Parea Greek Taverna — Restaurant in Maitland

Ever since Maitland Center built its retail space at the corner of Horatio and 17-92, I felt that an upscale, Greek restaurant would fit nicely in the building’s design, and we also didn’t really have any upscale Greek restaurants in the Maitland/Winter Park areas. When we heard the news that the team behind Bosphorus was planning a Greek concept for the space, we began counting down the days. We love Bosphorus!

Parea Greek Taverna soft opened the week we visited, offering the vast majority of its new menu. Our group of four was warmly greeted as we admired the interior decor and Greek music. It felt like we’d left Orlando and stepped into the tavernas of Mykonos and Athens. We’ve been to Greece four times over the past few years, admiring their cuisine, culture, architecture, and the Cycladic design we love so much. The space does a great job of capturing the warm, family feeling while incorporating various familiar elements of Greek decor and theming.

Jessi was our server, who was very attentive and helpful throughout our whole experience, and spoke Greek with us along our journey which we loved. We ordered various cocktails that we enjoyed (Garden, Karpouzi, Not Today Hades, and the Greek Sangria), along with the tzatziki and tirokafteri dips with warm pita bread. The tirokafteri, a spicy feta dip, was the big hit for everyone at the table. Don’t worry, it’s a mild spice…not super hot. They didn’t have the skordalia dip this time (a delicious garlic dip made with small bits of potatoes), but might bring it back in the future.

For salad we had to try the classic Horiatiki (traditional Greek village salad), and the calamari. Both were delicious. The horiatiki was done so well and had a perfect vinaigrette on it. I hope this doesn’t change at all, because it was quite literally what we know and love about Greece!

I’m writing this review as a nurse who just worked tirelessly over Memorial Day weekend who was just woken up by the sound of pans crashing and pressure washing outside my window at 4 am:

I was looking forward to a restful nights sleep, but of course that was interrupted because there is no peace living here at maitland city center. But that’s another issue. So I’m pissed off enough to write this review because I cannot go back to sleep.

When Parea first opened, I was so excited about having a Greek restaurant open up downstairs. We went for my birthday when it first opened and the food and service was great. The drinks were wonderful as well. We both ordered chicken slouvaki with Phylis potatoes. Man those potatoes were good. I decided to go back a second time, the potatoes were not the same and my spicy feta was so salty.

Not long after that, the restaurant started playing music on their external speakers very loudly. So loud that I could hear lyrics inside my apartment. I’d call requesting them to turn it down. Final straw was when they had someone pressure washing their sidewalk at 3AM one night. I called again and the manager put the “owner” on the phone and said “oh you’re the one that wrote that google review? I never had anyone pressure washing my restaurant and you tell me who’s doing so. Those are hurricane proof windows you can’t hear anything in your apartment.” Yeah, okay, I wouldn’t be calling you if I didn’t.

I gave it some time, music volume turned down. I had no beef with Parea at that point. I even dined a third time and apologized to the owner for the trouble. He didn’t apologize to me though but whatever.

For dinner that night we had hummus (salty and they charge for extra pita), octopus (overcooked and chewy), chicken taki (?) (such an overpriced dish. Chicken parm but with feta. Too much garlic), and grilled salmon (flavorless). Our bill came out to $120 that night. Service was great but the food was not worth that price. That’s when I decided I’d never go again.

I’m writing this review because they certainly did have someone pressure washing their property that day at 3 AM, and they just did it again at 4 AM. I was totally ok with just letting this slide but I absolutely hate when people accuse me of lying or make me out to be crazy.

All these positive google reviews… take them with a grain of salt. I’m sure they fished for them. There’s better Greek...

I really wanted to enjoy this new addition to the Maitland food scene but my experience did not match my expectations. We have The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

First the setting. It was a birthday gathering of 6 people. The event was not indicated on the reservation. The earliest reservation available on a Tuesday was 6:45pm. We wanted to dine earlier but accepted the time assuming they would be busy. We arrived to a near empty restaurant. One of the 6 was a 10 year old, all others were adults. After tax and tip our bill was over $500.00.

Now, The Good: The restaurant and bar have been beautifully transformed and are quite welcoming. We ordered 5 different appetizer plates and enjoyed each one. The stand-outs were the dolmades, the calamari, and the meze collection of dips. As for the meals, the moussaka and the shrimp Mykonos were especially good. Cocktails were also very tasty.

The Bad: I consider the pita points that accompany appetizers, dips, etc. at a Greek restaurant to be the equivalent of tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant. They should be endless. They were offered so sparingly that we had to ask 4 times for additional pita, and we were charged for each order. They have no children's menu and do not offer half portions. Chicken souvlaki skewers with fries were ordered, so $21 for a child's dinner. They were dry, over cooked, and cold and they had no ketchup for the fries!

And, The Ugly: On this night, the Chef's Specials included a boneless ribeye, for $52. Two in our party ordered this special. They were awful and both were suspect that it was even ribeye. The quality was poor and the meat was tough, flavorless, and lacked seasoning. And they had no steak sauce! If any dish at any restaurant should be a stand-out, it should be the chef's special! After all, it's the CHEF'S SPECIAL! A small cake was brought into the restaurant as a surprise. It was immediately taken away and while we were perfectly capable of serving ourselves, we were told that there would be a charge to serve us our own cake...$25. While we did accept this, I'm not sure we could have declined and given the hefty tab, I'm still shocked at the charge. They really missed an opportunity with this.

I'm not sure that I will return and if I do, it would be for drinks and...