Greek Easter in Toronto

[nichm]

Hi, I am looking for a restaurant in Toronto offering the traditional Greek Easter fare for Easter Sunday, i.e. magiritsa soup, kokoretsi, arni sti souvla (lamb on the spit). I can "relax" the conditions, with a roasted lamb instead, but it has to be in the traditional Greek way.
Many places are open on Saturday night, but I have not find one open on Sunday.
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!
Thanks, Nicholas

[JennaBean]

You'd likely have more luck trying to get an invite to a Greek family home than finding what you're looking in a restaurant on Sunday for due to all the reasons Prima pointed. Sorry.

[prima]

All the Greek restaurant owners I know close their Greek restaurants on Sunday, to have Easter with their families, and allow their servers and staff to celebrate Easter with their families. As I think you're aware, since you're asking about margaritsa and kokoretsi ;-), Easter is the most important religious holiday of the Greek Orthodox year. I don't think you'll find any Greeks working in their Greek restaurants on Easter Sunday. Any Greek restaurants that remain open will likely have their non-Greek staff serving souvlaki to non-Greeks.

If you really want to have lamb in a restaurant on Greek Easter, you might have to go to an Italian or Middle Eastern restaurant that serves lamb ( maybe Tabule on Yonge, or Mideastro in Yorkville ), but it won't be lamb in the traditional Greek way, and it might be rack or chops instead of roast leg of lamb. I recommend the lamb at Tabule, if you're open to Middle Eastern lamb. There might also be a British or Irish pub serving Brit or Irish style roast lamb on Sunday night.

Greek Gourmet is a Greek restaurant run by Sri Lankans that might be open on Easter Sunday, but they focus on souvlaki and Greek salad, don't serve much lamb (it was crossed off on the menu), and don't serve traditional Easter dishes such as margaritsa or kokoretsi.

I guess you could get take-out roast lamb from a Greek restaurant on Saturday, and reheat the lamb on Sunday, if you need Greek-style lamb on Easter Sunday. Megas, Mezes, Pan, Palace and most of the other full service Greek restaurants on the Danforth offer take-out.

Zorba's on the Danforth has kokkoretsi available from time to time, but I'm not sure they'd have any the night before Easter Sunday, when most Greeks are abstaining from meat.

I'm not aware of any Greek banquet halls or church halls that serve a Greek Easter meal, but you might want to check with the Greek Community of Metropolitan Toronto to see if they know of any banquet halls or churches serving a Greek Easter dinner.