Stuck in Santorini's time warp

Not so very long ago, when Whiteley's was still a majestic department store, rather than a chintzy shopping mall, Moscow Road was the focus of a thriving Greek community.

At its heart was the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Divine Wisdom St Sophia and an impressive array of Greek food shops and restaurants. But the rise of nearby Queensway has taken its toll and now the whole area is becoming increasingly Middle Eastern in tone.

There are some Greek stragglers, including the Athenian Grocery, the Olympic Food Centre and a handful of restaurants including the Santorini Taverna, but it all has the feel of a doomed rearguard action.

The Santorini is a Greek-Cypriot restaurant stuck in a time-warp, where you are seated in a large, old-fashioned room with dubious decor. But if you think that the hammered copper picture of the Acropolis is shabby, wait until you visit the toilets on the first floor and feast your eyes on the kitsch pics that line the stairs.

The menu is very long and includes lots of 'Greek Restaurant' dishes - Cypriot fare adapted for the British market in the Seventies and unlikely to be found anywhere on the beautiful isle of Santorini.

This restaurant is rather like an elderly vulture that is no longer up for scrapping for its dinner but must eke a living by scavenging riper carrion - in this case the constant flow of wide-eyed tourists who stumble along the pavements.

The starters include a saucer of pink and vapid taramosalata that tastes of very little and has a price tag of £4.75. Or houmous - described on the menu as 'another mezze for discriminating palates' - a dish with Middle Eastern provenance.

Or you could pay £5.75 for a few grizzled chunks of pastourma that lack the punchy flavours you expect from this wine-soaked sausage. The Greek classic gigandes plaki is reincarnated as 'butter beans - gigantes' and you get a handful of large beans in a bland and thin tomato sauce. Then there are the cheese balls.

In this instance £4.95 gets you four deep fried spheres - outside there is a crunchy coat, inside molten gloop - the cheese beyond identification. The folk at Santorini also bill you £1 for pitta and pickles - a good, old-fashioned cover charge.

There are set menus on offer that represent somewhat better value - a multi-course meat mezze (that you must order for at least two people) costs £18.50 per person. Main courses include meat moussaka (£11.95, sorry to keep harping on about the prices), beef stroganoff, stifado and afelia.