Looking for lemon at A Taste of Greece in River Edge

A lamb burger with grilled vegetables, accented with thick balsamic vinegar, above, and a side salad, below, were part of a lunch special at A Taste of Greece, a small, moderately priced Greek restaurant in River Edge.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

My friend suggested we meet for lunch at one of his favorite restaurants, A Taste of Greece in River Edge.

I agreed, hoping to avoid the high prices and small portions at Bibi'z, Mezza and other so-called Mediterranean restaurants.

A Taste of Greece offers tasty and filling lunches for under $15 that include side dishes or the soup of the day.

My friend ordered a special on Thursday: A lamb burger with grilled vegetables and a small salad ($12.95).

I don't eat meat, and hoped to have seafood.

One special included salmon and swordfish kabobs, but I wanted to avoid the latter, a big fish with a lot of mercury.

So, I ordered the Crispy Calamari Salad, served over one of my favorite greens, peppery arugula; with grilled vegetables, dressed in thick balsamic vinegar, and the soup of the day ($13.95).

A close-up of the large Crispy Calamari Salad with grilled tomatoes on a bed of arugula, above, and a side dish of grilled vegetables, below.

 Catch of the day

Unfortunately, the soup of the day was Chicken Avgolemono, the wonderfully sunny Greek lemon soup I've enjoyed so many times before I stopped eating meat and poultry.

I would have eaten the chicken broth, but the waitress said there was shredded chicken in the soup, and I didn't want that.

I asked her if I could have extra grilled vegetables and she said she wasn't sure, and I don't know whether I got the standard portion or not.

But something was missing in my Crispy Calamari Salad:

A wedge or two of lemon to squeeze over the tender and greaseless, but under-seasoned, rings and the arugula, which didn't appear to have a dressing.

I've been eating Greek food for decades, and have noticed that lemon is as important to the cuisine as the sun is to life.

Only a couple of other tables were occupied, but it took a while to get the lemon wedges while the staff was busy handling its brisk takeout business.

I liked the food and would return, but have a couple of minor complaints:

Small paper napkins, and the difficulty of driving into and out of the upwardly sloping corner strip mall on busy Kinderkamack Road and Midland Avenue. 

Complimentary taramasalata (fish roe spread or dip) and grilled Greek pita with oil.

Two views of the interior, above and below, and the open kitchen.

A Taste of Greece, 935C Kinderkamack Road, River Edge; 201-967-0029. BYO, small parking lot with difficult entry and exit. Serves lunch and dinner. Reservations recommended for dinner.

Food that tastes better than it looks

At So Gong Dong, red pepper in a stone bowl of soft-tofu stew, above, and kimchi, below, may turn off people who want to try Korean food, but the stew is available without spice, as are a seafood pancake, barbecue, bean sprouts and other dishes. 

 

It was 28 degrees outside on Saturday when we set out for So Gong Dong in Palisades Park, knowing that it was bubbling hot inside the Korean soft-tofu house.

We find ourselves returning to So Gong Dong regularly, because there are no surprises at a restaurant that can feed us well for $9.99 each, including tax.

That's the price of a soft-tofu stew, which comes with seafood, beef, pork or kimchi, and can be made with hot water in place of beef broth.

For $9.99, you also get a stone bowl of steamed white rice, a fresh egg to break into the bubbling hot stew and four side dishes -- two kimchis, bean sprouts and raw squid in red pepper.

What's not to like?

A week earlier, we tried an Indian restaurant in Edgewater called Kinara, and was surprised by a $10 charge for a basket of bread the owner offered when he took our order.  

Thankfully, there's no bread at So Gong Dong, and nobody pushes food on you.

But if you want to get the attention of a server, there is a button on each table to ring a chime. 
 

Korean masks at So Gong Dong, 118 Broad Ave., Second Floor, Palisades Park.

   


After we left So Gong Dong, we stopped at the ShopRite in Palisades Park in search of spicy instant ramyun soup and bulgogi marinade, but were disappointed the store doesn't stock any Korean food.

The young employee who I asked for help led me to the aisle with "Asian food," but he had never eaten Korean food and had no idea what I was talking about.

The Palisades Park ShopRite does have the biggest tropical fish tank I've ever seen in a supermarket. 


Hot cereal blues

  

This Silver Palate Oatmeal took on a blue tinge from the frozen wild blueberries I added, along with pine nuts, goji berries, dried cherries and organic agave syrup.

A 16-ounce box of this outmeal is on sale for $1.99 -- not 99 cents, as I said earlier -- at ShopRite supermarkets with a store card and a coupon from the Sunday newspaper.

A taste of grease?

We received coupons from a restaurant in River Edge with the ambiguous name of A Taste of Greece.

I recall eating at the small BYO a few years ago and enjoying the Greek food (935C Kinderkamack Road, open 7 days).

The name becomes a problem when it is spoken to someone who is not familiar with it.

So, you can assume this place hasn't succeeded by word of mouth.