A Greek Isle of Calm

One of summer’s prettiest secret gardens is the rustic wooden patio at Sofi, where flame-colored bougainvillea clambers over the tall old trees that frame the outdoor space. Sofi is a Greek restaurant but references to Greece are understated. You won’t hear Greek music or see a dancing Zorba pick up a table with his teeth. Frankly, there’s no scene to speak of, unless you count the tables of Angelenos and Europeans talking quietly over dinner. The 15-year-old restaurant near Farmers Market has tables inside, too, but hardly anyone, at least in warmer months, sits in the simple mustard-colored room. The pace is slow and nobody is waiting for your table--just the sort of atmosphere a languid Greek meal requires.

To enjoy Sofi, you’ll have to kick back, too, starting with the appetizers, or orektika. There are a dozen choices, but the best deal is one of the two combination platters. Intended for two people, these easily serve four, especially if you try both. The new chef, Chris Karatisoglou, who comes from Thessaloniki, puts most of his effort into the taste of these little dishes, so their presentation is rudimentary. Both combination platters include tsatziki, a thick, absolutely delicious homemade yogurt laced with cucumbers, olive oil and dill, and taramosalata, a dip that’s tinged a pale pink from the salted dried mullet roe stirred into the whipped bread crumbs and olive oil. Fold a little of the melitzanosalata, a smoky eggplant puree sharp with garlic, into a piece of the tender pita, which arrives on the table as a matter of course. Then take a small bite of spanakopita or tiropita, the flaky triangular packets of phyllo with a delicate filling of spinach or cheese, respectively.

Try the dolmades, too, the typical appetizer of grape leaves stuffed with rice and meat and napped in avgolemono, or lemon sauce. I love the firm, salty feta sprinkled with wild oregano and a little green-gold olive oil; wine-dark kalamata olives are tucked between the cheese. Garlic lovers should savor the skordalia, a thick sauce of pounded potatoes and plenty of garlic. I prefer the octopus marinated in lemon and olive oil. The idea of the mezethes course, the series of little dishes eaten at the beginning of a meal, is to alternate bites of this and that with conversation and wine. Except for the extremely disorganized service, it’s very relaxing.

When I visited the island of Santorini years ago, I ate wonderful salads made with luscious tomatoes puckered at the top as if gathered on an invisible string, crunchy with cucumber and sweet onion, juicy with lemon and olive oil. So it’s disappointing that Sofi’s classic Greek salad is ruined by refrigerator-cold, pale, tasteless tomatoes--and at the height of tomato season. The menu could use more of the Greek repertory of vegetable dishes and cooked greens, too.

After the intricate mosaic of tastes in the mezethes course, main dishes are certainly generous but less interesting. Seafood is limited to the excellent shrimp sauteed with tomatoes and garlic and feta or specials such as grilled swordfish or red snapper. Moussaka, the classic casserole of eggplant and ground lamb cooked with tomato, cinnamon and oregano and layered with bechamel sauce and cheese, is somewhat dry and bland, perhaps because it is made with ground beef. Better, actually, is the pastisio, in which macaroni is layered with bechamel, tomatoes and ground beef.

Lamb is prized in Greece so, of course, Sofi offers several lamb dishes. The best is youvetsi, two meltingly tender shanks on a bed of orzo (the bird-tongue-shaped pasta) and kefalotiri cheese. Roast lamb is overcooked and boring, and rack of lamb hardly tastes like lamb at all. In the gyros combination platter, it’s hard to distinguish the beef from the lamb; both are dry and rather flavorless. But you can’t go wrong with the half-chicken roasted with lemon and oregano, which could put many a pollo al mattone to shame.

Sitting outside on the softly lit patio is so pleasant that I could easily make a meal of the appetizers alone, leaving just enough room for dessert. Given the unevenness of the main courses, this might be the best strategy. Sometimes in winter, after I’ve been working late, I’ll stop by for some little dishes and a bowl of chicken avgolemono soup thickened with egg whites instead of the usual yolks. While it’s not as rich or as lemony as some I’ve had, the soup always satisfies.

Sofi’s wine list devotes a page to Greek wines, which include much more than the infamous retsina or the oxidized wines of yesteryear. Along with Spain and Italy, Greece, whose vineyards are among the most ancient in the Mediterranean, has undergone a quiet winemaking revolution. Long-established wine companies such as Boutari & Sons and a small crop of new wine estates are making some worthy bottles. You won’t find the new Greek wines in many retail wine shops, but at Sofi, you can drink distinctive dry red wines from Nemea or Naoussa made from the ancient xynomavro variety.

Greeks are notorious for their sweet tooths. Here, the parade of desserts begins with a big bowl of that luscious homemade yogurt strewn with walnuts and rivulets of thyme honey. It’s sweeter and thinner than the famous thyme-scented Mount Hymettus honey, but the combination of yogurt and honey is irresistible all the same. Dusted with cinnamon, the cold, creamy Macedonian rice pudding is fabulous and, surprisingly, not at all sweet. Baklava is layered with coarsely chopped walnuts and flavored, too strongly for my taste, with cinnamon and clove. I do like the apples and vanilla custard baked in phyllo, but am less enamored of the galaktoboureko, phyllo layered with a stiff, floury custard.

Follow dessert with a small cup of Greek-style coffee made in the traditional briki, a long-handled brass pot. For most Americans, the coffee, already sweetened and served with the finely powdered grounds, is an acquired taste. But Sofi also serves American coffee, regular and decaffeinated.

With its tree-shaded patio and standard repertory of dishes, Sofi resembles the sort of enterprising village restaurant you find anywhere there are tourists in Greece. It’s less sophisticated than the new wave of adventurous Greek restaurants in this country, such as Periyali or Molyvos in New York, but if you’re nostalgic for Greece and for summer evenings spent lingering outdoors in a pretty garden, Sofi fills the bill quite nicely.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

SOFI

CUISINE: Greek. BEST DISHES: Marinated octopus, combination appetizer platters, roast chicken, pastisio, lamb shanks, yogurt with walnuts and honey, Macedonian rice pudding. WINE PICKS: 1993 Boutari Nemea, Greece; 1993 Boutari Naoussa, Greece. FACTS: 8030 3/4 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles; (213) 651-0346. Lunch and dinner daily. Appetizers, $7 to $10; main courses, $12 to $22. Corkage $9. Valet parking.