Drop into Taverna Kyma any time and you’ll think you’ve discovered a big, noisy party, one where the allure of flames curling high around meats and imported seafood compels you to jump in and join the fun.
If you wind up waiting for a table (a good bet), you can window shop the seafood case, where pristine options sit on ice. Or, watch as food exits the open kitchen — just try not to gawk and drool over gorgeous stuffed red peppers or the best-looking kabobs this side of Athens.
Taverna Kyma (pronounced kee-ma; the name means wave in Greek) is brought to you by the same people who deliver the wild table dancing Taverna Opa.
Like its sibling, Kyma carries the same almost-impossible-to-carry-on-conversations-without-raised-voices environment, minus the table dancing. Multiply that times every table in the large main room, add exposed ceilings, dish clattering, chairs scraping tile floors and an open kitchen, and you’ve just read the noise alert.
Service could be better, but keeping on top of things is bound to be a challenge in a restaurant as hectic as this.
The soulful cooking might make it all worth putting up with, especially if you start with grilled octopus ($10), cut as thick as wide rope, served traditionally — dressed with olive oil, vinegar and oregano after cooking.
Our manouri saganaki ($6), dense white cheese pan fried to molten, was dressed with tomatoes, garlic and ouzo; our lamb sausage ($5) was nice and lean, dusted with Mediterranean herbs, split horizontally, and almost as addictive as the roasted peppers completing the plate; pan-seared quail ($7), cut for easy eating, is lightly touched with red wine, and any of the traditional cold meze, including fluffy taramosalata ($4) and garlicky skordalia ($4), are good.
Lamb chops ($23) are a meat lover’s delight — four rosy-centered crusty chops with a lollipop of meat and long bones too good not to nibble. Excellent lemony potatoes complete the plate.
The pastitsio, a gonzo hunk ($11), with a hollow noodle base and hunks of ground beef is alluring with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg and a squishy layer of cloudlike bechamel. And, if you start with appetizers or add salad, two of you could make a meal on the $13 entree of two plump red peppers crammed with ground beef, rice and herbs.
I admire Kyma for not sending out the usual fleet of seafood. For $22, the kitchen grills lavraki (Bronzini) until it picks up a nice smoky tinge and the skin blisters. Swirls of ladolemono (a light lemon olive oil sauce) moisten it to accent the natural sweetness. It’s served whole, so you might want to ask the kitchen to fillet it.
There’s Grecian red mullet called barbounia ($18); lithrini (Greek white snapper) and tsipoura (Royal Dorado), both seasonal at market price. Humongous prawn bodies always look so daunting on a plate with dangling tentacles and bulging eyeballs, but you won’t be sorry you forked over $13 for one. The shell is slit for efficiency in extracting the sweet meat of an incredible crustacean that takes well to the grill.
I’m a hopeless diet ditcher when it comes to one dessert — tangy Greek yogurt ($5) that sits on the palate like fine rich cream. Spoon into it and you’ll pick up the honey drizzle and pieces of walnuts, too. Big appetites might make it through the plate, but the two scoops are easily shareable.
Even with its raucous noise level, appreciating what this newcomer is trying to accomplish as well as the good food isn’t hard. I’d just like to do it a little more quietly.
Please phone in advance to confirm information on hours, prices, menu items and facilities. For review consideration, please fax a current menu that includes name and address of restaurant to 954-356-4386 or send to Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301-2293.
Contact dining correspondent Judith Stocks at or write to her in care of the Sun-Sentinel.
*** (OUT OF FOUR STARS)
Cuisine: Greek
6298 N. Federal Highway
Boca Raton
561-994-2828
tavernakyma.com
Cost: moderate
Credit cards: all major
Hours: lunch Monday-Friday, dinner nightly
Reservations: accepted for parties of five or more
Bar: full service
Sound level: very noisy
Smoking: outdoors
Children’s facilities: boosters, high chairs
Wheelchair accessible: yes
