Friends and I recently celebrated another friend’s birthday at Kokkari.

Although most of us have been to this Greek restaurant a few times before, I haven’t been there for two (maybe even three) years now.  I had forgotten about the tricky elevator one had to take down to the restrooms, but I did not forget the impressive fireplace or the very handsome wine cabinet room toward the back of the restaurant.  Not to mention their open kitchen where you can see all the chefs and kitchen staff working their magic.

Unfortunately, we also arrived on a day that had record-breaking hot temperature.  While the food was great and the company delightful, I can’t help but wished that there was some air conditioning in that restaurant.  But being in San Francisco where on most days, we experience 65 degree weather, restaurants will not install a/c just for one hot day a year.  Plus that day’s heat was an oddity and not a norm.

Back to the food…it was wonderful.  And friends (I will refer to them as “wine connoisseurs”) brought a couple of bottles of Veuve Clicquot (I think it was the yellow label, but I can be quite dizzy, so may be wrong) and a bottle of lovely red (did not catch label) to celebrate the occasion.  We had a lot of interaction with our waiter that night and let’s just say that the man deserved his tip.  By the way, the corkage fee for those of you who wishes to do the same is $20 a bottle.  Standard pricing as I did check with a couple of other restaurants around SF for this write-up.  In the same breath, I have to mention that if you have deep pockets, you may want to try Kokkari’s wine list, they have a wonderful selection of wines there.

At some point during the evening between our appetizer courses, we saw a roasted beast (lamb) being hauled from the fireplace to the kitchen.  Yes, I took a picture of that thanks to the elegantly beautiful birthday girl Ms. ELM who insisted that I should and proceeded to ask the Chef for permission.  Thanks to her, I got some great kitchen photos…I am actually quite shy.

I digress…The appetizers were all wonderful.  The one to note was the (lamb) riblets recommended by our elegantly beautiful birthday girl.  It was really good and quite meaty.

For main course, the elegantly beautiful birthday girl ordered the Lamb Chops (delicious, meaty, and they served up a good portion) after being indecisive about the Goat Stew (I don’t blame her…goat stew does sound kind of scary).  And being the handsome & generous gentleman, Mr. M ordered the Goat Stew (flavorful, delicious, and not gamey); so that we can all try this mystical dish.  Meanwhile, the ravishing & fabulous Ms. CE ordered the Sea Bream (very delicate tasting), and I ordered the Moussaka (comfort food, good flavoring, but did taste a bit gamey in comparison to the goat stew).  I couldn’t finish it because I ate too much of everyone else’s food.  On a beach somewhere in Hawai’i, the dashing & dapper Mr. P was (probably sipping a glass of vintage something something and) spiritually communicating to us via text messages about the evening as it progressed….

For dessert, we had some organic Miette Lemon Tart (cake fee is $2.00 per plate).  Although I have already written about Miette before, I am going to do a revisit soon through my blog, so shall mention the taste of that lemon tart there.

For now, this is another great food adventure with friends…

Kokkari | 200 Jackson Street | San Francisco, CA

what we had for dinner...