Every once in a great great while, when the stars are aligned just right and the temperature is just so and the winds are blowing at just the right speed, Shanghaiist will leave the friendly confines of Puxi and venture out into the foreign and terrifying netherworld that is known as Pudong. We had heard that some of the more familiar names (Moon River, Malone's, Paul, Punjabi) in Puxi had migrated out to the Dong's Thumb Plaza, which is where we headed today to enjoy lunch at the highly recommended Greek Taverna (O Milos).

Like pretty much everything else on this planet, Greek cuisine is not something in which we profess any expertise, but we have fond memories of drenched lamb gyros at the neighborhood Greek take-out joint back during our college days. The chicken gyro (30 RMB) at Greek Taverna was excellent, the pita packed to the edges with tangy chicken, yoghurt, and thick steak fries. We also enjoyed the starter meatballs, or keftedes (35 RMB), which were simple but tender and flavorful. The spanakopita (30 RMB), a thick-crusted pie stuffed with spinach, was also decent. Less memorable were the chicken and rice soup (20 RMB), which was fairly bland, and the pastichio (50 RMB), a traditional Greek casserole with ground beef, noodles, and a layer of cream that kind of threw everything off. Eggplant gives us big, purple nightmares so we refrained from ordering the lamb moussaka, though we had heard good things about that particular dish.

Overall, it was a nice way to lunch on a weekend afternoon; the decor is charming, the service is excellent, and on a nice day like today it's a great place to stare at all the families and expats and other Dong'ers strolling through the plaza. Though we can't see ourselves making make the journey again solely based on revisiting the food, we can see ourselves making similar weekend appearances when the weather is nice and the cab fare is paid by someone else.

Greek Taverna - No. 199 Fangdian Lu, Thumb Plaza (芳甸路199弄41号,大拇指广场) Tel: 5033-7500, Hours: 8:30am-10:30pm

Eric Hu is Shanghaiist's Food Editor. Email tips, recommendations, and news and gossip about Shanghai's food scene to food at shanghaiist.com.