RESTAURANT REVIEW : Bountiful Portions, Heady Spices, Rich Greek Fare at ‘Never On Sunday’

At Never On Sunday, you dine in Dionysian splendor amid gods, celebrities and museum pieces. Well, they’re really just pictures on the wall, but hey, look--here’s Poseidon next to Burt Reynolds! Bill Devane alongside Shelley’s Grecian Urn!

Olympian trappings aside, this North Hollywood star is really a modest little place, for once without the relentless blue-and-white color scheme suburban Greek restaurants feel compelled to use. Instead it has tables covered with pink tablecloths (covered with glass), and those pictures--huge paintings alternating with tiny photos.

You’d better like Greek music, because proprietor Takis Hinos obviously thinks you should. He plays lots of ersatz bouzouki arrangements while you eat--Jacques Brel translated into Greek, for example. I didn’t have the heart to ask the man to turn it down.

Hinos is the perfect Hellenic host: gold bracelet, open shirt and an accent as thick as Peloponnesian olive oil--a real charmer, eager to guide you through his menu. After he schmoozes you up Greek-style, though, he’ll have to run back to the kitchen. He’s also the chef.

And a good one, as shown by an appetizer plate he calls “special Grecian treat.” Recommended for two but better suited to four, it includes flaky little spinach and cheese triangles, excellent rice-stuffed grape leaves, crumbly imported feta cheese with oil-drenched olives and tomatoes, and creamy taramosalata, the fish roe dip Greeks love to eat with pita bread.

I’d think carefully before ordering any of the other appetizers because Hinos serves trencherman portions, big enough to be entrees, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for a couple. One is the crunchy sauteed meat balls (keftedes) with their heaps of garlic and mint flavor. Another is Hinos’ tender, slithery octopus in wine sauce, the perfect complement to a glass of cold, bone-dry Greek white wine.

All dinners come with soup or salad, and I’m pushing the salad for an unusual reason. Hinos doesn’t believe in soup cups, so if you decide on the pungent, velvet-smooth egg lemon soup or the rich homemade chicken noodle, you’re going to get a giant bowlful that literally won’t leave much room for dinner. The (more manageable) salad is the classic Greek sort with crisp greens, shredded feta, Kalamata olives and lots of fresh herbs.

The main courses are the usual selections, but with a twist. Hinos comes from Patras, at the western edge of the Peloponnesus--the city where you catch the ferry to Italy--and he’s faithful to the aromatic cuisine of his hometown. He probably makes the most highly seasoned Greek food in our area.

His combination plate, full of Greek Sunday fare, is a good way to experience it. You get a square of the baked noodle dish pastitsio, those good dolmades , generous slices of roasted lamb and, of course, moussaka . His version has a thin bottom layer of potato and a thin top layer of baked bechamel sauce, separated by masses of eggplant and ground meat.

One friend of mine wouldn’t hear of so much on one plate, though, and instead went for a dish called exohiko, in which lamb loin and kefalotiri cheese are baked in phyllo pastry. It was so rich she ended up taking about three-quarters of it home. Her husband ordered a lighter dish, baked chicken riganato: a steamy, tender half chicken with lots of oregano and lemon. He didn’t leave any.

I left most of my entree, though. It was the one dish here I wouldn’t order again. I’m talking about the Greek seafood combination, which turned out to be a sauteed mishmash of smelts, shrimp, scallops, cod and squid on a bed of feta and tomato-infused rice. I could hardly tell what I was eating.

You won’t have such a problem with any of the desserts, or with the distinctively muddy Greek coffee Hinos serves in tiny porcelain cups. At one end of the continuum is the thick, not-too-sweet rice pudding called rizogalo, prepared with golden raisins and heavy on the cinnamon. At the other end is flojiara , also known as galaktobouriko, a honeyed, buttery rectangle of phyllo filled with farina and milk pudding.

Whew. I could eat like this a couple of times a week, but not every day. I need a day of rest.

Suggested dishes: special Grecian treat, $8.95; keftedes, $4. 95; combination plate, $13.95; baked chicken riganato, $9.95; flojiara, $2.50.

Never On Sunday, 6304 Laurel Canyon Blvd., North Hollywood, (818) 766-4100. Lunch 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Saturday, dinner 3-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Full bar. Free valet parking. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $30-$50.