Golden cheese, lemony broth and edible bowls: a Mediterranean love affair in Chennai

At the ongoing OPA – Home Style Greek Cuisine food fest at DOU a unit of Pricol Gourmet Enterprise, the kitchen doesn’t just dabble in Mediterranean cravings, it dives in, unapologetically rich, cheese-first and tomato-soaked. Each dish here feels like it’s been kissed by the Aegean sun, rolled in dill, and handed to you by a stubborn Greek grandmother who insists you must eat more.

Here's what you can try out at this Greek Cuisine food fest at DOU

Let’s start where we began, the Avgolemono. An egg-lemon soup that’s creamy without being heavy, citrusy without being sour. The dill adds a quiet complexity that lingers. There’s pasta and chicken hiding underneath, tender and filling. There’s only one thing harder than pronouncing “Avgolemono” correctly on the first try, and that’s stopping at just one spoonful of it. An absolute must-have.

The Salata horiatiki arrives with theatre, a salad served in a bread bowl. Vinaigrette-drizzled cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, green and Kalamata olives, dill. It’s crunchy, punchy, and totally slurpable, thanks to the vinaigrette pooling at the bottom of the edible bowl.

Now onto the cheese. This festival doesn’t shy away from it. Tirokroketes, golden balls of fried cheese, sit on a bed of Tyrokafteri (a spicy feta dip made with roasted bell peppers), topped with diced black olives and crumbled feta. If dairy is your love language, this is where you say “I do.”

But it’s the Saganaki halloumi that deserves an ovation. Halloumi, fried in clarified butter until golden, then coated in spiced honey, garlic, and pistachios, is placed gently on lemony yoghurt and paired with roasted slices of plums. The result is a dish that’s savoury, sweet, sticky, nutty, smoky. If not anything else, you should try this and this alone.

The Greek sheet pan chicken pulls off something deceptively simple, and yet utterly addictive. The chicken is juicy and well seasoned, resting on a bed of roasted zucchini, bell peppers, onions, and briny olives. There’s a creamy whisper of feta, some pita on the side, and something about the way all those flavours marry together makes you keep going back even when you’re painfully full. And we were.

And just when we thought we couldn’t eat more, along came dessert. A chocolate éclair, long and bold and decadent enough to be its own standalone dish. If this festival were a movie, the éclair would be the dramatic exit line before the credits roll.

Meal for two: Rs 850++. From 8 am to 10 pm (Sunday to Thursday), and till 11 pm (Friday and Saturday). At DOU, Nungambakam and Alwarpet.

For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels.