The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill - Cedar Park, TX — Restaurant in Cedar Park

We stopped by The Great Greek for Yelp Elite Week for lunch this week. You never really know what to expect when you try a franchise chain restaurant. We were very pleased with our experience at The Great Greek! It's an "order at the counter, and they bring you your food" kind of place, which is fine.

We did have a few issues ordering and getting food, as the person at the register took a while to figure out how to comp the Yelp portion of the tab. We also had an issue with the food being brought to the table, as one salad was delivered to the wrong couple, who ate the salad not knowing there was a mistake (both couples ordered Greek salads, one a small Greek, the other a Greek side salad).

The food itself was great! The aforementioned Greek salads were delicious, dressing on the side, accompanied by fresh pita bread. Generous portions of all ingredients, super fresh, and served cold, as a salad should be. The steak gyro with a side of lemon potatoes rocked! Beef cooked perfectly medium rare, and the gyro was stuffed full. The lemon potatoes were served HOT and were delicious. All at the table loved them.

A lamb plate was also quite tasty, and the rice on the side was on point! The baklava ice cream was amazing. It had the consistency of a thick pudding and tasted like great baklava folded into a very nice vanilla ice cream. We would go back just to have the ice cream.

A thought or two about the operation of the restaurant... and these are observations, not criticisms. The Great Greek has only been open a few months, so they're still working things out... The cash register and food delivery issues noted above were a bit annoying, especially since we were the only customers in the place at 3:30pm. But those issues are easily fixed.

One other issue that was more of a problem in our view was the lack of clearing dirty dishes off of the table. Employees walked by, cleaning other tables and chairs, even stopping to chat for a couple of minutes once, while a mountain of dishes grew in the middle of our table. Two separate times a member of our party had to bring stacks of dirty dishes back to the counter. Again, and easy fix, just a training issue for management.

All in all, we had a good, quality meal. The food was very good. We'll be back to try other things on the menu. Recommend The...

So I'm not gonna lie, the first thing that hit me when I walked in was a bit of a sticker shock. I guess mostly because the pricing wasn't entirely on par with the atmosphere or looks of this place.

However - I was here, so I figured I'd stick with my decision to try this place out. I decided on the steak souvlaki plate, since I was already paying a good amount, might as well as a few extra dollars and go for the steak. I was pleasantly surprised when asked how I wanted the steak, I don't think I've ever been asked that before at a Greek eatery. (Rare btw.... it's there any other option?). I opted for feta fries for my side.

Immediately after we were seated, we were served a very nice starter salad, it was good size, fresh and tasty.

My husband's food came out immediately, mine came out about 5 minutes after his. So there's a bit of a discrepancy there, it's always awkward when food comes out at different times. In the scenario, the food should have waited until salad were eaten because the fries and gyro were getting cold while the salad was finished up.

My food came out and it was very good! The steak was nice and tender, probably more of a medium rare but still, this is not a steakhouse so I'm ok with that. It tasted very good. I had a big stack of fluffy pita bread too, along with tsatsiki sauce and my feta fries. The fries need to be eaten while they are still hot because once they cool off, the cheese hardens and the fries get kind of starchy.

Ok, so - did I get good value for my money? I think so. I had a good amount of steak, it was cooked very nicely, fresh and tasty. I'll probably get rice next time though, due to the fries cooling off and not tasting as great after awhile. (Delicious while hot though, just eat fast :) )

The staff here is very nice, the place is nice and clean but a little sterile but maybe that's the look that is in these days.

So I'll probably come back here, I know what I'm in for now and I think it'll come down to what kind of steak I want to spend my money on that day.... greek...

• Update on another visit below *

Opening review: Went their opening week on Sept 12th.

We are a Senior couple and the food was very good and we thought the portions were large.

My Husband got the Great Greek Gyro (Lamb) and he could not finish it and had a smile on his face the whole time.

I got the Mezze plate and Avgolemono Soup. Everything was delish and was plenty for me. The Pita bread was fantastic.

The service was good and I would assume it will improve as the new staff gets more familiar with the menu. Also we notice a "Now Hiring" sign so they may be a bit short handed.

It was real busy and the line was to the door. So the wait was a bit longer than normal but again I chalk that up to being new and the staff working through a few kinks maybe.

We will definitely be going back and the prices were good for the amount of food we got. Also we liked that everything was made to order and served on real plates and bowls with silverware.

So overall we give this a 4 1/2 Stars.

Update 23 January 2024

3rd visit Added a picture of our Great Greek Gyro from 23 Jan 2024 that we got for take out.

As you can see there is plenty of food in just this one item. Like before it was excellent for me and my wife. It was so big it feeds both of us as a good lunch when paired with their rice.

The restaurant is very clean and the staff has gotten the hang of items and seems to work smoothly.

For the money spent we think it is a good value. Quality Food and labor is not cheap and they do a good job on both fronts in our opinion.

Will update after a few more visits to report on there one year...