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Unfold the Olive Tree's menu, and there's plenty to drool over: hearty Greek dishes like roast chicken Athenian, gyros, leg of lamb.

But the restaurant had us at flaming cheese.

It's the very first listing under appetizers — saganaki flambe ($9.50). How could any self-respecting dairy lover resist? Kefalograviera, a hard, sheep's-milk cheese that's pleasantly salty, is lightly battered and pan-fried to a golden brown before being brought tableside. Then the server douses the warm slab with brandy. Flames leap to the ceiling — that explains the black acoustic tile — and everyone shouts "Opa!" Then the fire's extinguished with a healthy squirt of lemon.

And that, my friends, is the way to start a meal.

The saganaki has a wonderfully crisp coating on the outside (think of the yummy, crusty bits that burble out of a grilled cheese and brown in the pan) and a soft, almost rubbery interior. The salty cheese mingles with the sharp citrus tang of the fresh lemon. We're talking cheese-eater paradise.

The loukaniko ($8.50) lacks the flash of the saganaki, but the homemade Greek sausage packed plenty of zest. Hand-shaped balls of ground pork, lamb and beef bathe in a lemon-spiked broth with a whisper of garlic. The puckery lemon cut through the richness of meat, which tastes like a mellow Italian sausage. Roasted red peppers toss in a nice sweetness.

With every last bite of the appetizers devoured, we waited with high hopes for the heart of the meal, and the Olive Tree didn't disappoint.

There's a reason the old-school eatery with its ultra-dim lighting and intimate setting has been around for 27 years. The entrees all come expertly prepared, and the side dishes receive star treatment, too. The soft orzo, rice-shaped pasta, shines with sweet-tart sun-dried tomatoes and the bright bite of mint. Fat wheels of buttery zucchini and yellow squash manage to be tender but still retain plenty of crunch.

Just the sound of the fork plunging into the shatteringly crisp filo of the spanakopita ($15.95) triggered drooling. It was the first night spinach was on the menu after the recent e-coli scare, and what a return. The airy filo encases a filling of spinach and feta that had melted into a creamy sauce.

The pastitsio ($15.95) shares the same comfort-food feel as the spinach pie. The baked casserole layers lamb and beef with macaroni, all coated in a creamy béchamel sauce and barely scented with cinnamon and nutmeg. The best part: The whole shebang wears a burnished coat of kefalograviera cheese.

Fish, too, gets star treatment here. A daily special of halibut ($22.95) deserves its own spot on the menu. A crisp exterior gives way to mild, flaky white fish perked up with a mélange of julienned leeks, tarragon and perhaps a smidge too many sun-dried tomatoes.

Another fin-flappingly fresh seafood entree is the Shrimp Scorpios ($19.95). A thick tomato sauce flecked with onions, garlic, bell peppers and feta cheese blankets small shrimp. You'd think the shrimp would be lost in all that sauce, but their delicate taste marries well with the tomatoes.

To be perfectly honest, we had low expectations for a Greek restaurant's dessert menu. We figured there'd be baklava and ouzo cake, but the Olive Tree surprised with a veritable buffet line of in-house desserts to satisfy any sweet tooth, from chocoholics to cheesecake lovers.

In a stroke of culinary brilliance, the graham cracker crust wraps up and around the fluffy, family-recipe cheesecake ($6.95) to make a topping, too. An occasional pebble of cream cheese proves it really is homemade. A cappuccino mousse pie ($6.95) layers three mousses into a dark chocolate-cookie crust, and you've got to love a dessert named Chocolate Intemperance ($6.95). Thin chocolate cake layers sandwich incredibly rich kahlua-spiked mousse that manages to be airy yet dense for a sublimely creamy texture. It was quite flashy all on its own — no pyrotechnics required.