Growing up in St. Lucia, Amphora was my local restaurant and a favourite with my family. It's been around for years and is the closest thing we have to fine dining in an area heavily populated with students and cheap eats. It's situated on Hawken Drive near Ironside State School, away from the main area of Hawken Dr shops, in a small group of shops including a bottle shop which is handy given that Amphora is BYO. Amphora is a family-run Greek restaurant which you can count on to always get reasonably priced meals which are consistently good. The menu has had a few minor changes over the years but has generally stayed the same, with a few favourites even making a comeback.
The must-order dish is the Mezze platter. Unless there are only a few of you and you want to try other menu items, get the large one ($35). It includes a large selection of delicious things including meatballs, dolmathes, calamari, whiting, grilled and raw vegetables, feta, spinach filo pastries and a selection of dips with amazing soft bread. Then there are a selection of entrees with the $16-18 range. My favourite is the Ouzo Prawns which comes with several large prawns lightly pan fried in a delicious tomato-based ouzo sauce, served on saffron rice and with feta ($18). It's delicious and a is a really generous serving for an entree. You can also get the lightly fried calamari from the mezze platter as a separate serve and it comes with the most delicious tomato, garlic and onion sauce ($16). Mains range from $30-35 and include a small selection of meat, fish and vegetarian dishes including my personal favourite, the half-duckling glazed with berry sauce and served on a sweet potato rosti and with sugar snap peas ($35). There are some sides available too but I've never ordered them. There is also always a specials board which regularly includes traditional Greek dishes such as moussaka.
The dessert menu includes a trio of sorbets and traditional Greek sweets such as baklava and galaktoboureko and few others such as bread and butter pudding. I'm generally too full by then to contemplate dessert but luckily to sate my sweet tooth, the bill tends to come out with a few pieces of yummy Turkish delight.
Amphora isn't super fancy but it does do great, delicious food and you will feel comfortable there. It's not a large restaurant and is busy all nights of the week so make sure you make a booking. However if you don't get a table and are craving their food, they do takeaway! Meals aren't particularly quick however so don't go there expecting a quick meal. And it can get noisy on busy nights - generally the weekend. They're also closed on Sunday and Monday nights and generally for all of January each year. However, this little things that you might find annoying are completely worth it - I never come away from Amphora dissatisfied! read more
