Mamaca's

THE Greeks were the first to entertain the concept of democracy, so it probably goes with the territory that they have an elevated sense of order. It's only at Greek restaurants that I've encountered menus that list terms and conditions.

With Mamaca's under my belt, that makes a significant handful of places that like to dictate how larger tables must order the banquet, among other stipulations. Go figure.

And I'm sorry, my Hellenic cousins, you might have codified geometry and invented the Olympics, but one of the world's great cuisines? No dice. Feta, olives and meat on a stick have their obvious appeal but they rather quickly become the equivalent of holidaying in the same place every year, particularly when you compare them to the food of your Italian and Turkish neighbours.

There are local exceptions to the rule. Modern Greek bistros such as Mini — now closed — tried to broach the great divide. And there's George Calombaris, of course.

But for the Greek edition of Epicure, we've ruled out the obvious choice of the poster boy for modern Greek gastronomy and gone back to the taverna — although Mamaca's isn't a taverna in the decorative sense of fishing nets, white-washed walls and men with frightening moustaches. The gold-painted walls and gilt-framed mirrors are more gay-friendly Mykonos than sleepy fishing village. The impression is boosted by the quasi-operatic modern Greek pop. And if you're bored with your dining companions, you can catch videos on the flat-screen TV above the bar.

That's not to say they don't have a bet each way. Each bare wooden table in the crammed Chapel Street shopfront has a brass holder containing a paper cylinder of Kalas sea salt, a little glass jar of cracked white pepper and a flickering candle. At the back there's a covered outdoor area, which is where you'll find the whitewashed walls and olive trees planted in pots.

I'll pay Greek food its due. Fundamentally, it's all about finding good ingredients and not stuffing them up. If that sounds familiar, it's what various globally renowned chefs are banging on about at the moment.

The elevation of simple ingredients to objects of worship has gone full circle. And, frankly, there's no arguing with the springy texture and hapless resistance of a perfect, charry lamb chop that demands to be picked up in the fingers and gnawed as diners have done for time immemorial.

The chargrilled lamb cutlets ($12.90) at Mamaca's are good. Really good. So are the chicken skewers ($10.90). Marinated in lemon and oregano, they're stereotype-defyingly juicy.

At Mamaca's the ambitions aren't high but they mostly deliver.

Other cultures would call them tapas, stuzzichini or assaggi. The Greeks call them mezedes — small share plates. Once you order, to quote the "terms and conditions", everything comes out in a continuous stream.

The menu is jammed with greatest hits. The house-made taramasalata ($4) is authentically heavy on the roe; the zucchini and haloumi fritters ($9) need only a squeeze of lemon and a touch of salt.

You can tell a lot about a Greek restaurant by its saganaki — whether they care enough to get it to the table before its life force fizzles out. The version here doesn't match Hellenic Republic's gold standard for Melbourne (with its little figs and sweet syrup, oh my) but it embodies the simple perfection of the dish, a salty and piping-hot triangle of gold-crusted cheese ($11) still smarting in its pan. They get it to the table so quickly, it can burn the roof of your mouth, even after taking time out to squeeze a wedge of lemon over the top. That's impressive.

Most things arrive with a few undressed salad leaves, which, depending on your point of view, is either unnecessary or parsimonious.

It wouldn't exactly put them out of business to add olive oil or vinegar, or at least have them on the table. But the prices are pretty fair and our waitress deals with the three-dolmades-between-four-people thing without any prompting, which is both wonderful and rare.

As you'd expect, plenty of dishes hum with feta.

It adds a kick to a little tomato-based stew of mussels and prawns, thalasino saganaki ($11.90), and is the headline act in one of the more interesting dishes of the night, where it's baked into creaminess in foil with tomato and red capsicum, olives and oregano (feta ladorigani, $11.90).

A terracotta bowl of pan-wilted chicory is brilliantly sour and a necessary addition to the artery-hardening parade. A chickpea, rocket and parmesan salad ($11.90) is less thrilling, mostly because it promised a dressing of mustard-balsamic yet the only indication was of olive oil.

It's BYO, except Friday and Saturday nights (see the terms and conditions). Diners are on their own with the unwieldy wine list, which offers a few bargains but doesn't list vintages. None of the wait staff — all young and Greek — could help with the Greek wines, which seems a lost opportunity for cross-cultural relations, especially when it comes to the dreaded retsina.

But then you've got desserts, which are what Socrates would have called a no-brainer. Many countries have their version of what we can generically call doughnuts but the Greeks hit the dais with loukamades ($10). These babies, cooked to order, are worth popping the top button of your jeans over — a dinner plate of golden-fried, misshapen orbs covered in honey and crushed walnuts. They're a resounding "yes" to the universal "why?".

And that's the thing about Greek food. Get it wrong and you strip away the simple attributes. Get it right and a whole table of people will go home wondering why they don't eat it more often. SCORE: 13/20

Food Greek

Where 210 Chapel Street, Prahran

Phone 9521 5694

Cost All dishes, $4-$13.90

Licensed & BYO (Sun-Thurs only; corkage $8 a bottle)

Wine list A fairly priced mix of Australian and Greek wines, minus any detail.

We drank Kim Crawford pinot gris (Marlborough, NZ), $35

Owners Stavros Tahtalian and Leonidas Kyratsis

Chef Leonidas Kyratsis

Vegetarian Lots

Parking Street

Wheelchairs No

Noise Moderate to loud.

Outdoors Yes, covered courtyard.

Service Pleasant rather than professional.

Web mamacas.com.au

Cards AE MC V Eftpos

Hours Tues-Thurs, 5.30-10.30pm; Fri, noon-11pm; Sat, 5.30-11pm; Sun, 5.30-10pm

RESTAURANT