Now Lab Director Kathleen Alvarez says the results are in on her pick and she's got good
news, from Morocco and Italy to Greece and Portugal.
She insures the menu will take you on an authentic and delicious trip through the Mediterranean.
It all starts, with some fresh wood oven baked pita and one of their exceptional specialty
drinks.
It's located in Del Rey and it's called Apeiro Kitchen and Bar.
My name is Manuel Anagnostou.
I am one of the managing partners here at Apeiro in Del Ray beach.
We're a Mediterranean restaurant, family owned and operated and we offer four generations
of recipes and dishes from my family and we hope to pass them on to keep the legacy.
We have Greek flavors.
We have Spanish flavors, Italian flavors, Moroccan.
One of our Morrocan favorites is the chicken tagine.
We have our jumbo lump blue crab, Maryland crab cakes, world famous from Baltimore, Maryland.
We have our balloon, which is our mix of spreads, made in house.
That's served with out homemade pita.
Everyone here loves the wood fired oven.
We cook various dishes in there from pitas that are made in-house, our flatbreads, some
of our desserts.
And it reminds us of our family back in Greece when they used to use the wood burning ovens
up on the roof to cook the meals for everyone.
The ancient Greek meaning for the word Apeiro means infinite and boundless, which is how
we like to deliver our chef inspired dishes.
It's family friendly.
It's very inviting and welcoming and you will feel at home.
Does it feel like you've traveled to the Mediterranean?
Is that so?
It does, we like to eat from all over the world.
You know, I hate to get bored in my eating and one of the things I like about there is
you can hit multiple countries in one meal from appetizer to dessert, which is nice.
It's just really good fresh food, different flavor profiles.
I can go there 100 times and not have the same thing.
This last time, we had the wings.
My son has to have an appetizer of wings everywhere he goes and he was with us.
[Michelle] Is he and aficionado?
[Kathleen] He is the wing aficionado.
[Michelle] What were they like?
I'm sure they were grilled.
[Kathleen] They were grilled and they had a dry rub and a light sauce on them and they
were delicious.
Then I had the bolognese that had like short rib and lamb and it had like three or four
different meats and so it was like really a meaty rago.
The sauce was delicious, not overly sweet.
You're actually making me hungry, Stacey?
I had like opposite, you know that's the thing about the menu.
You can have totally different things.
I had started with the mini balloon.
[Michelle] And how was it?
It was so good.
I don't even know what the name means, but it's like fresh made pita with four different
kinds of dipping sauces.
One was their hummus.
They had a tzatziki and they had a pistachio yogurt and an eggplant.
[Stacey] That was good.
[Kathleen] Yeah.
And they are all delicious and varied and perfect.
So is the pita balloon up?
[Stacey] Yeah, that probably why they call it, delicious, fresh.
Everything was fresh.
[Michelle] You had that too right?
I had that too yeah.
[Michelle] And what'd you think?
It was great.
I mean there was a few things on there I've never had before.
The eggplant was great.
My wife loved that pistachio yogurt.
[Stacey] Yeah, me too.
[Andre] She couldn't stop with that one.
[Michelle] That sounds really lovely.
[Andre] So we were kinda fighting that one, yeah.
So what else did you have?
I had the Morrocan tagine chicken, which is like a braised chicken with spices on saffron
rice and roasted carrots.
Delicious, tender, the rice paired with it very well.
Loved the roasted carrots.
Wished for a few more.
Just a few more veggies in there.
But it was amazing.
[Andre] I also had that Morrocan chicken.
[Stacey] You also had the same one?
Oh my god.
And I couldn't agree more.
My wife had a pork chop.
And it was just, I was almost jealous of that one too.
It was thick, perfect char on it.
It was great.
It was really good.
We also had saganaki.
That was my first time with that.
[Stacey] Saganaki is actually one of my favorite things in the whole world.
[Andre] That was like.
[Stacey] It is basically fried cheese kind of.
[Michelle] When you pour over Ouzo or some type of a liquor, and it flames.
[Andre] And especially after he lit it.
It was like, that when you gotta eat it.
It was great.
That's awesome, did you have anything else?
Did you taste anything?
Yeah I had a cocktail.
We haven't really talked about this.
[Michelle] Yes please.
[Stacey] I had their signature cocktail.
Arepiero signature cocktail.
It's like vodka and like a Greek liquor and basil with like really earthy and whimsy and
very refreshing.
I thought it was really pleasant, but it was great.
The Happy Hour, they have a great Happy Hour outside.
We had a drink outside before we went inside.
And very crowded.
Very happening in terms of a Happy Hour.
You all had cocktails actually.
I had an elderflower, one of their specialty drinks.
A different flavor than anything I had.
It was kind of martini-ish.
But with that elderberry flower in it.
My daughter had a verdi-tini, which had matcha and some stuff like that.
It was delicious actually, so of course we tried each others.
You had a beet salad.
You wanna talk about that?
Oh, I did.
Yeah it was delicious.
My husband and I shared it.
It was like golden beets, red beets on top of a goat cheese like cream.
It was delicious.
I mean everything was fresh and hardy and earthy and it's just delicious.
Beautiful, it was a beautiful salad too.
And as far as where it's located.
It's in Del Ray marketplace, right?
Um-hm.
[Michelle] So what's that like?
That's actually a nice little place, 'cause a lot of parking, a lot to do around there
both restaurants, movie theaters, stores, so.
Me and my girlfriends meet for lunch.
And then go hit Ann Taylor you know whatever.
Yeah, service was great.
[Michelle] Was it?
Am I jumping ahead?
No, it was really great.
And we met the manager.
The manager actually showed us to our seats.
So he was very involved.
Very good, yeah.
At the beginning we had like tandem waiters, so they were crossing lines a little bit here
and there.
But it was nothing that was any trouble to us.
How did you find portions for the prices?
Very good.
I left there stuffed.
Especially if you ate your wife's pork chop.
I had a little bit of that.
We had a chocolate molten lava cake too.
Our thing was lighting things on fire.
People were watching us, but yeah the portions were great.
I mean they were definitely ample.
Very cool.
Well Kathleen Ampero was your choice, sum it up for us.
I would say if you are with a group of people that don't all like the same foods, it's a
great place to go, 'cause there's a lot of options with a lot of different flavor profiles
at a reasonable price and great drinks.
Good point, Stacey.
High quality in Mediterranean food.
Great for sharing, yeah.
Andre?
Very comfortable place just very flavorful fresh food.
Take a culinary journey to the Mediterranean and visit Apeiro Kitchen and Bar.
Located 14917 Lyons Road in Del ray Beach.
They're open daily for lunch and dinner and brunch on the weekends.
Reservations are accepted and the average price for dinner without drinks is about $45.