Taverna Kyklades

Taverna Kyklades has been a very low grade stress on my relationship with my fiancee for about a year. Every time we walk by (and we walk by often), I point at the giant lines outside and say something like "you know, we should try it". Plus, Kyklades sounds to me in my head like Cyclops, even though that's not how it's pronounced, and the idea of dining at Taverna Cyclops appeals for a variety of juvenile reasons. My fiancee always answers with something like "but I've heard it isn't very clean, and by the way, it smells".

So, we visited last night. And Kyklades really does smell - a sort of constant musk of fish and coals. The open kitchen reassures me about cleanliness, and the fish was quite good. I especially liked my dark, full of flavor sardines, which stand up well to the traditional Greek fish cooking technique (Char until dead on coals). My fiancee's red mullets were less good, though still fine, and full of the inevitable pin bones (for which Kyklades cannot really be blamed, but which speaks well of traditional fussy french technique, in which bones would have been removed and the fish rendered easy to eat). I was delighted by the galaktabouriko dessert, which is a free add on, and was fresh and just sweet enough.

Though this all did made me think of an interesting question - Would you rather have a free dessert, or be able to choose your own dessert for an extra price? The answer says much about your personality, I've decided.