Alexandros Greek Restaurant, Carlisle: "Somewhere that will see you well" - restaurant review

Alexandros Greek Restaurant & Deli, 68 Warwick Road, Carlisle CA1 1DR (01228 592227). Starters £5.75 to £9.95, mains £14.50 to £28.50, desserts £7.50, wines from £21 Lots of restaurants can crack it on a Saturday. That's not how you make a living. To make a living, you have to be full on a Wednesday lunchtime. This Wednesday noon, Alexandros is making a trade that others can only dream of. "It was even busier yesterday," says Aris Pathanoglou, owner of the place with his wife, Sarah, when I comment on the bustle and buzz. It's an older crowd, the kind that can find room on a weekday for a good lunch, as long as it's reliable, and yes, we'll get a full bottle, thank you. Alexandros, a venerable Greek restaurant, which has been feeding Carlisle's good and foodies for over two decades, is clearly very reliable.

What is it, you say? A second opinion on a Greek restaurant in just three weeks? Yes, and without apologies. If there had been two trattorias or two bistros in just three weeks, an eyebrow wouldn't have quirked. Two critics of Italian or French cuisine? Of course. It is very good. But Greek cuisine? What are they talking about? The fact is that the Greek repertoire is too often considered a master key, when it shouldn't be. It should be famous for being gloriously bathed in sunshine; to be delightfully free from faff and pumice and prissiness. I'm celebrating.

Recently, a well-known figure in the London restaurant world launched a call on social media for more reviews of restaurants that had been around a bit. As someone who has revisited quite a few over the years, I get it. Journalists tend to fetishize anything new. The word "news" in "newspaper" is not a reference to old things. We are encouraged to save changes. But the story of the restaurants that have built up a loyal following over the decades is also worth telling. Alexandros is one of them. It opened in the Scottish Borders in 1997, before moving to this terrace in Carlisle in 2000. It's a family affair. A son is in front of the house; another is in the basement baking their sesame-crusted breads and oily, herb-flecked pitta, served in still-warm discs alongside dips. The kitchen is run by another family member.

Obviously they need staff. To the right is the charcuterie, its glass cabinet filled with syrup-soaked pastries, also baked on site, alongside vats of glistening olives. Order ahead from their list of gyros, salad boxes and casseroles and you won't have to wait in line. To the left is the restaurant. The square rooms still evoke their former domestic life. There is, of course, a Parthenon facade above the bar, adorned with Greek Orthodox icons, and a few Hellenic motifs on the wipeable tables and menus. These come partly laminated. Here is the May...