El Greco Cafe

Serviceable Greek.
Nice sized portions of acceptable food. Service was very friendly.
Many things were under, or not even seasoned, rendering things like fried calamari essentially tasteless.

Mediterraean Food was absolutely exquisite. This is one of my favorites in Sarasota. Try their saganaki flaming cheese and Mezze plate if you do not know what to try.

One of our favorites when in Sarasota. Absolutely wonderful Mediterranean food. Start with the saganaki cheese appetizer. kebabs always great, Had salmon today and did not disappoint. Five stars.

Stopped by for lunch and ordered a gyro sandwich. Pretty good, lots of meat, not much of the way of veggies but the cucumber sauce was nice. I’ll try one of there other items from the menu next time. I brought my dog so I sat outside. Staff was friendly but not very attentive. I had to ask for a refill on my ice-​tea.

Inconsistent. Sometimes the food is okand sometimes very bad and too salty. Service is meh. Won’t come back.

The food is well-​made and tasty. The service is good. The seating is spacious. The lemon chicken soup is a perfect balance of chicken and broth. The split pea was so good that I had to get a bowl to take home. The gyro is cooked okay and I am always wishing they gave me more tzasiki sauce. The calzone was huge with lots of cheese and the crust was cooked to a golden light brown. The menu has a selection of appetizers, salads, traditional Greek dishes and pasta dishes.
Here’s the thing, I find that overall all is okay but with the highly competitive downtown dining area. okay is not enough. Add to that, this place is not on budget. Plan to pay higher prices and that probably explains why on this Saturday night we were only one of 4 tables taken. Meals are good, but too expensive for the area.

Delicious pizza. The Hellenic, which is a white pizza, tons of garlic, and a spinach feta mixture. That, and a glass of wine (or 2), makes my taste buds happy!

Years back I tried this place and had a horrible experience. My biggest complaint was that the restaurant was FILTHY from top-​to-​bottom. Today I gave it another try with some co-​workers, and I see that nothing has changed. If anything, it’s gotten worse.
This place is absolutely filthy, top to bottom: the floors, walls, tables, bathrooms, silverware and plates are all visibly unclean. The restaurant has the smell of dirty water and most surfaces (counters, plastic table cloths) are greasy/​sticky to the touch.
When we arrived, the restaurant was empty except for one table finishing up. Despite that, it took over 30 minutes for our food to come out after it was ordered (there were only 5 of us).
I ordered a Gyro and asked for «a mix of Lamb and Chicken.» I was delivered a Lamb Gyro with a side plate of grilled chicken and a dark human hair laying visibly across the top of the chicken. Both plates looked visibly dirty, and my co-​workers noticed their plates seemed dirty as well.
I went to the men’s room to wash my hands. The floors were sticky, the walls were visibly dirty, and the one private stall was clogged and overflowing with human feces floating and on the floor. Mind you, the restaurant was near-​empty, so I see no excuse for the bathroom being so unsanitary.
Two of my co-​workers didn’t finish their meals but they requested to-​go boxes. The waiter brought two to-​go boxes, and both boxes had large pieces of black, wilted (perhaps rotten) lettuce stuck on the insides of the containers. I’m not sure how that is even possible unless the containers were previously-​used.
I am definitely not a «clean freak» or germophobe, but this place is in serious need of a major cleaning, and the staff need to be more proactive/​attentive to the cleanliness of the plates they are serving to customers.

Hmmm, not sure what to write about this one. There are enough tourists roving around on Main Street like wild, hungry dogs that it seems as though ANY place offering edibles that don’t smell like low tide ought to be able to stay open.
Food, décor, and service are all ok, but that’s about it. They are ok. Nothing really stands out in terms of effort or taste. I like simple Greek foods like souvlaki, tzatziki, pita, olives, feta, etc, so we stopped here for lunch one afternoon.
We had a pleasant enough meal, but nothing was so outstanding that I’d bring visiting friends or relatives from out of town/​state.

This spot has really gone down hill– we went there tonight and there was one ways for us for the whole place. Took forever to get served, when the food finally arrived– it was just ok, it used to be spectacular Authentic Greek fare. One of the people in our party didn’t get served until the rest of us were close to done with our meals, I chalk it up to lousy management. The restaurant it’s self is dirty looking and there is a weird smell that permiates the room, thankfully we ate out on the sidewalk or I would have lost my appetite. El Greco is definitely OFF my SRQ foodie list.

We were on Longboat Key for vacation and weren’t impressed with the options or prices on St Armand’s Circle so we ventured over to Sarasota and this place was awesome !! We stuck to the Greek specialties … loved the Greek sampler plate.
Service was quick and efficient and prices are excellent. It would just be great if they came up with a nice dipping sauce for the great bread they give you before the meal.
We went twice and would have gone again but we ran out of vacation… ya gotta go here !!

Below average Greek food in a diner setting. Hard to see why one would go here given the range of options in Sarasota.

This place is a joke. I used go here about 5 years ago when this restaurant was reputable and had good food. A couple weeks ago I went with my wife and we were appalled at the lackadaisical service and poor quality food. I sat next to the entrance foyer wall and got fed up with this restaurant’s ability to pick up my used dishes and cups. The quality was so poor I started stacking my dishes on the wall next to me. Two thumbs down.

I came here for lunch on a Sunday with my cousin. I’ve always had a pleasant experience when I’ve dined here. We sat outside since the weather was so nice outside. The waiter never forgot about us even though it’s easy to when you’re seated outside. I ordered my usual Gyro Platter with lamb and my cousin got the Mediterranean Cruise. They both came with the lemon chicken rice soup, which was decent. I really liked my lunch as the lamb wasn’t overcooked. I’ve never tried anything else here though.

The food here is sub par. Since its the only of its kind in the area I assume that’s why it is open. The chicken is terrible and tasted rotten… the soup is tasteless and extra thick. The descriptions do not match what you get. Stay clear of this place!

A nice little Mediterranean restaurant. The food was nice and fresh but a little slow in coming out — probably because it’s a very laid back restaurant. Decent overall experience. :-)

Save your time and patience and just take any of the other restaurants around, it’s really not worth it!
I don’t know how they manage to be still in business with such an restaurant. Let’s start with the quality of the food we got.
My girlfriend ordered a Gyro Platter for around 16 $ which was basically some gyro + tzatziki + salad and pita bread. The salad came as appetizer and was okay, everything else came together as main dish. The gyro and tzatziki was eatable, but nothing special, it tasted just not like greek food. The pita on the other hand was gross, soaking in fat and not enjoyable.
I ordered the Shish Kebap for 17 $ which came with a soup. The soup upfront was okay and eatable, the rest not so much. The lamb meat tasted like any other meat without much flavour to it, the rice and the vegetable which came with it were okay.
In addition to that, they serve water which has a really strong and bad sulfur taste to it. I don’t know if this is a thing with their water in general, but the water was disgusting.
But now about the worst part of our experience. We came in at about 8pm, in a not quite full restaurant with more than enough waiters. It took our waiter 15 minutes to take our orders and give us some water (which is totally fine). After that, it took more than an hour to get our food. In this whole time we saw our waiter twice and many other customers come and go in the same time. The waiter promised after the first 30 minutes that our food will be ready any minute now, leaving us thirsty at our table. It took more than another 30 minutes to get our food from here. When we finally got our food after already spending more than an hour in the restaurant he apologised leaving my complaints unattended that four other tables which came more than half an hour after us already got their food…
I don’t need to add that he was not caring about us at all or ever taking care of our drinks.
We finally left the restaurants 1hr 45mins later with a bad dinner. Never again! Stay away!

3 stars for the location only — I really like coming to this restaurant but the food keeps it from being higher quality.
Friday the El Greco had two specials. I had the Stuffed Pork (can’t remember the other one) which was dry. It looked like the sirloin portion which can get overcooked without the bone-​in (I grill pork chops at home on the grill).
The stuffing was olives and some other vegetables which were tasty enough.
I’ll probably be back just for the location for a quick lunch. I can’t recommend the food for the discerning diner.

I find myself craving their unique Greek salad. It has olive tomato feta and beets (strange but it works) complete with their homemade dressing. Their fresh baked bread they bring out is perfection. Warm and gently crisp on the outside and soft on the inside served with real butter. Last night I got the Mediterranean Salmon which was cooked perfectly. It had so many beautiful flavors I was able to taste it over and over. The balsamic glaze was perfect for the salmon. I had wonderful service from a server from Trinidad. She made the night even more awesome. I was shocked this place didn’t have more stars. Who ever rated them may want to order the salmon or gyro or stromboli next time. I dare say this place could be my favorite.

Do not waste your time. I ordered the chicken kabob with rice and vegetables with the small Greek salad to start. The salad was unimpressive but I wasn’t expecting much. It was simply the type of salad you would get in one of those chain restaurants. Simply dull and unimaginative but edible. Then the main course arrived. The chicken kabob was so overcooked. The rice tasted old and why would they put marinara sauce on the rice? Perhaps to add some flavor since it was tasteless? The vegetables were clearly frozen in the deep storage and then boiled. I’ve had airline food better than this meal. This was a typical dish not something creative. If you can’t serve a decent kabob, the more creative food must be completely intolerable.
Avoid this place!