Restaurant: Inotheke
Location: 606 Broadway #101, Santa Monica, CA 90401. 310) 458-3366
Date: March 19 & November 11, 2016
Cuisine: Modern Greek
Rating: Good flavors
I’m always on the lookup for new local restaurants, plus I like Greek food, so I as excited to hear about modern Greek eatery Inotheke.
Located right near the promenade on Broadway.
The menu is full of reinvented classics, but tuned toward sharing and small plates.
Likewise the interior is modern and clean, with only a touch of blue and white to remind us of the “theme.”
Tzatziki. I never eat Greek without ordering my favorite tangy yogurt. This version was pretty good. Tangy, garlicky, but not as thick as I like it.
The pita was grilled, soft, and greek style.
Oven Roasted Beet salad. Arugula, goat cheese, red onion, dill, lemon vinaigrette. Fairly typical, but still a tasty salad.
Spanakopitakia. Feta, kaseri, spinach, red pepper. Got to love fried pastry encrusted cheese!
Scallop tartare. Cucumber, lemon, olive, chili flakes. This had a good bit of dill too and was quite “Greek” in flavor. The scallops were nicely firm. Good stuff overall.
Salmon “Exohiko”. (11/5/16) Filo Pastry, Eggplant, Zucchini, Capers. Basically salmon baked in a pastry!
Shrimp Saganaki. Tomato Sauce, feta, ouzo. A version of the classic greek dish. Sometimes in Greece it was cheesier and creamier, but this was solid. Lots of acid.
Scallop Saganaki (11/5/16). Tomato, Feta, Ouzo, Scallions, Rice. On our second visit, Inotheke mixed up their Saganaki, venturing away from the classic shrimp to scallop (never seen that in Greece) and adding in some lovely rice underneath. The rice alone made this version better.
Lamb & Orzo. Tomato, Parmesan. My favorite dish of the night. Basically like a lamb risotto or pasta. Nice texture from the orzo and appropriate lambiness from the soft meat, plus the cheese really worked.
Moussaka. (11/5/16) Ground Beef, Eggplant, Zucchini, “Bechamel”. A nice version of one of my favorite Greek dishes. Lots of goopy Béchamel!
Overall I liked Inotheke and I’ll be back. Sometimes I like my Greek pretty “traditional” but this split a nice balance as they had many of traditional dishes, merely with updated plating (that’s a plus). Flavors were good and bright and I like the sharing format — plus it’s very convenient.