Greek Oasis

Longing for a taste of the exotic? You are definitely bound for inspiring cuisine when you travel north to the Greek Oasis in Temecula, where Savanna Kuhami and her family take you on a journey to Greece with frequent Middle Eastern soirées. Her mother is Greek and her father is Iraqi and she blends the two with flair in her new restaurant. “I have a passion for it,” she said. “I love food and I love people.”

Gauzy material draped along the ceiling lends Middle Eastern ambiance to the establishment and strains of Bouzouki music add a Greek flair. “We wanted to make a cozy restaurant where people would feel at home,” explained Savanna. She uses the recipes her mother perfected over the years while living on her native island of Mykonos in the Aegean Sea. The enhanced recipes make a difference. You can almost hear the flap of the windmill sails or the lap of the gentle tide against the whitewashed breakwaters.

The Middle Eastern influence also emerges in the hummus appetizer. Soft pita bread is served with tasty hummus (a flavored chickpea spread), which is definitely milder than what I have sampled in Turkey.

I searched the menu for the traditional Greek dish Moussaka, which is ground beef-stuffed eggplant seasoned with a variety of spices, then drenched in a creamy Béchamel Sauce. This memorable Moussaka was considerably moister than the versions I have tasted in Greece. The accompanying rice was marvelous and tasted like it was tinged with saffron.

Amid the lively chatter, the Greek Oasis is not a place for a quiet dinner but a place for celebration and laughter where belly dancers snap their finger cymbals and swirl around in a cloud of gauze every Friday and Saturday evening beginning at eight o’clock.

Plan on at least an hour and a half for your meal. This is a dinner experience — a trip to the exotic and something to be savored. Liked the food at the Greek Oasis? A simple “Efharisto” (“Thank you”) will go a long way.

Enjoy a Greek Oasis lunch or dinner at 27326 Jefferson Avenue, Suite 17, in Temecula. Please call (951) 296-5674 for reservations and directions.