I don't typically try new restaurants until they've been open for some time, but partner was dying to check out Ithaki, a new Greek restaurant that supposedly is aiming to revitalize the neighborhood and that opened last week.
Vibe-wise, it definitely feels more like a Fulton Market kind of place rather than a Greektown restaurant, in ambience, clientele, design/decor, and overall menu pricing. The space is huge and, rather than looking a traditional Greek taverna, is designed more like "modern" Greek restaurants you might find in Athens. Music was loud and clubby (modern Greek pop/dance music). The bar area seems great, especially with the large garage-type doors that they can open when it's nice out.
We ordered the octopus starter and the smaller horiatiki (they call it a village salad but it's a standard Greek salad), the gigantes, pork souvlaki, the youvetsi (lamb with orzo), and a bottle of Cretan wine the sommelier recommended after chatting with us for 5-7 mins. I had zero expectations of the food coming in, given the vibe I got from the social media and local food "writing" advertisements they've been doing, but ultimately I found everything to be quite good. Octopus was unevenly flavored, with some pieces being great and others being bland. The salad was great and is among the better horiatiki I've had in the city (I want to know where they get their tomatoes as they were awesome). The gigantes were very well-seasoned, I could have just drank the broth they came in. The souvlaki was just fine (I was hoping for better as I feel like a self-respecting Greek place should have killer pork souvlaki), while the youvetsi was very good — would definitely order that again.
I probably could have eaten more, and we had our eyes on several more things but decided to be reasonable. Will definitely be back to try more of the menu. Service was pretty good and unremarkable (a good thing, in my book) — they are quite well-staffed so water/wine glasses were never empty. Special shoutout to Jeremy the sommelier, who was delightful and very knowledgable. After chatting with him about our preferences, he not only suggested a great bottle for us but also returned mid-meal to give us complimentary tastes of two other wines he really likes and thought we'd enjoy (we loved both). He also gave us a list of a few more bottles to try next time we come back — he seems quite thoughtful and deliberate about the wine program he's running, and their massive but also very unique wine list should be super exciting to anyone who's interested in wines from Greece and the surrounding areas.
For dessert, we got the whipped yogurt with (blue) honey — very tasty and super cool, I think they just added in a crap ton of whipped heavy cream, which was delightful and made for a really interesting texture/mouthfeel.
Overall/TLDR: enjoyed Ithaki, will go back. Food overall was good to very good; a touch pricey but not out of line with what similar places are charging. No BS service fees is a plus. Wine list is probably the most compelling aspect of this place for me, but everything was solid.
by Ovy_on_the_Drager
Dining and Cooking