Barrack’s Row is now home to a new Greek restaurant, Cava, which offers mezze style dining. Mezze, according to the Cava website,  ”are small plates of food, similar to tapas, but slightly larger that are shared.” As a veteran of the well-known Jaleo and other tapas joints, this left me slightly confused about just how much I needed to order, but I believe I have found the correct ratio: 2.3 dishes per person.

Dining with two other friends, we found seven plates to be the right amount. This left my friends with enough room to enjoy a dessert while I was content to just sip another glass of wine. Speaking of wine, Monday night features half price bottles, the majority of which are normally priced in the $24-$40 range. This, and its fun and arty atmosphere, has definitely launched Cava as a prime contender for my early-week date night choice.

From start to finish, the food was great and surprisingly affordable. We sampled a wide variety of plates-including spanikopita, asparagus, scallops and the filet souvlaki-and were very impressed with each. It helped that there were three of us there, as the majority of dishes came with three pieces. As with other tapas restaurants dishes are served as they are ready, which made for a nice flow and prevented too many plates from clogging the table.

Though the bar was lively, there was no wait for us to get a table at 7 p.m.  That may be changing soon since Washington Post food guru Tom Sietsema recently wrote a First Bite piece about it. But for the value, atmosphere, and food quality I would gladly stand in line to eat here again.

Cava is located at 527 8th St SE.