Santorini Restaurant & Café

EGYPT 🇪🇬

[COVID-19 UPDATE: With outdoor dining now legal, Santorini has set up quite a few tables. In addition, takeout and delivery are available as always.]

While the website of Santorini proclaims they have been "making delicious Mediterranean food since 1990" and is directly followed by some Lorem Ipsum text, it was only sometime after the summer of 2019 that they took over the space from a nondescript bakery named Mon Gateau. Hardly any work took place outside besides swapping out the name, and a new casual Egyptian café was born.

The casual passerby might be led to believe this is a new Greek restaurant given its reference to one of the most famous islands on the planet, but a closer look reveals an Egyptian fascination with that island rather than the island itself. In Egypt you can actually find a beach on the coast west of Alexandria named "Santorini Greek Beach," outfitted with blue umbrellas to simulate the tops of houses.

Regardless of any confusions that delayed trying the food here for over a year, it is nice to have a place in Bay Ridge specializing in feteer since the closing of King Tut back in early 2018. As with Hemo's Spot Juice Bar a bit further north on 5th Avenue, they also add different kinds of coffee, western breakfasts, and fast foods to cater to a younger generation of kids that have mostly grown up here and want the mixture.

Middle Eastern and North African couples will be seen here ordering the feteer, often times getting one of the massive pies per person. This phyllo dough layered Egyptian pastry is enjoyed in both savory and sweet versions, the medium version of which comes out around 12 inches in diameter.

The sujuk feteer ($13, above) is stuffed with stringy melted mozzarella, onions, green peppers, olives, and tomatoes. While the skill is not quite that of what King Tut possessed, you can never go wrong with this type of dish. They can also make different types of feteer with a variety of cheeses, different meats, tuna, and shrimp, or a mix of most everything.

Santorini is set up like a fast casual restaurant, and you can walk to the counter and order, but if you plan to dine in, take a seat and the friendly staff will come to you with menus and everything you need.

Another great order here is the mix mahashi ($18, above), an assortment of vegetables and grape leaves stuffed with rice and spices. The chef must have thought meat was fine given the feteer order, and threw on some mombar as well, the red "links" at the bottom of the plate. These have the same stuffing, but use the thin lining of sheep intestine to contain everything.

The combination of these, stuffed peppers and grape leaves is a wonderful plate to share between a group.

As the younger employee and older manager fight between upbeat pop music and more traditional sounds, respectively, other diners are moving on to satisfy their sweet tooth with either one of many crêpes or an order of feteer meshaltet, the same phyllo crust drizzled with honey.

A next visit might also try the loukoumades, deep fried dough balls soaked in honey and the Greek flag-bearer of the menu. These are of course also enjoyed throughout the Arabic-speaking world, but just another fun quirk of the menu that they go by their Greek name instead.

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BAY RIDGE Brooklyn
8101 5th Avenue

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