Zylia’s high ceilings and bashed brick walls belong to another time. Tacked onto the side of the shiny new Arcade food hall in Covent Garden, this Renaissance-style pile was built in the 1870s as a department store. The room retains its historic grandeur, even if attempts have been made to convert it into a low-key taverna, complete with white-washed walls, a rash of rafia, stoneware urns, dried flowers and a breezy Mediterranean energy, not to mention the buzzy clatter from a packed room of eager diners.
Kaimaki ice cream hums with earthy mastic
Zylia is the latest from former Kiln head chef and current co-owner of Singburi Nick Molyviatis and restaurateur Barry Karacostas. The former was raised in Athens and the latter is of Cypriot heritage; Zylia is their attempt to marry the two cuisines in a splashy central London location. Both nations are present in the bread basket, with grilled and oiled Cypriot bread and Greek pita puckered with oregano. An enticingly textured (lumpy but good lumpy) spicy feta and yoghurt dip with an undercurrent of roasted chilli is perfect for piling onto both, as is smokey coal roasted aubergine with sweet peppers, which is so elegantly plated it resembles a posh ceviche.
Bouncy fried balls of Greek metsovone cheese are crunchy and glistening on the outside and stringy and pliable on the inside. A drizzle of thyme honey adds a touch of elegance to what are essentially high-end party snacks. Next; wild prawn saganaki (referring to cooking in a small frying pan, rather than the more common iteration; fried cheese), sees juicy shrimps the size of kittens on a tangy tomato and tahini sauce, the creamy sesame bringing some savoury punch to the sweet seafood.
It’d be perfectly acceptable to make up our meal entirely from the hot and cold mezedakia section of the menu, but we push on via a pretty routine Greek salad and exceptional, golden fries that have more in common with a pub Sunday lunch’s roast potatoes than mere chips. The main event is a whoppingly large and perfectly pink pork chop, cooked on a charcoal grill and placed gently atop a flighty fennel, pepper and olive relish. It’s the kind of meat you could feed to an open-minded baby; sweet, unobtrusive, tidy.
There’s only one dessert, and it’s a glass dish of sturdy kaimaki ice cream that hums with earthy mastic and is dolloped with sour cherries. Divine, but one between two is plenty.
Zylia; an effortless new addition to Covent Garden’s coterie of great restaurants. With these guys in charge, it would be strange if it wasn’t.
The vibe Buzzy and rowdy central London taverna.
The food Traditional Greek and Cypriot-inspired plates.
The drink Greek wines, Cypriot beer and creative cocktails, including a martini topped with feta cheese.
Time Out tip There’s only one pudding, but a couple of the cocktails - the outrageously good Baklava Spritz and Metaxa-addled Custard Pie - could also make for a sweet end to your meal.