Santorini Island Grill — Restaurant in San Diego

As an advertised "Agean" restaurant, its food is sufficiently tasty for the low price. Unfortunately, as an "Agean" restaurant, it offers only one lamb dish, a trio of lamb chops. No lamb kabobs. No lamb shank. Not even a lamb burger. Instead, it offers Italian sausage. Sweet Italian sausage. Italy, the last time I checked, wasn't on the Agean Sea. And it offers just one choice each of Greek white wine, red wine, and beer. The sole choice of Greek beer I can excuse as historically the Greeks actually never brewed beer. And while the Kouros Red is a big, tasty, but approachable Greek red table wine, there are several others available that should be on offer at a restaurant that promotes its Greek family roots and claims its Greek restaurant pedigree goes "back to 1999".

I had the Santorini Sampler, which was a satisfyingly large plate filled with food. Fortunately the college -town price was good in Suburban San Diego, because the flavors were college-town average. The Gyro meat was standard shaved Gyro fare, the Souvlaki was slightly lemony and herb-y but otherwise just grilled chicken skewers. The Dolmas would be put to shame by any Greek or Lebanese grandma, but were serviceable as samples of that style of food. The Rice Pilaf was just rice - not one orzo to be found. The hummus was ... hummus - I mean, how do you mess that up? - and the Greek salad was a Greek salad, but covered in a blizzard of feta, which I love. The pita were soft and tasty. I did leave full.

I guess I can't complain because my huge plate and two glasses of tasty Kouros red set me back way less than $40 after an 18% tip. And nothing tasted bad, it all just could have tasted better. I guess living in a town with a Greek restaurant owned and micromanaged by a Greek family who are perfectionists about their food and wine has...

First time coming here and we will be back!!!! We walked in and immediately Patti (spelling?, beautiful lady at the register) greeted us with the friendliest, most welcoming smile and patience as we studied the menu for what seemed like 15 minutes :) We ordered a traditional gyro (its a greek place people) and a gyro plate. I have only had a gyro maybe twice in my life, one bad experience has scared me for years but I overcame my fear for something different today. It did not disappoint! It was all delicious with great portions sizes for very little money! This is the place you make "your regular lunch spot." It was all hot, came out so fast, tasted fresh, and was exactly what a gyro place should be. Everything was clean, the service was very friendly and relaxed but not divey. It was the perfect blend of class and relaxed...feeling like you are in a cute little place in Greece. The one man working all the tables was the friendliest Greek gentlemen also and I am afraid to even try to spell his name (he said he had been in the US for about 2 months) but he was awesome. He worked very hard and quickly keeping everything tidy and making sure we had everything we needed/wanted and when my very messy 10 month old dropped 20 crumbs of bread we tried to pick up, he came over and swept them up stating that is what kids do and made us feel very comfortable and at home. We hope he gets to stay or come back to the US to become a staple at this place because we would come back to this restaurant 1 because of the food and atmosphere but also for people like him! Thanks for hiring a super kind Greek guy for this super great Greek restaurant. Will definitely...

I'm new to the area and love Mediterranean food ( We visited Olympic Cafe in North Park almost once every few weeks for the 10 years we lived there) so that has always been my reference point. We tried Santorini in hopes of finding another local, small gem in the shopping center that was close to the new house as Olympic was, but we were sadly disappointed. The spinokopita (which is my favorite) was almost cold and very oily. The steak skewer meat was very tough and dry while the rice was hard, undercooked and lacked that Mediterranean flavor i was praying for. The Lamb (my wife's favorite) was a bit dry and lacking that burst of spices and flavors as we would have hoped for. The portions were a bit small (rice and salad) but maybe fitting for the lower priced items. The hummus was pretty good ( my 2 year old loved it, hence the 2nd star)and the prices were very reasonable. Being able to try new places during this crazy time has been great while supporting local businesses, but this was not OUR cup of tea. I must preface by saying this was a takeout order that I did show up early for, the food was already sitting...