Restaurant review: Andreas

With one of her friends visiting, Lauren and I tried a new (to us) restaurant on Friday, Andreas Restaurant on Thayer Street in Providence. It's a Greek restaurant, but it seemed very Italian to me, in that our server seemed most intent on ignoring us for long periods of time: it took forever for her to come greet us in the first place, but then we hadn't received a drink menu, and it took her even longer to come back with water or to take our drink orders once we'd seem said specialized menus. Really, it wasn't a great first impression they made.

Actually, the very first impression was quite nice. They have two dining options: guests can eat outside on a beautiful night such as this was or they can have a shorter wait to immerse themselves in the fine ambiance offered indoors. The first impression, the place's atmosphere, was great. The wait was really the second view of the place, which wasn't so great.

At any rate, any negative impressions from the slowness of service aside, the place was certainly busy, so a certain amount of the wait--let's say half of it--can be excused on those grounds. The rest, ultimately, could be excused because the food was so darned good. We had a Greek appetizer platter to start, the Hot Meze Platter: what we got was advertised as "for 2," but it was easily sufficient for three of us. More than sufficient, it was excellent. The soup, which I think was a chicken Avgolemono Soup, was delicious. As far as entrees go, we were disappointed that all the specials were gone (but then, it was after 8 before we got there), but the braised lamb was great--not only was the lamb great, but the brussel sprouts it was served with were both very good on their own terms and an excellent complement to the lamb. Believe me, I say this as someone who has never met a brussel sprout he liked, yet I loved these little sprouts. Lauren's salad, with its goat cheeses, tomatoes, artichoke hearts and I don't know what else was so good that it didn't even need a dressing, though I'm told the raspberry vinaigrette tasted excellent.

The value was also good--three of us could have eaten for around $60 if two of us hadn't settled our hearts and taste buds on a bottle of wine. Even so, as great-tasting restaurants in Rhode Island go--and there seem to be a lot of them--the prices seemed quire reasonable.

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