Greek Islands Taverna

We came here for lunch and all 4 of us got the lamb gyro lunch special. We all loved how flavorful the gyros were with lots of lemon and sauce to complement the meat. The lunch special came with a side dish and we all agreed that the potatoes were the best. We also got the kalamari for an appetizer which was great as well. Would definitely recommend this place if you’re looking for some great Greek food in the area for lunch.

Nice restaurant, typically traditional and food is tasty. Unfortunately they don’t take reservations so you will have to walk in and wait for your table. It’s usually packed and the line starts building around 5:30. My fiancé and I went there on the Valentine’s Day around 8:15 we waited about 25min before we got our table (HAVE to stand on the line, you cannot just give them your name and wait for them to call you). What we didn’t appreciate is the owner who got his friends sited before us while they were behind us on the line and he did it twice that night!!! Not fair if they don’t take reservation then everyone has to wait for their turn. We finally got sited the waitress was okay she brought our drinks and vanished for 15min she never asked us if we have any questions about the menu and didn’t suggest anything. After we placed the order we didn’t see her again till she came to get check from us! No one came to refuel our drinks we had to wave and ask other waitresses and apparently they don’t really like to refuel other customers’ water if they’re not your waitress because we got a mean look from that blond waitress after we asked her to poor some water in the glass after she did to her customers my fiancé was shocked so was I. The 3 stars I’m giving is for the food and the decoration of the restaurant everything else that will be no star.

I’ve dined at Greek Islands Taverna three times and really enjoyed my meal each time. I’ve always gone with a decent sized group and everyone has always been very happy with the food. The restaurant does not accept reservations and there is usually a pretty long line outside on busy nights. The food is very good — we always order the village salad, fried cheese, and various meat and fish dishes. The service has always been great as well. The prices are pretty high but the food is worth it — especially compared to some other high priced Pompano Beach/​Fort Lauderdale restaurants.

So much flavor! I finally get the hype around Greek salad. They have their own twist on hummus, which is complimentary by the way :)

Coming from Detroit, its hard to find good Greek food in South Florida… This place is one of the exceptions. The food is delish, the staff is family, and the atmosphere feels like you’re eating in grandma’s kitchen… Worth the wait!

Exactly what I expect and hope for in a Greek restaurant — great service, fresh food, and not trying to be too fancy. Ribs and Spanikopita were superb

This place is always busy and for good reason! A no brainer! I have been to Greece but I am not Greek but this is great food!

This placed was packed on a Wednesday night. No reservations. The food was very good. Had the lamb chops excellent. Vegetable was just ok, lemon potato was good but could had a little more lemon flavor. Chicken dish was good. Would definitely go back.

No question about this place. 5 start hands down. Seriously. I had no idea the lamb chops can taste this good! even the next day!
Awesome. You MUST order lampb chops!
Please order lamb chops right now! And write me with thank you for this suggestion, LOL.
Wow…this was amazing. Can I give it 6 or 7 star?)))))
Can get a bit noisey inside but hey, they are Greek! Haha))) FUN FUN FUN

Super busy, and super authentic Greek dining experience. This is some of the best Greek food I’ve had — in or out of Greece. So that alone should tell you something.
They also have many specialty dishes you only find at real Greek establishments, as opposed to Mediterranean diners that are really more Lebanese although they claim Greek cuisine.
For example, try the saganaki appetizer, the lamb youvetsi, the avgolemono soup, or the galaktoboureko desert. These are only found in real Greek restaurants. And all were very good here. The only thing missing was they didn’t light the saganaki on fire… but the place was so packed — it would probably be dangerous.
Anyway, give it a try. You won’t regret it. And it’s worth the wait.

We waited a bit for service but the food made up for the wait. Upon sitting down they gave us fresh hummus and pita bread. Our party of 3 ordered the lemon chicken wings that were delicious and very lemony. The rest of us ordered gyros that were not traditionally sandwich like more like sliced pita topped with the meat and onion slices but the flavor was amazing. Also had the Sakatini fried cheese. Yum!

This is one of the best Greek restaurants in the USA!
PROS: EVERYTHING — but to list some of the best: the fried cheese, the octopus, the hummus, the bread, the dolmas, the greek salad, the lamb chops, the salmon, etc.
CONS: nothing.

Take out!!! Awesomely great!!! Fast service upscale Authentic Greek food. Impressive! I ordered the Greek Salad and it is the best. So fresh and its huge! Gyro and salad large enough to share. Very happy!

The grilled octopus with the lemon dressing thing and the Mousakka. All you need to know!
One of the best restaurants in town and worth the wait (very long, but you’ll find out why!) and price and resisting that other Greek place near by… Not nearly as good…

This place just sneaks up on me. I’ve been several times with my family and I have enjoyed it thoroughly, but it dawned on me that months after I eat here, I sometimes still think about some of the dishes. It’s a slow burn, but proves to me that this place really is a great and memorable restaurant.
I love Greek food, and some of the best meals I’ve ever had were in Greece. Having said that, I hate the Americanization (adding lettuce to greek salads) and the plasticification (totally not a word) of most Greek restaurants. What I mean by plasticification is that most Greek restaurants I go to are set up the same: ostentatious decorations, grand banquet rooms, stereotypical photos of the Cyclades. It seems as if they are creating the same restaurant because that’s how they think a Greek restaurant should be. It’s a turn-​off, just make good food. In Greece I had meals in restaurants that were all shapes and sizes.
Greek Islands does fall into some of the traps I listed above, and hence my apprehension the first few times I was there. But the excellence of their food trumps any decorative elements.
I love their food, and more specifically, their appetizers and small plates, which I recommend to order a couple and make your own delicious meal.
My wife and I split the feta cheese dip (which must come straight from Mt. Olympus), the tzaziki dip, the greek salad (no lettuce!) gyro meat, and the grilled shrimp. My other family members got the chicken and shrimp entrees, which were good, but I always prefer the nibbling of the small dishes.
Greek Islands is possibly the best greek restaurant I’ve been to, and it makes me happy (and full) to eat here and brings up great memories from the country and it’s delicious food.
I definitely recommend this place and whenever I’m in the area I always try to visit.

This was a great find in Fort Lauderdale. Discovered it on Unilocal and went to try it out. We started with Greek salad, tzatziki, and saganaki. All of the appetizers were great and prepared quickly. Then we ordered chicken kabobs, filet kebabs and mousaka and they were also delicious.
Service was also superb and very quick. All in all this is a really good place to visit especially if you like Greek food. They seem to have a very wide menu including vegetarian options to choose from if you are into that.

My coworkers and I decided to come here to celebrate one of our coworker’s going away dinner.
It was the Sunday before Labor Day and the place was PACKED! And unfortunately they didnt take reservations over the phone you had to come in and wait for a table. Not only that but your whole party has to be there in order to be seated. So, I got there first and had to wait at the bar (I dont drink so it was uneventful) while they come from all sides of SoFlo. Finally when everyone showed up we waited in the long line for a table (probably 15 mins) and then we were seated.
Our waiter, Steve, took our drink orders and brought us out some bread and hummus to start. It was very good! There was white and wheat bread to eat with the hummus and it was nice and warm, yummy!
When it came to take our orders, I had to go with the lamb chops medium well. But when my friend tried to order something other than the lamb chops and asked Steve, our waiter, for the second best thing after the lamb chops thats when things got weird. He answered her with «lamb chops». She laughed it off and asked «ok, besides the lamb chops?» And he said «lamb chops». She said «no, but I dont want the lamb chops what else do you recommend?» And he goes, «lamb chops» she askes one more time and he says the same thing! She finally got frustrated and said «fine ill get the lamb chops». Very weird and quite annoying.
The food however, was amazing! The lamb was cooked to perfection! Super juicy, not gamey at all, and very flavorful! The sides were string beens in a light tomato sauce and lemon potatoes. Both were very delicious! The dish was very filling which looked like it wouldnt have been (Just writing this review is making my mouth water for them right now).
We were too stuffed with dessert, so we asked for the check which Steve brought us without splitting. We asked him to split it for us and he grabbed tbe check and stormed off, seeming very annoyed.
Overall, amazing food but we got unlucky with the service which accounts for the 4 stars. Maybe next time we will have better luck!

We decided to mix things up and try something different for date night, the result of which was Greek Islands Taverna. The only parking we could find was valet and going in it was difficult to figure out who to talk to in order to get seated. However, once all that got sorted out it was smooth sailing.
I had to coerce my bf into trying the octopus since he’s never been a huge fan of eating things that squirm, but lucky for him he ended up loving it (as did I). I’ve tried octopus at other restaurants around the area and none have been able to compare. It was cooked perfectly and never got boring — the more we ate it, the more we loved it. For entrees, I got the lamb chops, while he got the chicken ladoregano. Both were cooked to perfection, very tender and juicy, and were so full of flavor. For dessert, we wanted something that wasn’t the typical baklava, so we went for the galaktoboureko. It was light, crisp, and not overly sweet. It didn’t stay on the plate for long.
Overall, the fantastic food is more than enough reason to keep us coming back.

El mejor restaurante que he visitado en la Florida, nunca había visto comer tanto a mi hijo, esto es una muy buena señal, todo se lo comió y probo de todo, siendo un niño con un paladar purista dijo que este era el mejor del mundo, yo también lo reafirmo, todo delicioso, la atención, ni hablar, quedamos de cama y con muchas ganas de ir al gym, de todo lo que comí y peque, felicitaciones
Recomendación entrada pulpo y el saganaki, plato fuerte las costillas de cordero y las beby back costillas, y el súper postre de baklava créese aje de locos, todo esto súper recomendado.

This has been our go-​to place for Greek lamb chops and grilled octopus for more than a decade. Tucked in a small lot on AIA off of Oakland Park Blvd, it caters to residents of L’Hermitage and other tony buildings nearby. Those residents have their pick of where to eat and they eat here.
Hubby and I came here when we were dating. While swirling complimentary warm bread in creamy hummus, we’d glance at the menu and stare at one another. We still do that, except now it’s because we know the menu so well that we don’t need to look at it so we look at each other! LOL
We’ve enjoyed weekend lunches on the fly and family dinners too. It’s common to see multi-​generational families, couples, and small parties fill the dining room and additional room they built, years ago.
You can’t go wrong by ordering the jumbo shrimp in mustard sauce, saganaki (a thick slice of Greek cheese on a sizzle pan — that used to be served flaming to burn off ouzo or brandy, and finished with a squeeze of lemon), or spanakopita (spinach and feta cheese in phyllo dough).
But you should order the grilled octopus, marinated in oregano-​infused olive oil and garnished with lemon wedges. And, I think the best thing on their menu, the lamb chops. These double (2 bones) cut lamb chops are treated similarly — olive oil and oregano marinated and grilled to perfect temp. If you order mid-​rare that’s how you’ll get them. It’s amazing how many restaurants over/​under-​cook lamb chops. But this place gets plenty of practice! The other night it seemed that every table on our side of the restaurant ordered the chops! We were seated near a party of about 20 people and even the kids ordered the chops!
The servers are great — they slip in and out of our dining space without interrupting the conversation. And we never have to flag one down to get a beverage refill. The other night, we had a server who actually remembered us from months ago — down to where we sat when she waited on us! She was so caring and hospitable — I’m sorry I don’t recall her name because she was stellar. (Maybe I should just call her Stella…)
We enjoy ordering and eating family-​style and she delivered the food accordingly. Before we knew it, there were several dishes dotting the table, and she brought us new plates without being asked. Even though we shared the food we didn’t want to eat lamb chops on top of salad dressing!
The only miss for me is the dessert. Their galaktoboureko (a custard type pudding in phyllo dough, drizzled with honey and cinnamon) is a baklava-​sized miss. The custard is dense and the honey (I think it’s corn syrup) is excessive. We took it to go because we were full but wanted to have it with coffee later on that night. We wound up having coffee by itself and actually threw out the dessert.
Besides that, this is a great restaurant, decorated in traditional blue and white, with a full bar and tenured staff. They have valet parking in case you don’t see a parking spot. And when you’re done, you’re not far from the beach or local bars if you want the night to continue!

Muy buen servicio, calidad de la comida excelente atención y precios acordes.
Eso sí, ir dispuestos a por media hora de fila mínimo. Pero vale la espera

I came here for dinner with my girlfriend and a friend of hers last weekend. I thought that it was kind of bizarre that there is litterally a line that you have to wait in outdoors to get into the restaurant, there is no waiting area and no possiblility of making a reservation.
With that being said… the food was great. I don’t really know what makes Greek food authentic to be honest, but this restaurant definitely gave the feel of authenticity. The wait staff and managers were very friendly and concerned with our enjoyment of the meal.
I had the Souvlaki for my main dish. I was expecting it to be served on pita bread, as this is how I’m accustomed to eating it. I was surprised to see that it was served on yellow orzo style rice. Usually rice is not my thing, but this was something special. It was mixed with some good olive oil and seasoning. The pork was a little bit on the dry side, but other than that, the dish was excellent.
For dessert I had to test their standard Baklava. I was happy to see $ 5 listed as the price on the menu, but when I got the dish I saw why. Very, very small portion. It was fairly good, not better or worse than any I’ve tried (probably not worth $ 5 to be honest).
Overall it was a good experience. I haven’t had much better Greek food in South Florida, so I will go with ⁴⁄₅ stars. I may come back some day to try the Avgolmeno and see how it measures up!