Jimmy Grants

Delicious souvas done well. The portion was not huge like your average 3am kebab but when you have high quality ingredients like Jimmy, you get full off less.

Nice little suburban option. Ensure you like meat (lots of meat) before you visit.
Like lots of trendy, popular places, the service here can be… Interesting. Upon booking a table for 6 on a Saturday afternoon I was told we could have a one hour sitting only. I nearly canceled and went elsewhere, but a short lunch suited us I suppose.
It tuned out that very few punters were there for lunch so we were not moved on. In fact, service was slow and inattentive. So I suppose lucky for them customers like me don’t cancel bookings when they’re told they can only have a one hour sitting.
Anywho. The food is very nice and very easy. Lots of souvas and lots of meat. A good falafel option if you’re not into meat.
The grain salad has been a staple at George’s restaurants for years and that’s because it’s super delicious. Don’t skip the healthy option here — it’s worth ordering.
A couple of dips are worth having too. All very nice but only the taramasalata is enough to knock your socks off.
I would have liked to have given 4 stars but the slow service and «too cool for school» attitude took me down to 3. Can’t stand that kind of stuff. Get over yourselves!!! It’s great, but it’s not that great.

Clean great food. The souvlakis are a little on the light side. But for two adults and two children the family pack with chips and salad was perfect. Under $ 50 for a Sunday family lunch!

Souvlaki in an actual restaurant. Yes, that’s right. No longer the post-​pub 2am food of shame, Jimmy Grants has made eating souvlaki a legitimate life choice (thanks George Calombaris). I don’t really know much about Jimmy Grants but I think this Ormond one is relatively new and I was excited to head there for dinner. You can book online (for this restaurant only) and the space is really interesting — kind of bright and futuristic which isn’t really what I’d expect a souvlaki place to look like but that’s ok. We were seated at the back and my only complaint was that the table & bench seat made it a little hard to get in and out of, but then maybe I need to stop eating all Melbourne’s most delicious foods.
The menu is simple — souvlakis, sides/​dips, salads, a couple of plated options and desserts. I was excited to eat ALL the things so ordered:
Taramasalata — served with a couple of pieces of pita (four would be better for the amount of dip) it was lush, creamy and the perfect flavour. One of my favourite dips in the world (I got hooked on it from trying it at The Press Club bar years ago!)
Dim sims — OBVIOUSLY. Why isn’t this delicious food available in the UK? It’s kind of like a dumpling but bigger, and eaten with lashings of soy. These were pretty damn good but I like the old school ones with thicker pastry. No big deal, I’d get these again.
Chiko roll — I know, by this point I was in Aussie-​food-​nostalgia heaven. Chiko rolls are only on the menu here in November. When they arrived there was actually two in the portion which was exciting, I was giddy enough to think that for $ 8.50 I was just going to get one. They weren’t fat like a normal chiko roll but had the right taste. If you’re wondering what a chiko roll actually is, it’s an Aussie version of a spring roll and the pastry/​skin is quite thick and chewy. Yum.
Chicken souva — the main event. I can’t remember the last time I had a souvlaki, I suspect it was around 2006 on Smith Street. So as you can imagine, this one was always going to be amazing. I don’t know why but it’s a George thing to put chips in the souva (I think they do this at Hellenic Republic too) and I really like it — sure, it’s weird but it works and who doesn’t want extra carbs?! The only thing I didn’t love was the mustard aoili so I might get a different souva next time instead. (A souvlaki is a pita bread with a filling of lamb/​chicken smothered in some delicious Greek sauce).
Service was a little slow and haphazard but we were catching up with friends so it didn’t bother me too much. I did want to get dessert but as I said, service was all over the place so we didn’t bother. My only other complaint is that the loos are unisex — please Melbourne, stop doing this. It’s just not ok. Prices were good — about $ 70 for two with some wines and all those dishes so I would definitely go back.

We waited 35mins for our takeaway, with an arctic blast coming in everytime someone walked through the door.
Well worth the wait! Souvs are pretty small, but enough, and make up for in tastyness. I could guzzle bottles of that mustard aioli and have zero regrets.
As suggested I had the baklava ice cream and it was excellent!!!

It’s not fine dining and yes, technically it is a chain restaurant but damn the food is delicious! I had the Bonegilla souva which is a lamb /​chicken combo with all that stuff in it but what stood out for me flavour wise aside from the yummy meats and the chippies IN the souva was the mint sauce.
I had my souva with a nice Shiraz, yes it’s licensed. I also pinched a few of my friends feta chips — yum!
I also ordered a grain salad to take home and have for lunch the next day. The was a ripper idea cause it was really good. Not as many ingredients as the grain salad from Hellenic Republic but it was still equally scrumptious.
Now the thing that really stood out for me and tied this place up as somewhere 5 star was the service. Not only was our lovely serving guy attentive and personable he was also very patient with my friend who has unusual and numerous food intolerances.
He started off with a single laminated page with a table of ingredients but soon had to resort to ‘The Binder’. Lovely serving guy suggested some alterations to various dishes and soon my friend settled on an order. I was super impressed that the binder existed and my friend was surprisingly really happy with her choice.
That someone was so aware of the growing number of potential customers with food issues is what made this funky little place 5 stars for me.

Finally — Jimmy down south and a short frolic from home when I have a souvla craving.
I suspect Jimmy and I will become excellent friends. We’ll spend lots of time together. I’ll eat all the souvlas. And baklava ice cream.
Visualise sparse funky space, friendly staff and quick and tasty Greek fusion food. I am a fan of the Mr Papadopoulos — lamb souvla with mustard aioli. The chips are also to die for.
Enough babbling. Just go there already.

Now that Jimmy is local, it has cemented its place in my list of great sovas around.
The fit out is great and lots of space has been wrangled from the floor space available. Parking can be a issue being on the busy North Rd.
The opening of the Ormond store introduced the Baklava Ice Cream. This is a must try. Don’t forget to take a JimJam home for lunch the next day.

After hearing over and over how amazing Jimmy Grants was and never being able to make it to any of the other locations, I was super excited to hear that it opened up down the road from my work!
We opted to get a whole bunch of stuff to try and share to get the full experience. I started with the Nonna Maria which I the chicken souva with mustard aioli and I can honestly say that if they are all as yummy as this one, I can’t wait to try the other ones! The souva was jam packed with chicken AND chips and finished off with that lovely mustard aioli! The one thing I was disappointed with was it was gone before I realised because they are so small BUT at least it was jam packed with flavour!
The next thing I tried was the grain salad which had the right amount of crunch and flavour to make it worth the purchase!
The chips with feta on top were good but I was expecting a bit more feta on top (based on the photos but we all know that it never ends up like the photos)! The sim sim however was definitely not the best that I’ve had. I wasn’t too fond of the flavours in it and there was a bit of crunch on there that o just didn’t expect and really didn’t like much in a dim sim!
All in all, I can’t wait to try more!

This place is tops! I had the best souvlaki ever, plus the boss himself, George Calombaris even dropped by.
Serving size seemed a bit small but it was more than made up on the taste. Music was a bit too loud, and it is a bit of a squeeze to get to your table, but at least we got there early and didn’t have to wait in line.
Definitely will be coming back!