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The classic pork gyro served with fries and veggies.

It’s a blustery winter night, my mom doesn’t want to cook, and we’re craving something that’s not our usual Highland Park diner. We pass by Whole Foods and instead look to the left where a restaurant that we had never seen before entrances our taste buds.

The departure of Cupcake from it’s Snelling location in Saint Paul is still a bittersweet memory for many cupcake lovers but The Naughty Greek makes up for it as soon as we open the door. Angelo, the owner who left his native Greece when he was 18, asks how we are as soon as we walk in and then proceeds to chat with us through out the meal. He recommends the classic pork gyro, Baked Greek Feta with honey, spinach pie, and greek salad to us although according to Angelo, “everything is amazing”. Honestly, everything is amazing and not just for meat lovers, vegetarians are also well catered to. Angelo explained to us while we were waiting for our food that initially he had been against falafel as it’s not truly greek.

” My vegetarian customers explained to me that what I serve, the vegetables and cheese, is only half vegetarian. I needed to find a plant based protein that was still greek and so I invented Favalafel which is like falafel but with fava beans”.

After Angelo explained his journey from Greece to Minnesota with his wife (they met in Brussels and he followed her back to her native Minnesota), the food arrived and Angelo described the creation and thought process behind each of his dishes.

My favourite dish was the baked feta with drizzled honey. It was served in a simple dish but still hot with the phylo dough around it cracking when I stuck my fork into it and the honey dripping off the sides and a $6.50 price tag. However, meat lovers will as I’m told, be put at ease with the gyros that are filled to the brim with succulent meat and crispy fries just out of the oven. Some of the price tags may be a dollar of two more then the nearby Shish or Zait and Zaatar but the portions are bigger and the food could much easier be mistaken for tapas plates in Santorini.

The Naughty greek is a small establishment with a big heart and cravings worthy greek food. If the Snelling location isn’t the convenient, a tng 2.0 is opening on Raymond and University soon. The Naughty Greek is definitely a Saint Paul food tour can’t miss especially as the days get colder and our cravings of comfort food increase.