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A visit to Taverne Mykonos in Nagold…

Bill and I had been wanting to try Taverne Mykonos in Nagold for a long time, but never managed to get there until last night.  The weather was perfect and, as usual, I was game for Greek food.  Taverne Mykonos is very close to another of our favorite Nagold haunts, Osteria da Gino.  The weather was so nice I was almost tempted to just go have dinner with Gino last night.  But I pride myself on trying new places, so we stuck with the plan and had yet more Greek food.

The outside of the restaurant is nice…  

The inside is even nicer.  Bill looks at the menu.

 

When we arrived at about 6:30, Taverne Mykonos was hopping.  The biergarten appeared to be pretty full and so was the main dining room, which is where we were seated.  Service was a bit slow, likely due to the large influx of people, some of whom had to wait at the door or get takeout.

I decided on dorade, so Bill ordered me a glass of white Athos.  It was fine, though nothing really eye opening.  He had the red version of Athos to go with the lamb filet he ordered.  He had wanted lamb skewers, but they apparently were out of something.

I snapped this shot as they opened the blinds.  The sun wasn’t quite down, so I was temporarily blinded by the light.

Salads took awhile to get to us.  We each had a different kind.

Mine was lettuce, kraut, corn, carrots, cucumbers, a slice of tomato, and some kind of green garnish that had no distinctive flavor.  The creamy dressing was nice.  It reminded me a little of ranch dressing.

Bill’s salad was a little more Greek, with cubes of very red, ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, a sweet pepper, an olive, and feta cheese.

 

Our main dishes also took awhile to reach us, but they turned out to be well worth the wait.  I generally expect dorade to take awhile, anyway.

This dorade was served with a fish sauce and lots of oven baked potatoes.  It was very nicely done and completely cooked, which is more than I can say about the last dorade I had in a restaurant.

But Bill’s lamb was absolutely amazing.  I don’t even usually like lamb, but I would happily eat this dish.  The filets were extremely tender and not gamey at all.  The beans were lightly seasoned with herbs.  The t’zatziki was also good, made with plenty of lemon juice.

It took awhile longer for our plates to be cleared and the check to be brought.  The hardworking staff at Taverne Mykonos was working hard last night.  But we parted with a 45 euro bill and a couple of house shots of ouzo.  After we ate, we went over to Gino’s and picked up a bottle of primitivo to enjoy at home.  The weather was perfect.  I almost felt like strolling by the river, but Bill wanted to get home.

All in all, we enjoyed our first meal at Taverne Mykonos.  I suspect we’ll be back, though I still think I like Taverne beim Griechen’s version of Greek food the best, at least in our area.

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Turkish food!

Last night, Bill and I met a couple of friends at Mediterranean Turkish Grill.  We happened to spot the restaurant’s location on Sunday, when we went to The Cheesecake Factory.  The Mediterranean Turkish Grill is in a strip mall right next to North Star Mall in San Antonio.  Our friends had eaten there before and had a Groupon, so we met them there.  We each brought bottles of wine, since the restaurant has no liquor license.  In Texas, you can bring your own wine to places that don’t serve alcohol.

I was kind of excited about the prospect of Turkish food, since I spent two years living in Armenia and while I was there, had the chance to go to Turkey for a couple of weeks.  Turkey is one of the neatest places to visit, even though I went with a female friend and we both got harassed a lot.  What can I say?  We were young, female, and from the West, and some of the men thought we were whores.  Aside from that, we had a great time.  It was a trip in which we really roughed it.

So we went into the restaurant and it looked like a quaint, unassuming place with plain tables and modest Turkish decor and Turkish pop played from the kitchen.  A very handsome young man, obviously a member of the family who owned the place, handed us menus.  There was lots of lamb, beef, and chicken on the menu.  No pork, obviously!  They brought out wonderful, fresh, hot bread, which we garnished with flavored oil… it tasted like garlic.

We ordered hummus and eggplant salad.  The waiter also brought out babaganoush, which is an eggplant dip.

I went vegetarian with falafel…  The falafel was very good and I had plenty leftover for today.

Bill had lamb kebab…

Our friends both had the same dish… which I can’t remember the name of just now.  They’d had it before and said it was outstanding.

I think we’ll be back. This place had a lot of character and charm and the food was very good.  I like to support restaurants that aren’t a part of chains.

The restaurant was pretty quiet last night.  There were only a couple of other parties in the place when we were in there.  One party appeared to be from Turkey.  I heard them speaking Turkish.

It was fun seeing our friends again.  I need more nights like last night to help me get into the Texas lifestyle.  Our friends had also seen the Book of Mormon Musical at the Majestic Theatre before we went and they loved it as much as we did.

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