Is Krasi worth the hype?

Being born and raised in Miami (and having dined from Michelin Star restaurants to college dining halls and impoverished street grub worldwide) means that … I know what food I like and what good food SHOULD taste like. So, I am on a mission to find the Boston food places that are worth your time, effort, and money.

By no means should you have to wait two months for this.

Krasi, a Greek restaurant in Back Bay, was the first on my list of restaurants to try around Boston this year.

Reservations open two months in advance at 10 am and run out fast. If you can’t grab one, don’t lose hope – you can do what I did and drop in daily to see if there were any cancellations. It took me not one, not two, but three days to finally run into an open spot because someone canceled.

I will say the way to do this effectively is to give up on your hopes of going with a friend, dining buddy, or date. Embrace your fears of eating alone in public because that is about the only way you will be getting a walk-in seat at Krasi. So, every night for 3 days straight I tried to get a reservation by walking in.

• Day 1 (January 31st) -attempt 1- 8 pm: zero hope, a line of people with reservations trying to get in, couldn’t even make it to the hosts.
• Day 2 (February 1st) -attempt 2- 5:45 pm: was told they had no open slots for a table for two months, and if I wanted a bar slot someone had just canceled their solo spot for 7 pm the next day. I said yes after confirming it was cool for me to sit there considering I am not of legal drinking age (and confirming I was not going to drink).
• Day 3 (February 2nd) -success- 6:55 pm: I arrived 5 minutes early to make sure that the seat I fought for remained mine. I was then told there were no open seats and I would have to wait. 7:15 rolls around and I’m seated at the bar in the ambiance of a place that turned out to be rather interesting.

Krasi is a cozy and vibrant Greek restaurant. But as the night rolled on I will say it can (and did during my visit) get loud given the small space. The staff were super friendly and the bartender, who was my server, was incredibly knowledgeable about all of the dishes.

The vibes of this restaurant, while cozy and lively, truly intrigued me the more I looked around. It’s an open kitchen so you can see what’s being made for everyone. As someone who is easily entertained, I LOVED this. Here’s what the view of the restaurant from my seat looked like:

Having been to Greece for a month and a half and loving traditional Greek food, I will say, this is not that. Or at least… what I ordered was not that. ‘Krasi‘ means ‘a mixture’ in Greek and this menu was a mixture of classics we all know and love like Tzatziki, Pita Bread, and Portokalopita but also had more modern regional Greek-inspired dishes which is what I opted for trying.

What I ordered

I ordered a starter, main, and dessert to best get a feel for how a full-course meal works at Krasi.

Lalangia

The menu describes the Lalangia as “fried dough, sea salt, smoked honey“. When I read this I knew it would be right up my alley even though I had never heard of something like this before.

This dish came out hot, crispy, and chewy. It was coated in smoked honey and a little heavy by itself but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Something the menu didn’t list that helped balance this dish a lot more was a whipped butter with salt and some sort of cheesy tanginess. It helps cut the heaviness of the bread and if you add a little to each piece it’s truly something tasty.

All of this results in a dish that is sweet, salty, and tangy, and I loved it. This dish got a solid 9/10 from me- I will happily eat this again.

Pastitsio

The menu describes the Pastitsio as “braised beef cheeks, manouri bechamel, matsata Folegandrou“. Going into this I had zero clue what most of that description meant, so I asked my server. She happily explained it’s a thick noodle with braised beef and a bechamel sauce.

The Pastitsio was a comforting and nostalgic dish. It had thick – clearly homemade – noodles, tender fall-apart beef, crunchy and simmered onions, and a nice helping of bechamel sauce.

I did have a few issues with this dish that I would like to talk about quickly before I dive into what I liked. The noodles towards the center all stuck together rather than being coated in the sauce which made eating the center area a bit more tedious than I would have liked. The other issue I had was the crunchy onions; in the sea of all of the soft or chewy textures, I really didn’t enjoy the random crunch the onions would bring. It should be noted that I have texture issues and thus am really sensitive to these things. At the start of the dish it was fine, but as I continued I enjoyed them less and less when they would appear in my bites because of the change in texture.

With what I didn’t like out of the way, this dish overall reminded me of my childhood. I had a large phase of my life where the only thing I would eat for dinner or ask for would be buttered noodles with cheese when someone I didn’t know was cooking. I had a babysitter who was determined to change that and kept mixing meat into my pasta.

This reminded me a lot of that, in a much more elevated way, and I thoroughly enjoyed the nostalgia. The flavors all combined wonderfully in this dish and I found it very tasty! I did zone out a little in a bit of a food coma mid-eating for this one and ended up eating the entire plate. This was an issue – this dish is heavy and you can easily split it with another person… please don’t be me and eat it all in one sitting, your stomach will thank you.

Overall this dish got an 8/10 and I would have it again, just not all of it in one sitting.

Portokalopita

The menu describes their Portokalopita as “orange phyllo cake, syrup, manouri ice cream“. Having been to Greece before I know for a fact that I love Portokalopita. I find myself craving the orange syrupy cake with the candied oranges on top all the time.

This Portokalopita severely disappointed me. It came with a dried orange stuck into it, and a small scoop of ice cream on top of coconut flakes.

To unpack my issues it is probably best if we go in the order I encountered them. The first – their cake was so dense I thought it was frozen in the center. Nope, just weirdly chilled and thick. I had to poke at the first spoonful multiple times to make sure it wasn’t frozen. Followed by what was actually frozen… the ice cream. It was rock hard, and there also wasn’t enough. If you are going to serve a dense cake, I beg for more ice cream to cut the density and make me forget about my woes. Lastly, the coconut flakes it came sitting on top of did not help the dish in any way. They took away from the orange of the cake and added a texture I did not enjoy.

Moving on to an unlikely enemy – the utensil I received. I am not a fan of big spoons for anything, much less desserts. For some reason this dessert not only came with a big spoon, no no no, I got the spoon your mom busts out to serve the side dishes at holiday dinners. I practically sobbed when I saw the size of my weapon for trying to tackle this cake.

To talk about its positives, the ice cream parts that I could get free and weren’t frozen solid or covered in unwanted coconut were fantastic, they were creamy and left me wanting more of THAT and less of the frozen solid ice cream they gave me. The flavors of the cake itself were great, reminded me a lot of what I got in Greece, and sort of satisfied my cravings.

Overall this is the one thing I would say to stay away from. If you must, just cut the dinner at the entrees and go home happy. This got a 3.5/10 from me, and I would not eat it again.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, Krasi is a dependable neighborhood spot.

Yet as a Greek restaurant lover, this one kind of hurt. I think part of my issue was I had such high expectations for Krasi given the waitlists, the long reservations, and the write-ups raving about it. While I’m by no means saying I did not like it, it just wasn’t what I expected. I would go back and just skip dessert, and if you are having trouble finding food you like in Boston I’d say give this place a try. My one word of warning is the following: the food sizes are deceptive, I could have easily split my entire meal with another person and both of us would’ve still gone home more than full, you do not need a ton of plates here even though the staff recommends 4-5 per two people.

To answer my question, Is Krasi worth the hype? Not if you have been to Greek restaurants outside of Boston. If Krasi were in any other city it would not have a 2-month long wait and therefore I qualify it as not worth the hype, but if you can drop in here solo then I recommend you give it a try!

Final Rating

8/10- A solid restaurant that gave me food that was enjoyable, yet it was lacking in terms of environment (noise levels, and lack of personal space), and some of the dishes didn’t fully draw me in.

It went in my Beli as an 8.3 and I would go back again as it is one of the satisfying food places near Northeastern.

• Greek Food
• Restaurant Review