Cox: Taverna Sofia

Mezze plate at Taverna Sofia in Healdsburg. (Jeff Kan Lee/ The Press Democrat)

A family member who spent five weeks traveling through Greece not long ago joined our group on a recent visit to the new Taverna Sofia in Healdsburg. After tasting the first few items, she flashed a million-dollar smile and said, “This is the real deal.”

And indeed, drinking a cup of intense, spiced Greek coffee in the sky-blue and white restaurant, you could easily pretend you’re sitting in a seaside tavern in Salonika, the area of northern Greece that Sofia Petridis-Lim, the chef and owner, hails from.

She’s brought a basketful of family recipes with her, and if you don’t know real Greek food, she will educate and delight you. This flavor-packed cuisine is heady with the Asian spices and condiments that found their way into Greek cuisine when spice traders’ ships stopped at Greek ports on their way into ancient and medieval Europe. It’s also a pure iteration of the super-healthy Mediterranean diet — lots of fruits and vegetables, olive oil and wine. Sofia is a careful cook; a sign on her refrigerator says, “No garlic or onions ever,” meaning she doesn’t want them in the fridge where their odors might affect other foods.

Spanakopita

Speaking of garlic, dinner started with a dish of Baba Ghanoush ($8 ****), served with triangles of pita bread. That’s right, four-star baba, the eggplant dip that is so often bitter. Here it’s the perfect savory balance of roasted eggplant with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, salt and olive oil. That fine balance is also found in the Spanakopita ($7.50 ***), a mixture of minced spinach, eggs, ricotta, onions, feta cheese, hints of nutmeg and olive oil placed between thin sheets of phyllo dough and baked.

The Mezze Plate ($14 ***), a group of appetizers, includes spanakopita along with cubes of feta cheese and kalamata olives drizzled with olive oil, dolmas (grape leaves stuffed with rice and fresh herbs and baked), tzatziki and pita for dipping and spreading.

Is there any dip cooler and more refreshing than tzatziki? It combines thick Greek yogurt, sour cream, minced cucumbers, olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper, and a little fresh chopped dill. Spread it on pita, dip your dolmas in it, and get some extra to have with your Souvlaki ($15 ***). This latter entrée consists of skewers of tender and juicy herb-marinated chicken that are grilled and laid on a bed of rice pilaf. With the souvlaki comes pita and a small Greek salad.

Greek salad

And here’s where I have a quibble. The menu offers Greek Salad ($9 ***) and describes it as tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, kalamata olives, feta cheese and vinaigrette. Yes, that’s a real Greek salad, but when it arrives, it also contains lettuce, which doesn’t belong in a real Greek salad. I asked about the lettuce and was told that her American customers kept asking, “Where’s the lettuce?” So Sofia added some to keep her customers happy. The salad is wonderfully fresh and delicious, even with the lettuce.

The wine list contains a dozen bottles. Have fun and try one of the Greek wines. The white wine from the island of Santorini for $36 is especially crisp and food-friendly. The best part of the service is when Sofia stops by your table to see how you like the food.

While seafood is a big part of the diet in Greece, the restaurant so far is sticking with lamb, beef, pork and chicken. In the kitchen is the vertical revolving cylinder of lamb and beef from which meat is shaved and stuffed into warm pita along with tomatoes, onions and tzatziki, a sandwich that the Greeks call Gyro ($14 ***½), pronounced hee-row, and that’s worth every penny.

Baklava

Moussaka ($14 ****) is not to be missed. Eggplant is grilled and layered in a baking dish with spiced ground beef, peppers, onions, tomatoes, béchamel sauce and kefalograviera, a tangy, salty Greek sheep’s-milk cheese. For dessert, of course there’s good house-made Baklava ($5 ***) that’s sweetened with restraint.

To sum up: You’ll hardly be able to wait to get back for more of this delectable Greek food.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review column for the Sonoma Living section. You can reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net.

TAVERNA SOFIA
Where: 244 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg
When: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays through Tuesdays. Closed Wednesdays
Reservations and take-out: Call 431-1982
Price range: Moderate, with entrees from $14 to $17
Website: www.tavernasofia.com

Wine list: **
Ambiance: **½
Service: *½
Food: ***½
Overall: ***

**** Extraordinary
*** Very good
** Good
* Not very good
0 Terrible