Detailed review by tartlette
tartlette
Cardiff, United Kingdom93%
Another of the restaurants we visited on our trip to Banff was the Balkan restaurant. Mr Tart had visited this one on his last trip to Banff and had really enjoyed it so we knew we wanted to visit.
LOCATION:
The Balkan is located at 120 Banff Avenue, the main road through Banff. It is within walking distance of most of Banff's hotels.
THE EXPERIENCE:
We booked a table for our night in the Balkan because it was Greek night and we knew it was going to be busy. The restaurant is popular so I would recommend booking, especially on Greek night.
We were shown to our table which was on the mezzanine level. The restaurant décor is quite modern and doesn't look particularly Greek. We were given a menu to look through but it did take a while before our waiter came over to talk to us. He took our drinks order (beer for me and red wine for Mr Tart which were both averagely priced for Banff, the beer was $6.50 each and the wine was $18 for a half litre). They have a choice of Greek or international wine. You can also have cocktails and a choice of beers and soft drinks. He then ran through a long spiel about the restaurant's most popular dishes, which included details of ingredients and how they were cooked. I would have preferred him to have only gone through this if we had asked as he did it at every table and this made the service quite slow.
To start I had Greek bruschetta, which was a crispy pitta bread with feta, olives, tomatoes and onions on top. It was really delicious. Mr Tart had keftedes, which were meatballs served with a tzatziki sauce which he loved. My main course was the arni kleftiko or stolen lamb. This was lamb baked with peas, carrots, potatoes and feta. The lamb was beautifully tender and the meal was yummy, although I couldn't finish it all as there was so much, especially after quite a large starter. Mr Tart had the lagos stifado which was a rabbit and onion stew. He devoured this so it must have been yummy!
There was a huge variety on the menu and I could have happily eaten a lot more of the dishes. To start there are dishes like calamari, baked feta and dolmathes. There are also dips such as hummus which are served with pitta bread. The prices for starters range from $11 to $29 for the platter to share. There are also soups and salads available. For the main course there are dishes such as mousaka, a seafood platter of calamari, halibut and prawns, ribs or kebabs. The prices for mains range from $13 for a pasta dish to $29 for some of the meat dishes. In total our meal came to around £30 per head which I didn't think was too bad for where we were. We had no room for dessert but there were things like baklava and cheesecake.
The main reason we chose the Balkan was because we wanted to experience Greek night. The owners of the restaurant are from Greece and their son runs the entertainment on Greek night. First of all they have some Greek dancing where customers are taught some dance moves. Then they have plate smashing followed by a resident belly dancer who makes her way round all the tables and gets lots of the customers to stand up with her (although not us thank goodness!). This was a lot of fun but I wish they'd given everyone a chance to do some plate smashing as only a couple of people got to do this.
CONCLUSION:
I would highly recommend this restaurant. The food was seriously delicious and the atmosphere was great. The service was a little slow at times but it wasn't the biggest problem. The Greek night was fun but I would have liked to be able to smash a plate - I guess I'll have to make a trip to Greece itself! I thought the prices were reasonable. It's definitely one to add to the list for any trip to Banff!
Balkan Restaurant9
