Mourayo, Washington, D.C.

Our friend John from Beverly Hills is in town for a few days, so we took him to lunch yesterday at Mourayo, a "contemporary" Greek restaurant north of Dupont Circle.

Naturally, we had to start out with beer. John loves beer. I don't know why. Must be his Lambda Chi background. Didn't some Lamb Chop alumnus country western singer do a song about the beer keg in the closet or some such? I think that's all Lamb Chops do is drink beer. Anyway, John wanted Greek beer, and they had two offerings, a mild lager called Keo (which was actually from Cyprus) and a hoppier, slightly more bitter lager called Aris.

John and Laurent split a garides saganaki for a first course. This was a plate of fried shrimp in a tomato and feta cheese sauce arranged around a mound of sautéed julienne of fennel.


Ryan had the poughi, a "beggar's pouch" of phyllo dough encasing a manouri cheese and roasted pepper filling.


I had the soup of the day, a seafood stew in a lobster broth. I particularly enjoyed my soup, since it had lots of seafood in it, plus a very rich, almost buttery taste.


There were so many delicious sounding entrees, it was hard to make a selection. John chose the kotopoulo me hilopites, a big bowl of Greek style egg noodles with chicken and tomato sauce.


Ryan had some football-shaped meatball stewed in tomato sauce and served with riced potatoes dusted with chopped parsley and asparagus spears.


Laurent had a particularly interesting looking cold seafood sampler platter. There were sardines, anchovies, clams, mussels, shrimp, diced octopus, and I don't know what else.


I got the hirini e prasines elies, a very good dish of diced pork tenderloin tossed with mushrooms, olives, and almonds simmered in white wine and served over orzo (rice-shaped pasta). It was quite filling, and I loved the melange of flavors.


They had lots of fun options for dessert. Even though we were already nicely stuffed, we ordered some anyway. John got the melon balls with lemon sorbet doused with ouzo (a nasty Greek liquor that reeks of licorice). Ryan didn't get anything and sampled other things.

Laurent got a phyllo dough bowl filled with yogurt and fresh strawberries, then drizzled with thyme-scented honey. I had something called " galaktoboureko," a citrus-flavored custard baked in between layers of phyllo dough and served warm.


It's always a pleasure dining at Mourayo, even if I do always get seated at the same window table every time I go in to eat. I like the clean, contemporary look of the dining room, the sailor suits on the waiters, and the interesting menus.