Restaurant Review: Kouzina

This month’s restaurant review is bought to you from Brighton’s buzzing open market. The market is situated in a busy high street but, on entering, you do get the distinct market feel. Returning this month to our more traditional working lunch, we visited Kouzina, a family-run Greek restaurant in the heart of the market. Being half Greek Cypriot myself, I felt there would be no one better than me from our team to write this review.

As with many Mediterranean countries, food is at the heart of their culture. Families and friends, meeting and enjoying wholesome, simplistic, quality cuisine that is bursting with flavour. I was fortunate, growing up being exposed to some amazing dishes – prepared by either my mum or Stede (Nan) – such as Seftalia, Stifado, Macoroni Tou Fournou, Fasolakia, to name a few. I was, therefore, excited to see many of these dishes on the menu as we arrived.

On arrival, on a Friday lunchtime, the place was heaving, which is always a good sign.  We were greeted by Ana, who showed us to our seats and got us some drinks. Looking at the menu, we were keen to try a selection and asked Ana if we could have a small variety of some of the main dishes we requested.

To start, we had an amazing Meze with selection of Tzatzki, Halloumi, Greek salad, pitta breads and homemade Sheftalia, one of my favourites growing up. They were not far short of amazing. I would always recommend Meze in a Greek restaurant. Similar to antipasti in Italian, it’s the perfect way to try a mini selection of starters which, for someone like me who finds it difficult to decide (as I usually want more than one), is great.

We were then presented with an eclectic array of main courses, as opposed to a small selection, and in true Greek style we had approximately four to five main dishes. There was a lot of food and it reminded of being at my Stede’s.

My colleague and I dived straight in. Among the dishes, we had Spanakopita, Moussaka, Pastitsio, Fasolakia and Yahni. All homemade traditional Greek cuisine, bursting with freshness and flavour. The Pastitsio, or as I knew it growing up Macaroni Tou Fournou (oven macaroni), was my favourite dish as the taste took me straight back to my Stede’s, which is possibly the highest compliment I can pay any restaurant.

The most beautiful thing about Greek, and a lot of Mediterranean cuisine is its simplicity, combining various herbs, spices and seasonings to give the most basic of dishes incredible flavour, such as the Fasolkia (green bean, carrot casserole) and Yahni (chickpea, spinach, potato casserole). Here at Kouzina you will truly get a great taste of traditional Greek food.

After potentially over-eating, as I always struggle to leave any meal, I simply had to leave a little room for the homemade Baklava, which I saw on the menu. Baklava is a rich, sweet dessert pastry, made from layers of filo pastry, filled with chopped nuts, sweetened and held together with syrup. This, accompanied by a traditional Greek coffee, was simply delightful and a perfect way to finish our meal.

After an extremely busy lunch period, towards the end of our meal we had the pleasure of speaking with Vassoula, the owner. She informed us that a lot of the fresh ingredients she gets direct from the market, which is great as you really do get a true sense of community among the tenants there as they support each other, very true to the Brighton/Sussex business community in general.

Kouzina is a small restaurant in the heart of the of the open market. Its atmosphere and ambience fits perfectly with its surroundings. If you are looking for somewhere different to grab some lunch during a busy day, or wish to catch up with a friend or colleague, I would highly recommend it. Greek food is in my opinion truly some of the best in the world (although I may be slightly biased on this point). However, to get a true taste of Greek cuisine, you will not go far wrong at Kouzina. It provides a buzzy, busy atmosphere with a true taste of traditional Greek cuisine and treats. Check it out. You will not be disappointed.