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I’m a regular at the restaurant that is less than one block from my office and easily walkable from my house. If you’re wondering what to order, keep reading.
The tomato Florentine soup, made with Denominazione d’Origine Protetta tomatoes (grown and packaged in a specific region of Italy), is my friend Margaret’s favorite. However, she will also split the house burger with me, along with the amazing fries, of course. The chopped house salad with salami on the side and grilled chicken added is a personal fav, as is the shrimp Louie salad, my friend Tina’s go-to. Yes to the whipped feta appetizer, the Mediterranean chicken salad, all the flatbreads and all the bowls. If you don’t like falafel or the lamb/beef blend, sub chicken. The pizzas (flour imported from Italy) are all fabulous, but you must insist on the Italian sausage pizza even if you don’t eat sausage. And the chocolate gelato is divine, that rich, deep chocolate taste is a must even if you ate too much pizza.
But after the chef’s recent trip across Greece and Turkey, Massey’s Kitchen recently added a special menu. Yes, it still features an amazing kids’ menu and main dishes like the Morroccan Shrimp and Tzatziki chicken, but get ready for a very special, very international treat, Mediterrean style.
MK invites us to buon appetito (enjoy food) and I’m here to tell you, this is not a polite, flippant invitation. They mean for us to really enjoy food, and a bit of foreign shores while we’re at it. I should have known something special was in store when I asked for the four of us to sit in a booth and lovely Lauren Faulker gently advised a larger table might be in order for the evening. She was not kidding!
After imbibing in a special strawberry basil margarita (very fruit forward, delicious and way too easy to drink), we were treated to calamari fritti, which is nothing like the heavy breaded version. Coated lightly in seasoned flour, it is flash fried then tossed in a salty Parmesan herb seasoning - simple, tasty and delicate.
The Greek salad added to the menu is not the American version with iceberg lettuce. Truly Greek, a block of feta, fresh sliced cucumber, tomato and peppers are tossed in red wine vinaigrette. Yum.
The new steak sandwich includes whipped feta and tahini sauce enfolding simple marinated sirloin, roasted peppers and baby arugula on a house made baguette (again made with imported flour).
New to the menu, the shrimp hilopites pasta is amazing. Colossal, succulent shrimp are tossed with garlic lemon butter, tomatoes, onion and feta and tossed with pasta. Sooooo good!
But the main reason we needed a larger table, and we certainly did, was for the Olos Thalassa, something I was not familiar with. I did not remember that Thalassa is the name of the Greek goddess who embodies the deep elemental waters of the Mediteranean Sea, or I would have known the dish was all about seafood. We actually began our meal with the Olos Thalassa and all knew something exceptional was underway when our waitress, Mahshid Malazizi, began to rearrange our plates and glasses and salad plates to create a sort of aisle down the center of the table. Soon brown craft paper stamped with the MK signature was unfurled ceremoniously down the length of the table along with proper fanfare. What could we do but raise our margarita glasses and chime in, Yamas, Greek for cheers.
Within minutes the “bounty of the sea” was spread before it in the same manner a low country shrimp boil is often presented. Except it was wow. Just wow. A mound of shrimp was heaped in front of us, and before we could take it all in, perfectly cooked mussels, clam, cod and prawns were layered on top like a work of art. Except that we were encouraged to dive in and dip anything we wanted in drawn butter and other sauces. Truly it was a vision, and folks walking by our table had to ooh and ahh as we rolled our sleeves up and dove into the delicious feast.
We enjoyed every bit of this bounty from the sea, and I highly recommend the Olos Thalassa. It’s special and a celebratory dish as well as a cultural journey. With these dishes at Massey’s Kitchen, you can experience a foreign country through its food, prepared in the tradition of that country. Truly, pull up to a table (make sure it’s large) and taste the soul of that country without even checking airfare.
by Ferris Robinson
The tomato Florentine soup, made with Denominazione d’Origine Protetta tomatoes (grown and packaged in a specific region of Italy), is my friend Margaret’s favorite. However, she will also split the house burger with me, along with the amazing fries, of course. The chopped house salad with salami on the side and grilled chicken added is a personal fav, as is the shrimp Louie salad, my friend Tina’s go-to. Yes to the whipped feta appetizer, the Mediterranean chicken salad, all the flatbreads and all the bowls. If you don’t like falafel or the lamb/beef blend, sub chicken. The pizzas (flour imported from Italy) are all fabulous, but you must insist on the Italian sausage pizza even if you don’t eat sausage. And the chocolate gelato is divine, that rich, deep chocolate taste is a must even if you ate too much pizza.
But after the chef’s recent trip across Greece and Turkey, Massey’s Kitchen recently added a special menu. Yes, it still features an amazing kids’ menu and main dishes like the Morroccan Shrimp and Tzatziki chicken, but get ready for a very special, very international treat, Mediterrean style.
MK invites us to buon appetito (enjoy food) and I’m here to tell you, this is not a polite, flippant invitation. They mean for us to really enjoy food, and a bit of foreign shores while we’re at it. I should have known something special was in store when I asked for the four of us to sit in a booth and lovely Lauren Faulker gently advised a larger table might be in order for the evening. She was not kidding!
After imbibing in a special strawberry basil margarita (very fruit forward, delicious and way too easy to drink), we were treated to calamari fritti, which is nothing like the heavy breaded version. Coated lightly in seasoned flour, it is flash fried then tossed in a salty Parmesan herb seasoning - simple, tasty and delicate.
The Greek salad added to the menu is not the American version with iceberg lettuce. Truly Greek, a block of feta, fresh sliced cucumber, tomato and peppers are tossed in red wine vinaigrette. Yum.
The new steak sandwich includes whipped feta and tahini sauce enfolding simple marinated sirloin, roasted peppers and baby arugula on a house made baguette (again made with imported flour).
New to the menu, the shrimp hilopites pasta is amazing. Colossal, succulent shrimp are tossed with garlic lemon butter, tomatoes, onion and feta and tossed with pasta. Sooooo good!
But the main reason we needed a larger table, and we certainly did, was for the Olos Thalassa, something I was not familiar with. I did not remember that Thalassa is the name of the Greek goddess who embodies the deep elemental waters of the Mediteranean Sea, or I would have known the dish was all about seafood. We actually began our meal with the Olos Thalassa and all knew something exceptional was underway when our waitress, Mahshid Malazizi, began to rearrange our plates and glasses and salad plates to create a sort of aisle down the center of the table. Soon brown craft paper stamped with the MK signature was unfurled ceremoniously down the length of the table along with proper fanfare. What could we do but raise our margarita glasses and chime in, Yamas, Greek for cheers.
Within minutes the “bounty of the sea” was spread before it in the same manner a low country shrimp boil is often presented. Except it was wow. Just wow. A mound of shrimp was heaped in front of us, and before we could take it all in, perfectly cooked mussels, clam, cod and prawns were layered on top like a work of art. Except that we were encouraged to dive in and dip anything we wanted in drawn butter and other sauces. Truly it was a vision, and folks walking by our table had to ooh and ahh as we rolled our sleeves up and dove into the delicious feast.
We enjoyed every bit of this bounty from the sea, and I highly recommend the Olos Thalassa. It’s special and a celebratory dish as well as a cultural journey. With these dishes at Massey’s Kitchen, you can experience a foreign country through its food, prepared in the tradition of that country. Truly, pull up to a table (make sure it’s large) and taste the soul of that country without even checking airfare.
by Ferris Robinson
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