Checking Out Poseidon’s Savory Stuff

Poseidon Bakery, the truly “old school” Greek spot on 9th ave btw. 44+45th is primarily known for their sweets. I love baklava but I’m rarely craving dessert on my lunch hour. I was a bit more interested in Poseidon’s savory pastries (like their spanakopita) and was curious if they were worth trekking one avenue out of bounds for.

Poseidon offers four different savory pastries: spanakopita (spinach pie), tiropita (cheese pie), kreatopita (meat pie) and menina mash (vegetable pie). They are all $4 except for the kreatopita which is $4.50. I thought getting three of them would give me a comprehensive survey of the menu and was probably all I could handle for lunch (plus it’s already over the $10 limit. I’ll give you one guess as to which I didn’t get.

The pies are stored cold, but I wouldn’t recommend eating them that way. I lugged them back to my office to microwave them (my requests for a toaster oven in the office kitchen have gone ignored and, in some cases, openly ridiculed). I didn’t think to ask the folks at Poseidon to heat them up for me, but I bet they would. Luckily, the pastries survived the nuking pretty well, maintaining a flaky though somewhat soggy-on-the-bottom phylo dough shell.

First up is the kreatopita, made with ground beef, leek, dill, onion and scallion. It tastes kind of like a meatball wrapped in phylo dough, which is fine by me. I was especially happy that I could taste the dill but I think I might have enjoyed it more if the meat was seasoned just a bit more. It was still really good though.

Next up was the tiropita, a mixture of feta, ricotta and cream cheese with a hint of mint. Just a solid block of dough-encased cheese. The texture was very creamy but luckily the flavor wasn’t too rich. As I discovered during a week of eating calzones every day, there is such a thing as too much cheese, but that’s definitely not the case here. I really liked this one. It’s worth mentioning that this was the most grease soaked of the three after microwaving (and not surprisingly the most filling). I think I would rank this one slightly ahead of the kreatopita.

I finished things off with the spanakopita, spinach mixed with feta, leek, dill, onion and scallion. Unlike the other two pastries I tried, I am very familiar with spanakopita and I was thrilled to find that Poseidon’s is probably as good as any I’ve ever had. There’s nothing revelatory about it, but it seems to have just the right mix of ingredients. A strong spinach flavor (I hate when you can’t taste the spinach in spinach pies) brightened up by dill with everything held together by the feta. This was my favorite.

Three of these things left me plenty full and feeling like a bit of a pig. They’re not huge (the hypotenuse measures 6 inches and they stand about an inch tall), but they are densely packed pockets of delicious. Two would probably make a good lunch, especially if you supplement them with something sweet for dessert.

I will definitely go back for these again and look forward to trying the menina (spinach, carrot, potato, leek, onion and dill). Poseidon may be known primarily for their sweets but their savory pies are every bit as delicious, satisfying and “old school.”

Poseidon Greek Bakery, 629 9th Ave (btw. 44+45th), 212-757-6173

7 Comments

Leave a Reply

You must log in or register to post a comment.