Las Vegas has no shortage of "Mediterranean" restaurants, which tends to be a blanket term covering everything from Lebanese and Greek to Israeli and north African fare. Classic menu offerings include hummus (in all its various spellings), numerous incarnations of kabobs/gyros, salads featuring feta cheese and olives, aubergine dips, grilled vegetables, falafel, tabbouli etc., much of which is classic Greek fare. Some of our favorites include Paymon's (two locations, one on Maryland Pkwy. at Flamingo and the other on the west side of town at Sahara and Durango), Byblos (Flamingo and Decatur), the Pita Place (3429 S. Jones Blvd.), and Chicken GoGo (Sahara just east of Fort Apache).
However, if you want some of the more specifically Greek national dishes, like taramosalata (a dip consisting of fish roe mixed with lemon juice, onions, garlic, and olive oil), flaming saganaki (baked kafalograviera cheese, flambéed tableside), keftadakia (Greek meatballs), or avgolemono (chicken soup with lemon and rice), then there aren't too many options and our recent sampling brought out one clear winner.
It'd been many years since we visited the Greek Isles, but your question inspired us to go back and try the restaurant and unfortunately, we have to report that your source was accurate. The restaurant looked much as we remembered (Greek Taverna-ish, although somewhat dingy) and the service was great (then again, we were there at lunchtime and we were the only customers). The Greek menu was much diminished, overwhelmed by the likes of steak and shrimp, pork loin, and futtuccini alfredo. It was also surprising: While they had no hummus or tarama, they did have saganaki ($6.99) which was decent. The avgolemono was mediocre, however, as were the stuffed grape leaves, and we couldn't help feeling that we were probably inconveniencing the kitchen by ordering from the Greek menu.
Another lunchtime foray took us to the new Greek American Grille (W. Flamingo at Decatur). Located in the same mall where the old Kitchen Cafe used to reside (a former local lunchtime favorite for a Greek salad and fun dinner spot with live music), we had high hopes. It's basically a fast food joint that offers dine-in, take-out, and drive-thru options and claims to serve authentic Greek cuisine. So we tried chicken souvlaki (shish kabob) and an Athenian salad but much as wanted to be impressed, we weren't. The pita bread was that weird "cakey" version you get here a lot -- kind of spongy and not like anything we've ever had in Europe, where the pita bread is dry and doesn't disintegrate in your lap when you stuff it with meat and salad and then try to eat it. We'd much prefer to eat at Byblos, the Lebanese joint across the street that serves great hummus, salads (wonderful fattoush), and proper pita bread.
By chance we found the relocated Kitchen Cafe, which is now up on Durango at the intersection with Sahara (in the same plaza as Smith's) and called Romy's Cafe & Terry's Bistro. It was a quiet Tuesday evening when we stopped by and there weren't that many Greek dishes on the menu, although the restaurant interior suggested Greek taverna more than the Greek Isles did. While waiting for a take-out order we were presented with a cup of complimentary avgolemono, which was not on the menu and was the best we tasted anywhere in the course of this research. The grape leaves were also very good, the spanikopita was decent, and the taramosalata (also not on the menu) was OK, although nothing special. The chicken souvlaki sandwhich was disappointing. The staff is friendly and there's live music on the weekend, when we figure the joint probably livens up a bit. As we discovered, there are more Greek dishes available than are advertised, so if you're after something specific that's not on the menu, ask and you may not be disappointed.
So which was the place we liked the most? It's called Opa and it's located at 2550 S. Rainbow Blvd. (at Sahara). It's been open open for a couple of years but this was our first time there and we're glad we went. The menu proclaims that they're "proud to import extra virgin olive oil, wine, cheeses, olives, herbs, and spices directly from Greece" and, having eaten the real thing in situ, we believe them. The interior does its best to transport you to the Aegean, with murals of whitewashed villas on the walls and there's live Greek music on the weekend. We sampled the taramosalata, which we had to try for comparative purposes, was the best we sampled and the melitzanosalata (a dip of roasted eggplant blended with garlic, tomatoes, and olive oil -- much like baba ganoush) was tasty. We liked the grilled octopus and the chicken souvlaki. Only the avgolemono was a little disappointing and gloopy -- Terry's Bistro's was much better. Not surprisingly, this was the busiest of the restaurants we visited and that was at lunchtime; we figure it really heats up in the evenings, especially weekends. We plan to go back and check out some of the other dishes soon.
And one last note: It's not Greek, but by far the best kabobs we've eaten in a long time were from Kabob Korner at 507 E. Fremont. Look out for a review in the Local Corner section of an upcoming LVA.
