Greek Food in Houston- Yia Yia Mary's

For lunch, I had a mezze portion of taramasalata and a small salad at Yia Yia Mary's. YYM is the only Greek-themed outpost of the Pappas restaurant chain (See: Pappasito's Cantina, Pappadeaux's, Pappa's BBQ, Pappa's Grill, etc.), with only one location, which is here in Houston.

I had visited a few months ago, and was excited to see they have taramasalata on the menu, as it is very rare in American Greek restaurants. In fact, every other time I've eaten fresh taramasalata has been in Germany. Taramasalata is a spread made of cod roe blended with lemon juice and olive oil, which is eaten with pita bread. It can sometimes be found in the U.S. at grocery stores in jars from Krinos, but does not seem to be a popular dish at restaurants on this side of the pond. Despite its eerie pink color and ghastly saltiness, the flavor is awesome and somewhat unique. The accompanying pita bread was freshly baked and perfectly crisp, with a light sprinkling of kosher salt. It was tasty alone, but I had to brush off most of the salt before dipping it in the salty taramasalata.

The side salad was ok, if generic. It consisted mostly of sweet onions, black nicoise-looking olives (rather than the larger Kalamatas I would expect to see), tomato, very salty feta, lemon wedges, and some spices and olive oil. My only complaint would be the feta, which was too salty to enjoy. I have not had Greek feta in a very long time, so I am not sure if this was normal or not.

Pappas tends have pretty solid, if somewhat expensive, restaurant food, and YYM is no exception. Their prices do not change according to the time of day, so there is actually a $23 entree (I think it involves lamb chops?) you can order at lunch. I ordered off the appetizer and side menus, and I still spent about $11 on food. It's worth an occasional splurge when I'm in the mood for taramasalat, but not otherwise compelling.