Greek Islands Restaurant — Restaurant in Omaha

An established popular & pricey little Greek joint with somewhat bland Greek food but good enough for comfort. Most of the food we had was 3 stars based on the lack of that extra oomph each item could have had. The atmosphere, service & the most outrageously good candied pecans & Baklava I've had in decades won it 4 stars. My criticism is the cut corners of a popular Greek restaurant that I feel should pull out all the stops for the expense of each menu item. Bread&butter were provided at the beginning...however we had to ask for the Greek Olive Oil (delicious) which we also added more of to the hummus. Olives are not offered to start with & would have been a nice touch- that being said, on 1 of the traditional lamb entreés that promised olives...it came with a measly amount. However in total was delicious. Asking for extra olives we got 2. Asked for more pita & got a nice amount. The fresh hummus was not sweet but savory & served with warm pita triangles (standard). The 4 pieces of Falafel looked overdone swimming in a huge plate of veggies HOWEVER even though there was only a trace of mint...they were shockingly tasty & had a spicy kick to the finish which made gobbling a bunch of cool veggies after each bite strategically satisfying. Soup of the day was Chicken & (dreadfully disintegrating) Pasta. Bland broth with too much pepper & onion. Plenty of moist chicken breast & mini carrots though. The Berry Grecian Salad had too much white iceberg- barely registerable sliver sliced grapes & the only berries were a few sliced dried cranberries. Where are strawberries- raspberries??? It's Summer! Less than half of the salad was Spring mix but at least all the leaves were fresh. Tons of grated feta! So much we used it to cover other items. But what made the salad actually tip the scale from a confusing mess to good was the best candied pecans in the world & plenty of them. They turned the most bland poppyseed & raspberry (whatberry) vinaigrette right around. And Thank Goodness we decided to chance dessert. The Baklava was heaven. Flaky cinnamon dusted pastry crust with a dense doughy honeynut center. And for the "a la mode" that day they had vanilla Baklava ice cream made with the minced dessert in it. I got chocolate sauce on the side just to mess with it & lo~ That made it scandalous! Tea is good & they have Greek coffee. Listen...this place is über popular no matter. Tradition wins & they are accommodating which makes the experience nice & the bill less painful. After not eating here for well over a decade- they have improved somewhat &...

I was so looking forward to the awesome food, atmosphere, and good vibes as I’ve been coming here for about 30 years. Unfortunately it was by far the worst experience I’ve ever had in a restaurant. I met 3 of my friends for dinner last night. Ashley was good to start but things changed around 7:15. We were eating our dinner and Ashley brought our checks and told us they close at 8pm. My daughter came in at 7:10 and I had to go get Ashley to take her order - she looked at her watch and said, “we’re clo…” and she headed over and took the order with an attitude. I was still eating my salad (the other’s paid) and she asked me to pay my bill (it was only 7:30) - I told her I was still eating. My daughter was asked to pay her bill and she hadn’t even gotten her food. Ashley told us NO LESS THAN 10x in 40 minutes that they close at 8. When she brought my daughter’s food, she brought a box, again saying they close at 8. This was 7:40. Ashley came to the table and asked to take the empty wine glass, saying “since the bar is closed”.

There was a table beside us that had about 8 people. All ordered. They got their food about 7:45 and Ashley gave them all boxes - saying they close at 8. One guy threw his meal in the box and was pretty upset - the other’s ate a few bites before putting their food in boxes as well. We shuffled out of the restaurant at 8pm and as we were saying goodbyes in the parking lot - our server was driving away- 8:05pm.

I called today and asked what time the grill closed - the girl said 7:45 usually, unless it is busy. Sometimes they close early if it’s not busy. I guess if you come in - expect to eat and run by 8 or box your food because they want you out. I asked for a manager - George came to the phone. It was difficult to understand him but I started talking about our experience and he told me to hold while he was asking others what happened last night. I never finished and he cut me off - saying ‘she’ll pay for it’… ‘she’ll pay for it’… I don’t know what that means but that was the end of our conversation. Absolutely zero customer service. So...

I had spanokapita, dolmades, and potatoes. All of the food was what I'd call "comfort" food omg, at least for me, maybe not the spanokapita so much a comfort food, but I could almost live on that stuff back in Detroit, it was much thicker than here, but Greek Islands makes a version that is just as good, but in a different way.

Service? What service? My server did not one time come back to check on me. She deliver food and ghosted me. It's no surprise. Servers ALWAYS ignore single people dining. As if we don't deserve the same level of service that the table next door with 4 ppl gets for example. It was just plain awful. The service (specifically the lack thereof) is what ruined my experience with Greek Islands Restaurant, I'm sorry to report. I have worked for many years as a server. It was a rare thing that I was tipped for doing a job I did not do. I learned also that no one (no one reasonable anyhow) expects folks to like pay extra attention specifically to them, in exclusion of all others. All I'm saying here servers is please don't ignore those single-person tables just because you fear that the percentage of their bill will yield you a smaller tip for doing similarly the same work per table. Those ppl don't always bite, and sometimes they tip pretty nicely. It all depends on you. 😉

It was very pretty inside, it had an almost light and airy feel to it rather than the sometimes "stuffy" feeling one gets in restaurants that have that low lighting that's kinda meant to be "romantic" I think. Idk how else to describe the other restaurants. I would love to come back again. I just can't justify being treated poorly due to eating alone. You don't know my circumstances, nor do I yours so can't we just treat each other...