Never on Sunday Can Be Delightful Inside and Out

Sometimes you have to lose something to gain something; so goes the conventional wisdom. A case in point: Never on Sunday, a Greek restaurant in the eastern end of fast-growing Anaheim Hills.

It wasn’t more than three months ago that I was hearing rave notices about this relatively new restaurant. Two representatives of the Greek National Tourist Office in downtown Los Angeles had personally endorsed it, and a few of my friends had been happy to second the endorsement.

But just after an enrapturing dinner there myself, the restaurant suddenly closed for remodeling. The owner, Chris Tsachpinis, had undertaken to turn half of the dining area into a semi-enclosed outdoor patio, a project that took about two months. And in the interim, the chef, who had an uncommonly delicate touch, bolted and was replaced by a veteran chef with Chicago’s Greektown on his resume.

There is a plus side, however. The old Never on Sunday was an undistinguished mall space beleaguered by the constant throbbing of an adjacent aerobics studio, but this humble caterpillar of a restaurant has metamorphosed into a butterfly. It’s now simply one of the most delightful places for al fresco dining in the entire county. The balmy, semi-desert air of Anaheim Hills is absolutely luscious when the sun goes down, and the patio has been done with real flair.

The front of this patio is completely open to the outside, but the rest of the space is enclosed, with a glass wall separating it from the inside dining area. Tables are positioned between twin murals inspired by the Hellenic landscape, painted on plaster walls like frescoes. One mural depicts a tranquil coastal village scene. The other is an overview of a bluff, looking down on the sea.

The patio colors are attractive as well. The blue-and-white tablecloths look stunning against the patio’s gray slate floor, and the high-backed wooden chairs, stained a deep brown, are casually elegant with their pale straw seats. Should the evening become chilly, there is always the possibility of a retreat to the inside dining area, now smaller by half. But plan on fighting for an outside table. They are always the first to go.

So much for the kudos (that’s a Greek word, folks). The food at the new NOS is spotty, certainly nothing to drive miles for. One new addition to this menu is bekri meze, a trencherman-sized appetizer platter of meats. Greek men love to eat broiled meats while they drink outside at the local taverna, and this dish makes an appropriate choice on a summery evening. The platter is loaded up with thick slices of loukaniko (an orange-tinged sausage), sikotaki (chunks of beef liver) and keftedakia (little meatballs spiked with mint and garlic). And while it is all very tasty, one cannot help but notice the crude, ungarnished way it is served and the residue of oil the meats leave behind.

You’ll probably do much better if you pass on the oily octopus and saganaki (flamed cheese) in favor of more simple appetizers. Feta cheese and black olives make a savory start, especially since both ingredients are of high quality. Tzatziki is a kind of dip composed of yogurt, cucumber, garlic and dill, and at its best it’s delightfully refreshing. This version works, but whenever the top has a thin skin, as ours did, you know it has been made up well in advance.

Most of the dinners come with a good Greek salad, loaded with olives, onions, bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and more of that imported feta, or with a cup of the pudding-like avgolemono soup. The egg, lemon and rice flavors are well executed here, but the soup is much too thick for my liking.

Among the entrees, you’re safe with the moussaka, which at Never on Sunday adds zucchini to the layers of eggplant and ground beef; the layer of sauce bechamel on top is lightly aromatized with nutmeg, clove and cinnamon. Another good heavy casserole is pastitsio, which you can think of as the world’s most fattening version of macaroni and cheese. It’s made like the moussaka, with macaroni substituting for the eggplant and with the beef mixed in, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee style.

But some of the entrees can be shockingly slipshod. Shrimp kebab is dry and uninteresting, and pan-fried kalamarakia (squid), while tender, suffers from an overly thick batter. Chicken Athenian style is obviously some sort of specialty, enclosed as it is in a little box on the menu. But when you order it, the waiter says, “That takes more than half an hour,” as if to discourage you, and you will do well to take the hint. It’s broiled to order, all right, with lemon, garlic and oregano, but the skin comes up soggy and the flavors seem muted.

Then there are dishes to avoid at all costs. Our dish of braised lamb had not been trimmed at all, and there was a huge, unappetizing globule of fat and gristle clinging to the meat. Gyros, that Greek sandwich favorite (here served on a plate), is supposedly a mixture of lamb and beef, broiled on a vertical spit so as to allow the fat to drip off. But what arrives here are gray slices of a mystery meat, dried up like yesterday’s newspaper. I believe slices of the Minotaur, the half man-half bull of Greek legend, would make a more appealing presentation.

The usual quartet of Greek desserts are on hand to round out the evening: a slippery cream caramel, a cloying rice pudding, galaktobouriko (a semolina custard in the middle of some phyllo dough) and a large, buttery rectangle of baklava, walnut-rich and certainly the best of the lot. Pass on the watery Greek coffee, unless you are in to turning your cup upside down and reading the grinds. Mine said I wouldn’t be back unless the evening was very, very beautiful.

Never On Sunday is moderately priced. Appetizers are $3.95 to $11.95. Dinners are $7.95 to $$16.95. Desserts are $3.25.

*NEVER ON SUNDAY

* 6362 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road, Anaheim Hills.

* (714) 637-9561.

* Lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday; dinner 5 to 11 p.m. nightly.

* American Express, MasterCard and Visa.