Grecos runs the way a family restaurant is supposed to: a father and son, a Greek kitchen they know by heart, and a downtown Kingston dining room built to seat a crowd. The Greek plates are the centre of gravity, but the menu widens far enough that a table never has to settle on one thing — souvlaki for one diner, rack of lamb or pickerel for the next, pizza or pasta for whoever wants it. The Greek delicacy plates arrive complete, each one set down with garden salad, rice and potatoes, so most of the order is decided before it reaches the kitchen.
The Greek heart of the menu is specific and deep. Saganaki opens a meal as a wedge of pan-fried cheese flambéed at the table. Pork Souvlaki brings marinated, broiled skewers in the kitchen's most direct mode, and Grecos Delight — the house-named plate — pairs a marinated beef skewer with garlic-broiled shrimp. Moussaka and Pastitsio bury their beef under béchamel; Spanakopita folds spinach and feta into fine phyllo, and Taramosalata holds down the meze end with a zesty, lemon-cut fish roe dip. The seafood leans Greek too: Octapodi Toursi is octopus marinated in olive oil and herbs, Athenian Shrimp comes sautéed with bruschetta, black olives and feta, and the Spicy Shrimp arrives straight out of olive oil and chilies. Dessert keeps to the classics — honeyed Baklava, and Bougatsa, the custard-filled phyllo for anyone who wants something past the usual finish.
Beyond the Greek section, the range is real, and Grecos uses it. A mustard-crusted rack of lamb comes glazed with honey, garlic, herbs and wine; Gourmet Chicken is a breast stuffed with spinach, prosciutto and cheese under a cream glaze; Ontario pickerel is pan-fried and baked; the lamb shank arrives under a mushroom and pepper sauce. There is a feta-and-olive Grecos Pizza, spaghetti in tomato or meat sauce, and a vegetarian path real enough to plan a meal around — spanakopita, Greek salad, the meatless pizzas and pastas. Greek delicacy plates all come with garden salad, rice and potatoes, which makes the value argument through portioning rather than price markdowns.
What the menu adds up to is a kitchen with no interest in chasing trends. Saganaki is the one piece of theatre, brought out early and then set aside so the classics can do the work. The reach into pizza, pasta, steak and seafood is not dilution; it is the deliberate breadth of a downtown restaurant that has to feed mixed groups, visiting relatives and the diner who walked in for one specific plate. There is enough ceremony for a birthday or an anniversary and enough familiarity for a Tuesday, and Grecos has never seemed confused about which it is.
The family's history runs longer than the restaurant. Gus Kofinis came to Kingston in 1967 and ran Tropicana and Costellos before he and his son Jim opened Grecos in 1992, under a line the place still flies in plain words: quality and excellence. The dining room seats around eighty, the practical reason it cooks for a group as easily as for a couple. Gus and Jim are still the names on the door.
The schedule now is dinner and takeout. The doors open at half past four, Tuesday through Sunday, with lunch set aside for the time being. The takeout menu is the part worth knowing: not a trimmed convenience list but close to the full carte — delicacy plates, seafood, pasta and Baklava all still on it — so a Greek spread can travel home nearly intact. The flambéed cheese is the one thing that won't make the trip, which is its own argument for taking a table on Princess Street instead.