5-22-10 Tasso's

Long ago and far far away (high school), JE heard of social groups going south to a Greek restaurant and he never got to go. A thousand years ago, we moved to South KC and drove by this place daily. When we moved north to the 49/63 area, we forgot about it... until we got a craving for gyros and The Pitch reviewed it again - so we had to give Tasso's a shot.

We ventured out on a Saturday around noon when we walked into Tasso's. I had been there before ages ago but the outside has been totally redone. I'm not so sure about the inside as I don't remember. The decor was like a Greek TGIFridays and the music was pumped out through really tiny speakers.

We were told to sit down so we sat at a four-topper close to the bar and kitchen. One of the first impressions was our waitress was a small woman who I think was pregnant (I hope that's what the small bulge was) with a t-shirt that read "My Life in Ruins" on the back. After she took our drink orders, someone from the kitchen came out and started yelling at her for not being able to reach a book or not knowing how to make a certain drink. Damn, this was going to be a rough lunch.

They have an express lunches on Saturdays and all of them come with a Greek salad that had feta cheese, their Tasso's salad dressing and was complete with a pitted olive. JE and I both ordered the gyro plate which was a deconstructed gyro with triangles of pita bread, tzatziki sauce, and a small triangular piece of tripopita (cheese pie as they call it). I also ordered a dolmathe which is a stuffed grape leaf.

I'm not so sure about the express part of the lunch. After we ordered our food, a bunch of hippies (honestly) came in and waited and waited and waited. One of the girl hippies was wearing a shirt covered by peace signs which was three sizes too small. Her straining fat rolls were definitely making sure that the shirt itself was never going to see peace unless it was in pieces. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike hippies I just think something more appropriate could have been worn.

Apparently the kitchen won't cook until they can bring out the entire dining room's food all at once. But it did finally arrive.

We didn't get a shot of the dolmathe as it was devoured as soon as it arrived. There was some really delicious sauce that it came in which almost reminded me of some type of thick chicken broth. JE didn't even want to try to the dolmathe but was glad he did as it was good.

I liked the gyro plate (JE got stiffed a pita triangle), but JE thought the food was just ok and nothing to write home about. He thought the gyros down the street at Max's might have been better.

All in all, we did support a local business. I do know they have live music and a belly dancer some nights... and they probably make some money selling the $3 plates you can break if you want to feel lucky. Ooompa!