Sofi Captures the Essence of Greek Food

For years I have been meaning to visit Sofi. Tucked behind two storefronts on 3rd Street between Fairfax Avenue and Crescent Heights Boulevard, Sofi has quietly and tenaciously held onto a reputation for serving the best Greek home-style cooking in Los Angeles--and having one of the coziest patios. Now that the weather has turned warm, it is important, I think, to locate a good shady place to eat, not to mention an excellent moussaka.

Named for its original owner, Sofi Konstantinidis, a medical-doctor-turned-restaurateur and cook, the restaurant was recently sold to Tiffany and Evangelos Michailidis, who have retained the staff and the menu.

Eat in the garden or in the dining room, two pleasantly spare, connected spaces. At night, lights are dim, the candlelight soothes and the service is gracious, attentive. There’s a definite lived-in, neighborhood feel to this quietly comfortable place. Small parties of friends, intimates and solo diners seem equally at home.

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Sofi calls its food “Olympian Gastronomy.” Many nights, I would be happy making a meal on appetizers and salads alone. I’d start with a wedge of warm, supple house pita bread and set to work on the slab of creamy sheep’s milk feta in fruity olive oil with oregano and excellent, chubby Kalamata olives. Mild stuffed grape leaves--both meat- and rice-filled--are employed mainly to scoop up a velvety egg-lemon sauce.

Beets in a yogurt dressing boast the inspired crunch of walnuts. A classic, lettuce-free Greek salad or choriatiki (tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, sweet red onion, feta and olives) sings with freshness and good oil.

The concept of salad at Sofi also embraces cold dips, such as an insanely delicious sauce made from chopped eggplant, onions and olive oil, and tarama, an addictive cloud-like substance made from “red caviar”--i.e., cod roe.

The waitress once talked us into the kakavia, a tomato-based fish soup I found salty, unrepentantly fishy--and dangerously filling as an appetizer.

What I most appreciate about the food here is that it is unabashedly, lustily Greek. There are few compromises made for American palates: Vegetables are, by our standards, overcooked--but taste those limp string beans before you dismiss them; they have their own long-stewed appeal.

Boneless lamb on a bed of orzo is an earthy, full-flavored, classically Greek dish in which the lamb is unmistakably, fragrantly lamb and the orzo’s texture a few degrees past the popular, resilient al dente stage.

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Grilled meats and seafood have the compelling smokiness normally achieved only on small, banked fires in the great out-of-doors: Try tender, deep-flavored chicken that’s been marinated in red wine and skewered with onions, peppers and tomatoes. If it’s seafood you want, skip the Salonika shrimp--overdone shrimp on overdone orzo--and opt for a grilled fish of the day: We loved a moist, flaky sea bass, seared and sealed in what seemed to be a thin, crisp membrane of smoke, then topped with a scattering of warm, chopped tomatoes, olive oil and lemon.

Moussaka is the definitive baked strata of spiced meat, eggplant and bechamel; the portion looked small until I tried to eat it all.

Sofi’s filo dough is sturdy, large of flake and delicious whenever it appears, if especially so as spanakopita, a spinach and feta pie that is spiked with scallions and dill, and as the juicy meat packet of ground, spiced beef and lamb, with mushrooms and pine nuts.

Save room for dessert. Sofi’s “Macedonian” rice pudding is fluffed with cream and quenchingly cold. Simple and amazing, fresh, house-made yogurt is drizzled with Greek thyme honey and sprinkled with walnuts. Best of all is a plump, buttery bougatsa, a filo purse stuffed with vanilla cream and thin slices of apple.

Personally, I loved the Greek herb tea. It tastes pine-y, resin-y, like something brewed from foragings in the woods or a kind of hot, alcohol-free retsina. It’s not for everyone. I talked the whole table into ordering it: One woman took a sip and looked as if she were going to cry; others swore it must be a cure for all that ails.

* Sofi, 8030 3/4 W. 3rd St., (213) 651-0346. Open for lunch Monday through Saturday. Open for dinner seven nights a week. Beer and wine served. Major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $35-$60.