.png)
We adore this restaurant!
There are several places to eat in the town of Tarpon Springs. I did my research online when I was looking into us visiting Tarpon Springs and I looked at all the info that I could find on them. This restaurant had the right atmosphere, the right prices and the right Greek cuisine so I booked us in for dinner at 7:00.
Hellas is located at 785 Dodecanese Blvd. in Tarpon Springs along the spongedocks. Dodecanese is the main road along the waterway. Oh, and Hellas is pronounced Hell – ahhs. (Thought that might help.)
Grecian urns, Grecian gods, excellent atmosphere for you’re first trip to Greece in America.
Tarpon Springs is home to the largest Greek-American population in the country.
The Specials and Inside Hellas
Don’t Forget The Parthenon
Really Nice Atmosphere
Hellas Menu
Look at this beautiful tile table!
Great Appetizers!
Grilled (Saganaki) Cheese with Bread
Muscles Greek Island Style with Lemon
OPA!!
Alma with our flaming Saganaki
Coincidentally, I have been searching most of Florida’s deli’s for haloumi cheese (Saganaki) but they just look at me as if I am crazy because they have never heard of it. So when we saw on the Hellas menu, Saganaki, an imported flamed cheese, we decided to try it. After I tasted it I knew this was like haloumi! I was so excited! So I asked Alma what kind of cheese is this? She described it as a goat’s cheese. That is when I asked her if it was haloumi? She then smiled and said, “yes”! Yahoo! I have found my haloumi cheese and it truly is OPA!!!
The Movie 300 Series of Cocktails
Mine is made with Ouzo, a Greek liquor.
Mine also has the Ouzo candy with the lemon.
Right next door to the restaurant is Hellas Bakery, right behind where I am sitting.
My Salmon with Lobster Sauce and Feta Cheese on Top
Gordon got the Lamb
Our Side Dish of Veggies and Rice Pilaf
Salmon and Dill with Lobster Sauce
This is the best salmon I have ever eaten!
Our bill was only around $80.00, so we left $100.00 on the table and left. I think $100.00 was an excellent price for what we ordered.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
Greek Coffee Break
Greek and European Bakery
711 Dodecanese Blvd.
Along the Sponge Docks
We stopped into one of the Greek coffee shops and bakeries for a Greek coffee. I’ve had Turkish coffee before and it is a bit like that. The grounds are in the bottom of the cup. Really good coffee though.
We even bought a few bags to take home.
They also have plenty of pastries and baked goods to try, but everything is loaded with sugar so I couldn’t eat anything.
——————————————————————————————————————————–
Found an Excellent Greek Imports Supermarket
Agora Food Market
(Agora means market in Greek so the name of this is actually, Market Food Market.) 🙂
Our new favorite Greek imports supermarket.
Nikos & Petros Mikalef
602 Athens Street
Tarpon Springs, FL. 34689
In The Sponge Docks
I’m listing the address above because this store is right off the main drag of Dodecanese Blvd. and not many tourists venture up the side streets where you can find nice things for cheaper prices. For example, the coffee that we bought at one of the coffee shops we paid $15.00 a bag for it. Whereas this store sells it for under $10.00. Yeah!
We must have spent a good $400.00 here buying things for us in addition to knocking out our Christmas list for the year. Everyone we buy for is getting a Greek themed Christmas care package of imported specialty olive oils, coffee’s, chocolates, pasta’s (different from ours) and olive oil soaps that aren’t all perfumey. Also some Greek Ouzo candies.
We enjoyed putting together a meal for ourselves by shopping here. We found some excellent spicy feta spread and some pita chips to add to our picnic lunch.
——————————————————————————————————————
Fournos Bakery
As we kept walking back down Athens Street we came across what we had been looking for since we arrived in Tarpon Springs, a bakery that sold healthy breads.
There are bakeries on the main drag that sell everything sweet. There was nothing in any of them that I could have eaten. I can’t eat much sugar as a borderline diabetic and even so called “normal” people shouldn’t be eating all that sugar either. So it was here that we found our whole wheat bread for our Tzatziki chicken salad that we had made that morning for our picnic lunch at Fred Howard Park.
Gordon did buy some homemade baklava and we also bought this delicious loaf of Tyropsomo, a Feta cheese bread. Delicious!
We also found some sea salt from Greece to add to our Christmas care packages at this bakery.
The delicious whole wheat bread that we bought from Fournos Bakery and Cafe for our Tzatziki chicken salad.
——————————————————————————————————————————–
Back to Fournos
Gordon and I love playing tourist. Tropical clothing, hat, backpack and water bottle, check!
Delicious Baked Goods
Baklava to Die For!
(Or so I’m told. I can’t eat much sugar.)
It was at this bakery that Gordon was busy ordering baklava and I was ordering other breads such as tyropsomo and a few others that I cannot even spell. I was just reading the names of the breads off the cards identifying them. That was when I was asked by a woman behind the counter if I was Greek? I was so surprised that she asked me that so I asked her why she would think that I was Greek? (If you are a regular blog reader of mine then you know that my grandfather’s heritage could be Greek but we don’t know for sure.) The woman replied, “Because you are pronouncing the names of the breads the way a Greek would.”
MADE MY DAY!!!!!!
Once Gordon finishes paying for our things it is then on to Fred Howard Park for our picnic lunch.
———————————————————————————————————————————-
After all the shopping and touring.
There is just one more thing that we have started doing at the end of every day that we are out in Tarpon Springs at the sponge docks, we grab a gyro with Greek fries to go from Mykonos Restaurant.
628 Dodecanese Blvd.
Sponge Docks
This is honestly the best thing that I have ever eaten in my life!!
Gyro with Greek Fries
(pronounced year-o)
What makes the fries Greek? Oregano and Lemon.
What we like about this restaurant is that we can go inside and order our dinner to take home, and while they are preparing it we can do some last minute shopping in the local shoppes, then swing by and pick our dinner up later on.
My mouth is watering as I write this. Can’t wait to go back again.
Crabby Bill’s
401 Gulf Blvd.
Indian Rocks Beach, Florida 33785
(727) 595-4825
The Crabby Hours
Gordon Reading the Crabby Menu
Crabby Bill’s is a very casual family oriented seafood restaurant located in Indian Rocks, just down the road from us in Indian Shores. It’s frequented by tourists and locals alike.
Crabby Take Out
Gordon reading the crabby menu while I am waiting on our Crabby Bill’s Take Out.
The man in the photo in back of Gordon is Crabby Bill himself.
Yummy, can’t wait for that blackened Mahi-Mahi. 🙂
———————————————————————————