Cusina Mediterranean Bistro

Cusina is built for the mixed table. One diner is after Greek skewers, another has settled on a plate of pasta, and the holdout at the end of the booth wants a charred striploin or a rack of ribs — and all of it comes out of one kitchen on Kortright Road West, in Guelph's Kortright and Edinburgh district. The Mediterranean backbone is real, anchored by chicken souvlaki, Mousaka, saganaki, and a long Greek appetizer list. But the spread is wide on purpose: a full-service bistro a family settles into precisely because everyone arrives hungry for something different, and leaves having found it.

The Greek-Mediterranean core is where the kitchen is surest. Chicken souvlaki arrives as marinated skewers with roast potatoes, rice, and a choice of Greek or Caesar salad; the Mousaka layers ground beef into eggplant, potato, and zucchini under a blanket of bechamel. Seafood fettuccine pulls mussels, salmon, and shrimp into a rose sauce finished with parmesan and mixed cheese. The starters work the same register — a dip trio of hummus, tzatziki, and red-pepper feta with warm pita, lightly breaded calamari, fresh P.E.I. mussels in a white wine and Dijon cream, spanakopita, and grape leaves hand-rolled with lean beef, rice, and herbs under a lemon-dill sauce. Saganaki comes flamed at the table with warm bread to catch it.