Critic's Review
I'm not sure what caused me to go to My Big Fat Greek Restaurant again; I really didn't care for it the first time. Sometimes you have to remind yourself. I remember the first time I passed this place on the way to the Hard Rock; I wondered how a dump in the middle of nowhere could be appealing.
The porch consists of a couple of uncomfortable looking tables on a badly weathered deck; Not too appealing on a 95 degree afternoon. No fans or other cooling, so they really don't care if you sit there. I've never seen anyone out there during the day. I'm not sure what happened to the colorful chairs that had when they took their website pictures.
There's some sort of lake next door that might provide some sort of waterfront ambiance at night, but during the day the greenish brown water and poorly maintained deck makes it a non-starter.
Inside is a big room with blue vinyl tablecloths. There are a couple of booths in the back.
When you sit down they just plop a lunch specials menu in front of you. Of course they don't have the lunch menu on their web site. I remembered having to ask for a regular menu last time; no difference now.They seemed shocked that I asked for the full menu. While I was pondering, Some bread with hummus was delivered.
Quite a large portion of hummus for 2 slices of bread; the bread was junk and the hummus wasn't much better, so I saw no reason to break my low-carb streak. I ordered a small greek salad (the american kind) and the grilled octopus. I had ordered an iced tea; they have Splenda but you have to ask for it. The iced tea tasted musty. Luckily I'd asked for extra lemon to drown out some of it.
Usually when I want things to come out separately they come out together and vice versa; today was no different. The salad came out right away.
This is not a "greek" salad in any way; not even an american greek salad. No cucumbers, red onions or green peppers; without something crunchy it's not greek to me. What was odd about this salad was that the feta cheese didn't taste like feta cheese; maybe it was "fresh" feta, but it didn't taste like feta. And the dressing was awful. The picture on their web site has the salad loaded with fresh dill and the menu says it has dill; but no dill today.
When the octopus came out, you can imagine my emotions: anger, disappointment, fear; was this some sort of sick joke?
The menu describes this as follows:
Char grilled mixed with sweet red onions, vine ripe tomatoes and splashed with extra virgin olive oil, lemon, and oregano
Do you see any vine ripe tomatoes or red onions? Adding insult to injury, they actually have a photo of an octopus appetizer on their website.
Look similar? I wonder what restaurant the picture is from?
The octopus was probably re-cooked, maybe left over from the weekend, and sitting in some bad combination of oil and balsamic. Not inedible, but not good either. Those of you who read this site know that I never complain; I suck it up and write it up. But a server, who I suspect was the owner, asked me twice how everything was, and I think she noticed the expression on my face. "This is not even close to the way it is described on the menu", I said. "Splashed with EVOO? Vine Ripe Tomatoes?". She just made the thinking face, knowing that there was no answer other than "I'm sorry".
She came back and offered me dessert or coffee; a $2-5 concession for a bad $14 appetizer (The $12 price on the menu is crossed out and replaced with $14 because, well, this is worth so much more). She seemed surprised that I declined.
When I got the bill, the octopus was removed. Imagine what I would have written if it wasn't.
The first time I was here, they served me Shrimp Saganaki without bothering to bake it. This is worst Greek restaurant that I've ever been to. Go somewhere else.
Review 7/25/11
You know this place. You've passed it on your way to the Hard Rock. I've heard this described as being in the middle of nowhere; I'd also heard it was very authentic.
I scheduled a lunch meeting at the place; there aren't too many places for lunch around here and they do a pretty good business at lunch. It was way too hot to eat on the outdoor deck; inside there's a long room with a bar up front and tables with blue tablecloths and wicker chairs all along the wall. They were seating everyone right next to one another in the center of the room; so even though the place was half empty we had diners on all sides of us.
I'd checked out their menu on their web site so I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to order. When we were seated, we were only given an "express lunch" menu, which has a fraction of the menu listed on their site. I had to ask to get a full menu, which is also available. Our server brought us full menus, and a plate of hummus was put on the table with a basket of italian bread. I thought pita would be more "authentic", but the bread was pretty good,as was the hummus.
I ended up ordering Shrimp Saganaki, one of my favorites, and then a lunch size version of their chicken ladoregano. I ordered a Pelligrino; they only have the big bottle, but my lunch mate just wanted regular water. She ordered a chicken pita, tzatziki on the side.
When they brought out the shrimp, something seemed a bit wrong;
This dish was a fraud; this is supposed to be shrimp baked with tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, herbs and cheese. This was an assembled version; my guess is that the shrimp were boiled as they had no taste at all, and then rolled in some tomato sauce and topped with cheese. This should be baked until the cheese is all bubbly, with the shrimp cooking in the garlicky tomato sauce. The plate wasn't even hot and the shrimp was undercooked. This was a waste of $13.
A runner brought out the main course, but didn't seem interested in taking the obviously empty dishes from the shrimp; leaving them on the table. They forgot the Tzatziki.
The chicken dish was disappointing without even tasting it; half of the plate was salad, there was one sliver of potato and a spoonful of peas. The salad wasn't even a greek salad; just lettuce tomatoes and feta cheese with some onions and a bland oil dressing.
The potato was just a potato; no oregano or lemon or garlic flavor. And the chicken was just really dry with very little lemon flavor. I'm wondering if they ran out of lemons and garlic. There were some hideously overdone peas and carrots (which are how they are supposed to be) that I've never really cared for.
My lunch mate has one of those jobs where if you take 63 minutes for lunch you get a good lashing; and I wasn't nearly done, so I sent her off while I finished. I flagged down the server and after a bit of confusion she presented me with 2 checks; I'm not sure why as there was no obvious reason for ordering the shrimp and Pelligrino separately. I gave her my card and when I was computing the tip I thought that the total was a bit high. I noticed that there was a charge for $2 for "fountain soda". I just looked at it in wonderment for a moment, and then I realized that they had charged me for the water. I really didn't feel like inquiring about it; I just deducted $2 from the tip I was going to leave.
I'd heard that this place was good, but I saw no evidence of that today. Bad service and food that wasn't very good. I really have nothing good to say about it. You'd also expect a place in this neck of the woods to be inexpensive, but their prices are just about the same as Greek Islands Taverna.
On weekends they have entertainment. Maybe they have better food. I won't be finding out.
