Farm Grill and Rotisserie

If you're looking for food that is fast and fresh and flavorful, it's all Greek to me. We are on Needham Street in Newton, Massachusetts at a place called the Farm Grill. This is a family owned and operated Greek restaurant. Anytime you look behind the counter you can see Alex. Alex is one of the hardest working guys in the business. You can see him making salads, grilling food, and the menu is just huge.

They have all the Greek favorites that you love: the salads, the kabobs, the gyros, dozens of delicious items made fresh every single day. If you watch a lot of Phantom Gourmet, you know we don't usually cover salads, but a Greek salad is a big time exception. How could you not love a great Greek salad - the fresh lettuce, all the beautiful chopped vegetables, and that nice crumbled feta cheese. When they say everything is better with feta, they ain't lying. I like to get my Greek salad with the grilled chicken. They slice it up nice. It's juicy, it's flavorful. The most important part of their Greek salad is the dressing. The Greek dressing at the Farm Grill is about as good as you will get anywhere in the United States. The Greek salads at the Farm Grill are so good even the Phantom Gourmet endorses them.

Now let's talk about kabobs. I think everything tastes better when it's grilled on a skewer and the Farm Grill proves it. The signature kabob entree is the farm grill kebab. I like the combination of beef and lamb. So this is an enormous plate, big enough for two people, look at the nice char marks on that meat inside super flavorful. Not only are their meats already marinated for a long time, while they're cooking on the grill, they're basting them and even more marinade so it keeps things really nice and juicy. If you go to a high end steakhouse in Boston, you can pay $60 for an entree here you're getting the same quality, even juicier meat and it costs a third of that.

I want to talk about a dish that is near and dear to my heart, literally. It’s the gyro., I am a guy who is absolutely obsessed with gyros. I have tried them in every corner of New England and this is one of the best. This is made with a combination of beef and lamb. That savory beef with a little bit of that gaminess from the lamb just works perfectly. It's colorful, it's fresh, it's juicy, it's warm and it's big. It's kind of a beast of a sandwich. You taste the fresh herbs. The fluffy warm pita bread is just grilled nicely, and those meats, the way they work together. I mean I'm talking about real umami, little bit of pop of freshness from the tomatoes, creaminess and the tzatziki is just the glue that is holding the whole thing together. It's just so good.

If you're looking for a real hearty, homestyle Greek dish, go for a pistachio. Pistachio is like the ultimate Greek comfort, food sort of the Greek equivalent of a lasagna. It is stacked up with layers and flavors. You have macaroni pasta on the bottom, you have really beautifully seasoned ground beef on top and that's all topped with a thick layer of Bechamel sauce. All gets baked together in the oven with a little bit of cheese on top. I gotta get a fork full of this beast. Salty in a good way, creamy but not too creamy, great crunch from that cheese on top the way it's kind of baked off. It's not the lightest dish in the world. But then again, I'm just here for the tasty food.

Spanakopita is certainly one of the big specialties here. It's an old family recipe. Their spinach pies are big. You got the filo dough on the outside, it's wrapped up with that fresh spinach, some feta cheese and lots and lots of herbs. Super duper flaky, crispy crunchy on the outside, creamy, salty herbaceous on the inside. That's a good spanakopita.

I think the most underrated item on the menu is the rotisserie chicken. They're doing rotisserie chicken, Greek style. So what is Greek style rotisserie chicken? Well just has all those herbs and spices that you get in a lot of Greek food. Think oregano, think olive oil, think dill. If you look at the chicken you can literally see the herbs and spices on the outside of that glistening skin and since it's slow cooked, you cut inside that chicken breast, it is just impossibly juicy and moist. What I like about the half chicken you get the breasts on one end, you get the thigh and the leg on the other and they have some really nice looking legs.

I think Greek desserts are completely underrated. All the desserts here are either made in house or they're imported straight from Greece. You can get classics like baklava, of course Greek Wedding cookies, beautiful fluffy orange cakes. I think the number one dessert you got to try here is the chocolate mouse, not chocolate mousse, chocolate mouse featuring chocolate mousse. They got a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of pastry cream, and then a big thick layer of chocolate mousse all encased in a thin crispy layer and even more chocolate. It's shaped like a mouse and it's worth getting. In this case the mouse trap is my mouth.

The Farm Grill experience is unlike any other place around here, because the food is consistently great. The portions are big and the prices are very, very affordable. So you're pretty much guaranteed a great Greek experience at the Farm Grill.