Restaurants
The Healthy Greek
While other similarly named Greek restaurants are busy passing off hot dog buns as bread, Queen Street newbie, The Healthy Greek, is serving up fast, top quality fare for very reasonable prices.
Now, while the origins of their recipes for goodness have come under fire recently, one thing still holds true: This food is good.
I stopped in with a friend on a weekday afternoon while in search of a healthy meal, and refuge from the mob of teenagers outside the CHUM building.
Once inside, I was taken aback by all the fresh food spread out along the long chrome counter. Colourful fresh veggies, meats of all kinds, big loaves of Ace bread and, the ultimate mouthwatering treat, spinach and feta pie from Athens Bakery on the Danforth.
I would never have to return to the East end again!
(kidding!)
Though the salad bar (pictured above) was tempting, we decide to order up one Spanikopita (spinach pie) ($3.99) and one custom grilled sandwich with side salad ($6.48).
The grilled sandwich order involves choosing your bread, several ingredients and a spread.
Behind a pane of glass on the counter sit a long line of fresh loaves of Ace Bakery bread. We keep things Greek and go with a soft dark olive loaf and smother it in porcini mushroom spread. For the space between the slices, we go with grilled chicken, roasted red peppers, zucchini and havarti cheese.
Taking a seat in the back while the sandwich is being grilled, I dig right into the delicious phyllo layers of the spanikopita.
It always amazes me how Athen's Bakery can consistently create such a flavourful pie that is never, ever, greasy or heavy. You just have to taste it to believe it.
In moments, the sandwich is toasted to perfection and served hot. The flavours blend well and the fresh bread really seals the deal.
I can't say enough good things about the option of darker sliced breads as opposed to the usual thick buns that grilled sandwiches come served in. It brings out the flavour of the sandwich and leaves you feeling satisfied without having to adjust any belt notches.
I'll definitely be back for more healthy Greek.
--
The Healthy Greek
247 Queen Street West
(Between Duncan & Simcoe)
Discussion
20 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
Another one to add to my list when I come up...hopefully, this weekend.
I LOVE Greek food. Fortunately, we have a couple here in Rochester that are good, but nothing compares to the ones up there or on Danforth.
I find it impossible to overlook the breach of ethics this new establishment is based on... as the article states, building on a borrowed idea is one thing, but their sandwich and salad bar setup is wholesale rip-off. Why would you support these goofs with the real thing just across the street?
This place has the best Chicken Shawarma in the city, and yes sure they have the exact same breads and spreads as Sandwich Box (another of my fav lunch destinations) but they only have souvlaki, shawarma and gyros meat available so it's not the same thing.
I was put off a bit by the story and their "ethics" (or lack thereof)...OK...I'm going to the Sandwich Box!
mmmm, Spanakopita
what a shitty place. scummy owner. I hope torontonians avoid this place at all costs, and get his scum bag self to close down. Pathetic.
For those wondering about the Sandwich Box, you can try out their offerings (the originals in many cases) by heading to the market building across from CHUM.
It's just sandwiches, guys. Man.
Steve - I don't believe the Sandwich box carries the Spanikopita... that's only at Healthy Greek.
Lovely photos on this story, Tanja!
Now that's some healthy food!
hahahaha!! Went for lunch there today - wanted a GREEEEEK Salad with my Souvlaki combo and was told that they only do MIXED GREENS SALAD. WTF?! The Healthy Greek DOESN'T do GREEK salad???
Apparently you can switch the mixed greens to ROMAINE lettuce and have that instead. But, seriously...what a fuss when we tried to order a GREEK salad! It wasn't like we were asking for BUTTER CHICKEN!!
I had a Healthy Greek lunch with lamb gyro.
Did not enjoy it at all. Totally tasteless and I can't see what's "Healthy" about it. The meal was completely boring. Even the best condiments wouldn't have saved it... and you have to pay an extra buck for Tzatziki.
You do get a lot of food, though. I'll try a different meal next time.
The management is completely messed.
Hope they go out of business.
Owner is a complete douch bag. I hope he gets a fat black cock up his ass until his eyes pop out.
There's some talk about the sandwich box here. Even though, they're "just" sandwiches, their most mundane offerings blow away anything The Healthy Greek can put together. Except the Spanikopita. And I don't think they even make their own Spanikopita.
this place was AMAZINGGGG i am a really picky eatter but i loved the meal. Who gives a shit if they "copied" another restaurant the food and service was great.
What a rip-off!!!
The owner (short guy, beady eyes) will take any and all tactics to make screw you out of money, by either giving you less or sneaking in heavier salad items dis-proportionately to up his sale.
They just lost my business for good.
I've ate here on two occasions, dine in and take-out.
Dine in was the chicken breast dinner. Food was tasty, and there were healthy portions of starch and salad, but I couldn't help feel that the chicken breast portion was quite minimal, almost as if they had served me half a chicken breast. Plate was just over $12.00.
Take-out was for a chicken breast salad. Firstly, I wanted a Greek Salad, from a place that had GREEK in it's name. But no dice, they don't even feature that on the menu, only a "build-a-salad" option, that maxes out your price to approximately $10 for a salad, meat, and 3 or 4 toppings of your choice.
Once again, I was extremely disappointed at the portioned size for the chicken breast, which almost seemed smaller than the one I had received with the dinner.
Overall, the food is fresh, and it tastes great, but for the price point, I feel it's a rip off when it comes to the meat, as you can pay 10-12 dollars for a dinner plate or salad, and get WAY more for what you pay.
The food is not fresh, the Greek salad lacks the taste of olive oil, and the Spanakopita was stale - but nicely warmed up. I will never go to this place again. To top it off, the owner gave me a dirty look, when i didn't tip for my takeout.
A horrible experience.
Owner is from Albania and has nothing to do with Greece.
Rude and greedy, are a few words for the management.
You don’t want to be there at all, especially if they have a big take out order to do.
If you are going to spend money on food, go somewhere else.