Joshua WalboltIt’s early fall now and the piercing rays of the midday sun mixing with the brisk air feel just right. Let’s go grab some lunch. We load the baby up and hop in the car. Driving without an idea on where we want to eat, we search for local restaurants that we want to try. The question remains on where to go eat? Sometimes it’s hard to decide what you want. Growing up I rarely was given a choice and would just eat whatever was placed in front of me. But now I am a grown-ass adult and constantly have to make life altering decisions like, “what are we going to eat for lunch?”
Greek Tacos?
After 35 minutes of simultaneously searching for a local restaurant to support and watching cartoons in the car with our baby, we finally came to a decision, “Souvlaqueria”. Who has ever heard of such a name before? After about 14 attempts in the restaurant to pronounce it, I quit trying. But two days later it finally made sense: “souvla” from the Greek word, “souvlaki,” which are small pieces of meat or vegetables on a skewer; and “queria,” coming from the word “Taqueria,” which is a restaurant specializing in tacos. Greek taco joint, wow! Sounds pretty incredible already right? Well, I wish I had some pictures to show the food to ya, but, I guess a great video will have to do just that. Check out the video of us experiencing the Greek tapas tacos joint Souvlaqueria in New Jersey.
Where is it?
Souvlaqueria in Union New Jersey
2701 Morris Ave
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Check out their menu!
Let’s talk about food. You can easily check out the menu on their website here: https://souvlaqueria.com/menu/, or you can read on for what I recommend.
What I actually thought.
The food was so good, and I always want to try everything I can because life is busy, and I never know if I’m ever going to get the chance to go again. My personal recommendation is to never eat alone, if you can. When you bring friends or family, they can help alleviate the damage you might do to your stomach or wallet (not that the food is expensive, I think it’s quite affordable here). The great thing about this spot is that they offer options of a small or big platter of mixed meats, pitas, and potatoes. These platters include pork, chicken slovaki, sausages, pita, yeero, and so much more. The potatoes in the tzatziki sauce are incredible! The potatoes are sliced into half moons and fried then tossed in some salt before the right amount or tzatziki sauce is added. The potatoes lay in the bottom of the platter so all the delicious juices from the slovaki drip there way down and into the potatoes. I can hardly talk about their food without my stomach rumbling for more. However, I do get lost with the concept of taco/slovaki joint. If I didn’t understand the breakdown of the name I would just think it was a hip Greek restaurant. Why is that? Well simply because I don’t know any better. I think as an American we can assume that whatever we eat that is good is “Authentic” when in reality the food has went through many stages of evolution as the cuisine traveled and became influenced from experiences. On the menu at Souvlaqueria you can find Greek burgers and tacos which i think is smart. If you never had Greek food before you may tend to gravitate towards something familiar like a juicy double. Street foods are delicious all around the world and this is no exception. The execution of the cuisine makes me want to understand more of the culture to get a better understanding of the flavors I’m tasting.
About the owner.
Marino, the chef owner, is a very knowledgeable and exciting person. A storyteller and a preserver of traditions. He shares his love for his culture and shares it through his cuisine. You can see a video of him here with Union township and get to know more about him here.
. There wasn’t a dessert menu online, but we had some nice ice creams and baklava to end the meal there. Admittedly, I can’t speak to the drinks because I tend to drink water when I dine. They do, however, have Greek coffee which I can only imagine being fairly delicious as well as some bottled water.
I highly recommend that if you are in the area to check out this spot. The owners are lovely and have super high energy, which can be expected of a chef from Athens. Most restaurants you go into, it’s hard to distinguish who the owners are. Nowadays, in most cases the owners are hardly at the restaurant. So for me to see them in the kitchen, walking along the mountains of skewered meat as they roast the yeeros to tender, juicy deliciousness, or taking my order personally is an experience. Not that employees are not capable of doing these things, it’s just when you build something like a restaurant to share your passion, and share your story through food, no one can have as much love for it as you.
If you are interested in more places to eat in New Jersey, make sure to follow along as I take you to some of my favorite spots. You can subscribe for our newsletter below. Until the next time we dine together, let’s see what we can find.