Cosmos Café Is a Hidden Gem

Cosmos Café. Photo by Cari Taylor-Carlson.

Family-owned Cosmos Café on W. North Avenue is a hidden gem I recently discovered. Hidden is the operative word here: I drove by the restaurant twice before I found it. Inside this small, one-story blue building in Wauwatosa, they serve some of the most authentic Greek food found in the metro area.

Our server-order-taker Tina, assured us that Cosmos is no newcomer. “In fact,” she said, “the restaurant has been on North Avenue for sixteen-and-a-half years.” When you order, you order at the counter because there is no table service, and you will encounter Tina who has a personality and a smile that light up the room.

A good place to start at a Greek restaurant is with the combo platter, and that is what I did. The platter included hummus, spanakopita, falafel, feta, Kalamata olives, pita and tzatziki sauce. The hummus needed a hit of olive oil to bring out its subtle flavor. Three pieces of spanakopita were crisp from several layers of phyllo and included lots of spinach and feta packed in between the layers, and the falafel had a crunchy exterior and a delicious, crumbly filling. Several chunks of feta and briny olives added contrasting flavors, and the pita came in handy as a scooper. You could also order the hummus, the spanakopita or the falafel separately as appetizers.

The Mediterranean salad and the traditional village salad are the same salads, except the Mediterranean salad includes some lettuce. Both are dressed with red wine vinegar and olive oil. My companion ordered salmon with her Mediterranean salad and said it was a complete meal. The salmon was pan-seared and cooked to medium-well. Everything was fresh and tasty, and the feta and olives added authentic Greek flavors to the mix.

When you have a meal at Cosmos, you do not want to leave without dessert. The baklava was gooey, oozy and rich, like a piece of candy that you eat with a fork. This small piece of phyllo layered with butter, honey and chopped walnuts was more than enough to satisfy my sweet tooth and was a fine ending to a delicious Greek-inspired lunch.

Most of the meals they serve at Cosmos are takeout, as we noted when we were the only sit-down customers at lunchtime. We also noticed that many of the takeout containers were filled with sandwiches, and that motivated us to look to the long list of sandwich choices on the menu. All three of our sandwiches required a knife and a fork, and thanks to a generous offer from Tina, we were served on plates instead of the usual baskets.

The gyro supreme had the usual tomato wedges, sliced white onion and a mountain of meat piled on a house-made pita, along with two containers of tzatziki sauce. This was a feast of warm pita surrounding tender, flavorful meat. The chicken supreme, cubes of pan-sauteed white meat with a hint of lemon from a marinade, was a plentiful and satisfying meal.

For the pork souvlaki, the chef cut pork tenderloin into small bites and sauteed them until they were both tender and crispy on the edges. This sandwich, served Greek style, included fries inside the pita and came with a chipotle-garlic mayonnaise sauce that I wanted to eat with a spoon.

For each of the sandwiches and the salmon, the meat was cooked to order and came to the table still sizzling from the pan. There is more on the menu. You can get a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a bacon cheeseburger, a Caribbean burger or a Greek burger. If you are unaccustomed to Greek cuisine, as one of my companions was, you can order a BLT. This one had more than enough bacon, and the bacon was nice and crisp, just as she requested.

After you have one of their Greek sandwiches or an appetizer or a Greek salad at Cosmos, you will understand why this little hidden gem has been a staple on North Avenue for so long.

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• Location: 7203 W. North Ave., 1819
• Phone: 414-257-2005
• Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mon-Sat
• Website: https://www.cosmoscafetosa.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cosmoscafetosa/

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