befits this place.