The Greek Authentic Cuisine

I can’t believe The Greek has closed! Depressing :-(
I see a Korean place has opened up in that space. I hope they have a good run.

Love this place! All in the name authentic Greek deliciousness!

Great food at a reasonable price perfect ambience fresh flavors friendly service what more can I say

I’m sorry to see this place go, but a friend’s chat with Vasili, the owner, discovered that he might open a little Greek café that’s less hassle than a big ol’ restaurant. At least I had one last meal there on the last day he was open.
Thank goodness there’s still Vasili’s on Mission Street (I found them both good for their own reasons, and went to them both equally).
If he ever does open a café, or if he’s at the Greek Festival, do yourself a favor and get something – anything – that he’s making. I think he might just be ready to retire – so whenever you see him, it might be your last chance.

Just hanging around Santa Cruz and decided to check out the place based on the crazy blue building and fellow Unilocal reviewers. We were skeptical since the reviewers either like or dislike this place. We went on Halloween night (which was raining) so it was fairly empty. Got greeted and seated right away. Now let me say, if you’re expecting fine dining or stiff waiters this is probably not the place for you. The staff were casual, personable, funny, and very helpful with the menu.
We got 2 orders of soup, the meatball appetizer, and the Greek lemon chicken. Everything was delicious and cooked perfectly. The chicken was super tender and flavorful!
We had a great time, great food, and we will definitely head back again!
Thanks!

Food, menu and portions are excellent. Actually menu is one of the most complete greek menus I have seen in the area (maybe the most complete).
But, unfortunately, the place did not look that clean, and not all waiting staff was looking professional (2 of the 3 were good but the third, was very untidy.) Also the space in front of the restaurant by the main entrance, needs to be cleaner. There was a motorbike parked just by the main restaurant entrance, with a kitchen pan under its engine. Should I assume that this pan is used for cooking sometimes? As I entered and saw the room and remembering the impression with the motorbike by the entrance, I was almost ready to turn back and leave; but I stayed. I was rewarded by the fact that the food was good and menu was full of authentic greek dishes.
So the owner seems to have good control of his kitchen. But he seems to have lost control of the main room. Given that there are so many other restaurants, he is losing a lot of customers, even though the menu is good and potentially one of the most complete one with authentic Greek dishes.
I shared some of my observations with one of our waitresses and asked her to pass this information to the owner and it is up to him to improve situation. I think that it can be fixed. But it will be a while before I pass by that place again. I will probably try some other ones in the area or I can go to Athena Grill in San Jose, where Service and ambiance are excellent.

A must (!) place if you visit Santa Cruz. I am from Istanbul (Konstantinople) and LOVE the GREEK’s food here. Vasili, the chef, brings everything fresh on the table, salads, feta cheese with delicious olive oil, mezes r all delicious. Waitresses are always happy serving to customers, not only the food makes you contend, the friendly atmosphere takes you to Byzantium :)))) when you read this if you are in Santa Cruz stop by The Greek to see how real is the tasty, delicious food for the lunch or dinner. I always see happy Families or friends enjoying their time in Vasili’s place. Also, Saturday nights live music Opa! Efharisto Poly Pr. Vasili!

Don’t come here if you’re expecting any kind of service. Atmosphere is ok but the wait staff is piss poor and will actually give you attitude for asking for something as simple as water. No one should be asked to seat themselves, wait an eternity, and receive snark when we’ve finally had the «honor» to order our dinner.
Oh. Instead of an apology for completely forgetting one of our main courses, we get a «don’t be mad at me» smart aleck response. Excuse us for dining here, your highness. Our bad. Zero stars if I can. After your terrible experience here, your night is finished off with waiting 20 minutes for the server to take your check.

Absolutely not, never again… The writing was on the wall when my bf contemplated leaving after we were being ignored outside for about 15 minutes with a virtually empty restaurant inside. I have a bit more patience and dissuaded him from leaving, giving this place the benefit of the doubt. I really shouldn’t have though. We came in here this Sunday afternoon and was greeted by a dry tempered hostess at the counter in an empty restaurant unlike the one next door. She was doing her job but was neither friendly or enthusiastic about it.
The inside of this place looked like a clusterf*&@ of cheap trinkets collected over the years. The walls are covered with impressive black and white artwork which is nice, but doesn’t do it justice with its chaotic collage layout. Even the ceiling is covered with random mobiles dangling over mismatched café chairs. The interior décor is such a jumble of whatever they could get their hands on in a consignment kind of way. So don’t expect an atmosphere worth coming for.
Naturally, we opted to sit outside in the small shared seating area with Surfrider Café. We said to each other we should have eaten there instead after observing the attentive service their patrons were receiving. Our server (also the hostess) did the bare minimum in taking our order and delivering our food. Oh, wait. That isn’t the bare minimum. We actually had to walk into the empty restaurant and ask for our bill– at which time she asked if everything was okay. It was quite laughable at this point.
The food is not as good as many of the Greek diners on the east coast but decent. We decided to order the Greek appetizer for $ 12 which included two dolmades, two peppercinis, three dipping sauces, olives and one pita bread seasoned. The pita bread was clearly not homemade and not all that fresh, about a 6″ diameter and cut into several small mismatched slices. It was most definitely not sufficient for the plate unless you are eating the sauces with some pita bread on top. Ask for another, and that will cost you a $ 1 more. Nice! At least, I found that to be good deterrent from having more carbs although the sauces were quite delicious. I dare not order another glass of Greek wine out of my glorified shot glass. (
)
Once, my bf went in to get the bill, we discovered my cheap wine under a standard 5 oz. pour was $ 7 and a bottle of Stella for $ 5. No surprise. I read someone else got their wine in a plastic cup. I was grateful for my glass vessel after reading that. lol There are plenty of reasons to never come here. Dull, inattentive service, overcharging for stuff and a venue with an atmosphere that makes eating in a cafeteria not so bad: I say «nay» to Greek Authentic. Try Surfrider Café instead.

Authentic Greek food — YES!
Very good food, family run business.
Live stage and they have projection screens for special events.
They have the best garlic and lemon french fries, salad, and pita bread!
The proteins are a bit salty for my taste but still very flavorful.
The wait time for each dish to be made by hand was a bit long but at least we can see the chef /​owner making each dish — not just heating something in a microwave…
Definitely safe to take the family — just ask them to tone down the salt…

Very disappointed after coming here based on Unilocal reviews. Maybe it was an off night or we just don’t know good Greek food.
Good: seated quickly, food was relatively fast coming out, portions were generous, pita bread was good; had live music
Bad: the food (except pita bread). Son had the kids meatballs which may have been frozen and were covered in enough sauce that you had to fish for them but may have been the best thing we ordered. I ordered the pork souvlaki — salad was decent but had too much dressing (puddle at bottom of bowl) but I know most people like their salads like that; main dish was incredibly oily, huge puddle of grease (see pic), pork was really sour, tzatziki was bland & tasteless, and veggies overcooked/​greasy. Wife had an eggplant dish (imam baildi) which wasn’t as greasy but still drowning in oil with a bitter taste (have to cook eggplant right so it’s not bitter and this wasn’t right).
Service was ok but no one bothered to ask if the food was OK, maybe they saw our faces and didn’t want to know. At least you Unilocalers now know…

This place is great and doesn’t get as much attention as it should. Quality and quantity is fantastic for the price. Saturday nights are particularly a good time with John and Paul playing live Greek music, with singing and dancing. If you come to Santa Cruz for the weekend/​day make sure to stop by this place, you won’t regret it. If you’re a local, drop by for an awesome lunch, small Greek coffee, or frappé. My favorites are the huge salads, pita bread, and lamb meats (they are all good!). All the main entrees come with rice, potatoes and veggies which is great.

Stopped here for dinner on a Saturday night and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Food: Huge portions. Each entrée comes with a choice of soup or salad — both of which are appetizer size. The lemon chicken soup (kotosoupa) was fantastic. The pita bread was plentiful, fresh, and warm. The garlic fries were well seasoned and tasty. The lamb shanks, or «lamb lollipops», were tender and mouth-​watering. The chicken ka-​bob was juicy and flavorful and came with the best roasted vegetables I’ve had. The spanakopita was small, but flaky and delicious. Overall the food was incredible.
Service: A little chaotic at times, but extremely friendly. The waitress literally sat down with us at our table to recommend their lamb special, which we ended up ordering. Appetizers and soups/​salads were served promptly. When our garlic fries came out, the waitress grabbed one and brought it to a nearby customer who had said it looked good. Laughs all around.
Atmosphere: A wide variety of tables, from high quality hardwood masterpieces to ones you might find at a backyard BBQ. We were seated at one of the picnic style fold up tables in the middle of the restaurant. No complaints. There was live music throughout the meal and plenty of artwork on the walls. The restaurant has a homey, friendly feel.
Price: A little pricey, but definitely worth the amount of food you get. $ 5 for the biggest plate of garlic fries you’ve ever seen. The average entrée ranges from $ 15-​$ 25.
I would definitely recommend it. 5 stars.

First time here but it definitely won’t be our last. We tried the lamb burger special and we liked it very much. It was a lamb burger patty accompanied with French fries, Greek salad, pita bread and a yogurt sauce. Everything was made to order so it took a few minutes but it was worth the wait. I can’t wait to come back to try the lamb chops.
The server was really friendly so we felt comfortable eating here.

Service: Good, not overly special but nice and prompt
Spanakopita: Yummy but tiny
Entrée plates: Huge, delicious
Baklava: Yummy and normal sized
Thank you for teaching us that greeks don’t necessarily eat falafel!

I love this place, Vasili (The owner) is there everyday manning the kitchen himself cranking out killer Greek food. Im a huge fan of the Lamb and Beef Gyros. They have live music on the weekends as well, Im not sure what nights but I know Saturday is one of them.
The one missing star up there is probably more personal taste then Vasili’s fault but I don’t like the beer selection they have. Yes its Greek beer but maybe that’s the problem, I have tried them all and they don’t do much for me and I like to have good beer with good food. Now here’s the cool part about this dilemma, if you eat outside, they are right next door to the Surfrider Café which is owned by and serves Boulder Creek Brewery Beers! That’s right, you can order your Gyro from Vasili, and order a pint of Dragons Power IPA from Surfrider and now you have a 5 star lunch according to me!

This is one of the best Greek restaurants I have ever tried!
I came here with 7 other people for dinner on a Saturday. I was a little surprised the place was empty when we arrived but it was pretty early in the evening. We were greeted right away and brought to our table. The décor is kind of plain with paper pictures hanging on the walls. There is a stage on the far side of the room, which was used by a couple guys playing Greek music as we were eating our meal.
We ordered some spanakopita for an appetizer, and some drinks. The server was very helpful with the menu and answered any question we had. There is far to many things ordered, so I am going to stick with what I had. I ordered the lamb kabob meal. It came with so much food for the price. The first thing you get with the meal is soup. This is not a tiny little cup of soup, it is a big bowl of some of the best, most flavorful lentil soup I have ever had. Then comes a giant plate of lamb, rice, pita, tzatziki, and vegetables. The lamb was so flavorful, it made me do that embarrassing mmmmmm, every time I took a bite. The rice had a fantastic lemon flavor. The pita was warm and soft, and the tzatziki was amazing. Even the vegetables were fresh, and really good. I was so full I couldn’t finish the meal.
The place filled up as we were eating, and ending up having a wait about 20 people deep by the time we finished. One of the people I was with, was in Greece about 2 years ago, and said this was the most authentic, best Greek food he has had, since he has been back. The only thing I didn’t like, is they only had canned dolmades. I really wanted them, but hate the canned ones. I hope they make some by the time I come back. At least they were honest when I asked about it (would have lost stars if they lied).
This place is a must try if you like, or love Greek food and you are in the Santa Cruz area. I will make it a point to eat here every time I am in town.

This is a family-​run Greek restaurant, presumably the same family who owns the other Greek restaurant in town: Vasili’s. I’m basing this on all the framed newspaper articles about Vasili’s restaurant on the walls and the fact that we were told by the server that the owner Vasili’s son’s engagement party was there that night.
More on that later.
No complaints about the food we ordered for the adults in our family. The dolmas were warm, rather than cold, as some Greek restaurants serve them (and I don’t care as much for). There were several Greek wines available for purchase by the glass. My husband’s lamb chops were delicious, as was my eggplant dish. The pita was soft, warm, and seasoned to perfection. All the side dishes were good.
The prices were a bit high, in my opinion. For those prices, I expect tablecloths and less… familiarity. I was informed by our server that they were out of wine glasses, so she poured my wine in a plastic water tumbler. Not the end of the world, no. But when one of our mains costs $ 25, yeah, I expect you to be the kind of place that wouldn’t dare serve a customer wine in a plastic water glass. This isn’t my sister’s house where we’re enjoying some wine while the dishwasher is running, you know?
They *were* celebrating a family member’s engagement that night, which would account for the lack of wine glasses, I presume. And almost every table in the restaurant was being used for this party, save 4 or 5 tables to the side. Maybe they should have simply closed the restaurant to guests for their special occasion rather than try to still make some money. I dunno.
Also, our kids’ macaroni and cheese that we ordered off the kid’s menu was clearly Kraft «electric yellow» macaroni and cheese out of the blue box. Really? The restaurant has «Greek mac and cheese», aka pastitsio, on the menu and they’re serving my kids crap I don’t serve them myself at home? Again, for the prices we were paying, I expected something a bit more refined, or at the very least more homemade, than Kraft mac and cheese.
So yes, the food here is as good as any other Greek restaurant I’ve dined at, but you should expect a $ family diner interior with $$ restaurant prices. If their prices were lower and they weren’t serving kids Kraft mac and cheese, this would be a 4– or 5-​star place.

I was so afraid there was no decent Greek food in town after a very disappointing meal at another local place. But The Greek is very good!
Great Greek décor, excellent service from what I think is the daughter in the family that runs the place. I noticed an older gentleman doing much of the cooking too, he’s probably the father and he does a great job!
All of the food was tasty from the tzatziki to the greek fish and chips (huge portions and cooked perfectly). I can’t wait to try the rest of the menu which looks amazing all around and just full of all the authentic Greek foods I love. Overall 5 stars for me as my only small complaint would be the size of the spanakopita appetizer (could have been bigger for the price) and I would love more real ice tea (not Nestea) and better quality lemonade here as I think both go well with Greek food.
If you want the best Greek food in the county this is the place!

/​/​LOCATION /​/​A block off the main drag of downtown Santa Barbara
/​/​FOOD /​/​
+ Chicken Kebob Meal: Huge. Two people could share it. Rice, chicken skewers, pita, salad, and tzatziki sauce. The tzatziki sauce was tangy and yummy. Chicken was flavorful and tender
+ Beef gyro: Delish. Loved the warm and soft pita it came in.