A few weeks back I did a tour of area grinder shops for the Dining Blog. More recently I’ve decided to do a complete 180 and write about some of the healthier lunch options in the area.

Well, it looks like my blood pressure and cholesterol level are steadily declining, and I’ve got some good recommendations to boot (See previous blogs on Kate’s Café, Café Sol and Saeed’s International Market).

Recently, I had lunch at The Pita Spot: A Mediterranean Grill in Mystic. There’s a lot to like here. I’ll start with starters.

The list of appetizers is broken into cold and warm options. On the cold side, the options include baba ghanouj, mousakaa (which comes warm too), stuffed grape leaves and shankleesh, a blend of feta cheese, diced tomatoes, grated onion, seasoning and olive oil. For warm starters, there’s grilled cilantro pesto pita, falafel and Mediterranean lamb sausage to name a few.

The appetizers range in price between $6 and $9, but if you’re interested in sampling several, you can do $4 small platters. I went with that option trying the fava beans, meat lover’s hummus and grilled feta and mozzarella cheese flatbread.

All were excellent. The fava beans were cooked with chick peas then marinated in garlic, olive oil and lemon. They came garnished with chopped parsely. The cheese flatbread was delicious, savory and the perfect snack on a cold fall day. The meat lover’s hummus was a traditional hummus topped with flavorful minced beef and pine nuts. All these appetizers went well with the side of pita bread that came with them.

I rounded out my meal with a delicious lentil soup, a blend of lentils, Swiss chard, lemon and spices.

I can definitely vouch for The Pita Spot as being an excellent place for lunch, and, after taking a look at the options on the dinner menu, I think another visit may be in order.

Some dinner items that stood out to me were the grilled calamari over vegetarian couscous, grilled tuna kabob, rib eye steak and vegetarian mousakaa over rice pilaf. Yum.