Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Jims Greek Tavern – Michaels Birthday


To celebrate Michaels birthday (and his sister Julie born on the same day), we had a great meal at Jims Tavern in Collingwood with the whole family. This place has been here for what seems forever to me, though is actually about 28 years. I have been here many times in the past & when you need something not too fancy – Michael has a very fussy & plain eating brother & dad, it’s just perfect. It’s nice to go somewhere where there are no menus & you can just leave the decisions in the waiter’s hands after indicating your preference for meat, seafood, etc, nice to be able to just enjoy the night & know that a feast will soon be served up. Jim’s is byo & you will not be given a wine glass & instead are left to use the simple water glasses provided, I do not have a problem with this as I’m not hear for a fancy restaurant just good simple food. The décor also is simple taverna style, tables covered with paper tablecloths & very simple crockery/cutlery, the atmosphere makes up for it though, always packed, bustling and noisy with conversation of the diners around you enjoying them selves. Last night was no exception, to start with we had the fairly conventional platters of dips, olives & veggies, saganaki & bbq octopus with baskets overflowing full of warm soft bread to eat it all up with. The dips were very good, the fried cheese with a squeeze of lemon was superb, I could eat slabs of this all by myself I love it so much & the octopus had that lovely charcoal flavour that I love. Next we had some huge grilled prawns, calamari, grilled blue-eye fillets, succulent lamb chops & some shaved lamb with onions & of course Greek salad on the side. The meal was thoroughly enjoyed by all, even the fussy ones! After all of this food we were stuffed silly though so retired back to my place to squeeze in some birthday cake. I would definitely recommend this place to all.

Jims Greek Tavern
32 Johnston St
Collingwood, VIC 3066
Daily 6:00pm-12:00am
Tel: (03) 9419-3827
American Express, Bankcard, Cash, Cheque, Diners Club, EFTPOS, Mastercard, VISA

3 comments:

Reb said...

SOunds fab-o! I love places like this that just bring it on and let you enjoy. The food looks rustic and simple, and totally delicious. Ditto the water glasses. I once drank Dom Perignon out of a scratched Duralex tumbler and it tasted just as good ... I was in Venice though :)

neil said...

Happy Birthday to Michael and to you as well for this weekend. I haven't been to Jims for twenty years, sounds like they still use the same glasses. Do they still dance on the tables?

Ange said...

Thks for the birthday wishes, unfortuntely on Tuesday nights there is no dancing on the tables, will have to find somewhere for that this weekend during the continuing celebrations