Greek Islands Restaurant

With its welcoming web site and some great word-of-mouth, the dining duo were looking forward to lunch at the Greek Islands Restaurant. We should have just skipped it and gone to Santorini’s if we wanted Greek, and Shapiro’s if we wanted to stay in the same area.

It didn’t immediately begin as a poor visit- we found the restaurant with little trouble (a location on South Meridian helps), and parking is ample and convenient. No tricky street parking necessary here!

Once inside the building however, things turned sour. The lunch shift was in full swing, and apparently that meant that all servers and other staff were incapable of even a brief greeting along the lines of “hi, we’ll be right with you!” Nothing. Absolutely nothing for over ten minutes (yes, we looked at our watch). The line behind us grew and grew and grew and still no acknowledgement that anyone was there. We were wondering if it was a seat-yourself kind of place (there were open tables and no sign saying what to do). Finally, as we seriously debated walking out, someone came to get us to a table. Or, more accurately, someone waved us to a table and several minutes later wandered by with menus.

A less-than-stellar opening.

We’d settled on our lunch choices by the time anyone arrived to take a drink order, but all they wanted to do was take the drink order. We had to wait until they returned to order our meals.

Sheila decided on the Greek spaghetti since it combined two of her great loves; pasta and gyro meat. Yummm! Unwisely, she ordered this on a day when she was wearing a stark white shirt. Could she manage to eat her lunch without wearing any of the tomato sauce?

Jennifer debated between the spanakotiropita, tilapia, and pasticchio, before finally settling on the moussaka. I think it was the bechamel sauce that swayed her.

Both entrees were good, although nothing earth-shatteringly spectacular. Dessert might have tempted but we’d already been gone so long we had to hustle to get back to work.

Overall, it was a huge disappointment. We loved Santorini’s and Istanbul Cafe so much more that if we’re in the mood for that sort of food we’ll just go back to one or the other of them. Unless someone tells us we absolutely hit them on a bad day and they’re good enough to get another shot, we won’t be back; there are just too many other places to go and not enough days we eat out to enjoy them.

Greek Islands Restaurant
906 South Meridian St.

Food **
Service *
Atmosphere **
Overall *1/2

Oh, and Sheila’s shirt by the end of the meal? Pristine. Apparently years of spaghetti-eating practice pay off. That or she’s used up all of her neat-eating luck for the next decade.