Athos in Guilderland

About a week ago my wife and I had dinner at the new Greek place in Guilderland, Athos. We enjoyed it. It's in the same spot which used to be Cabernet Cafe and before that Figliomeni's.

We started with the Horiatiki Salad, which looks, on the menu, like a typical greek salad. There were no olives though, and the feta that came with it was in two large slices. Usually a greek salad has olives and the feta is crumbled. The menu does say olives, so that was probably a mistake (the place just opened). Serving the feta in the larger pieces was fine, but this dish was not their best and did not live up to our expectations.

We also had an appetizer where you pick three different "spreads" or dips to go with some pita bread. We had the tzatziki (yogurt based), the melitsanosalata (eggplant based) and the fava puree (fava beans of course). These were all quite good. I was a little surprised that hummus was not one of the options, but that's not a big deal.

One quick comment about both of these -- the appetizer and the salad were $12 each. That seemed a little overpriced. With the salad, it just wasn't that great of a salad. The dips were very good quality, but we didn't get that much of them. With that said, the entrees were not overpriced.

Speaking of entrees, my wife had the chicken (kotopoulo) souvlaki. She liked it. I remember that the chicken had a great flavor, and as I write this she mentions that the rice it came with was also delicious. She didn't finish and I brought the chicken home. It was still great the next day. With that quality at only $18, it made the whole meal a bargain.

I had the "Ionian Marinato" - shrimp and scallops marinated in citrus, then sauteed with olives, capers and peppers. As time has passed I don't remember all the details of it, but it was good.

We had dessert too. My wife had Baklava and I got the "Galakobouriko" - custard in phyllo dough. We liked the baklava. The custard thing was fine, but not our thing. The menu lists a "Loukoumathes" (fried dough) but they didn't have any that night - some kind of problem with the dough - maybe it didn't rise. I liked that one of the desserts is a fruit platter. More places should do that (and I should have ordered it).

On the whole, it was very good. The restaurant atmosphere was nice too. The whole meal costs us $80, but that includes an appetizer, a salad and two desserts. Next time we'll probably skip the salad and get one dessert.

We enjoyed it and wish Athos well.

Map of 1814 Western Avenue in Albany.