Zo Greek — Restaurant in Somerville

What a disheartening experience! If you are a family with kids, BEWARE!

I made a day-of reservation for a Monday early dinner for 10 people. While making the reservation, I voluntarily offered the information of needing one high chair for a 2 year old. Mind you, no other questions or follow up was asked. We show up at the restaurant, and excited bc my dad who's visiting from out of town loves Greek food. We got seated, ordered appetizers, and about to order entree items, and THEN a server comes over to tell us, "we forgot to mention it over the phone, but because your group is over 8 people, there's a minimum of $40 a person"... Yup, you read that right. For a casual sit in not-fancy-dining place. I immediately confirmed what I heard was right and went over to clarify the situation and why I was NOT told this while making a reservation. This was an absolute shameful and classless customer service experience from a "restaurant". It gets better... During the conversation, the server and a bartender nearby then proceeded to say, "we would be losing money if we decided to serve you" AND "we get enough business even if you didn't eat here, we'd be fine because we've been doing this for 13 years" !!!!! The audacity! What kind of restaurant says such unprofessional things... And all bc we had a two older kids who weren't grown adults and in their eye weren't going to "bring then money/business" (their words again). Oh did I mention that there were plenty empty tables while this was happening...? This was our first time here and needless to say, def won't be back or recommending this...

Zo had been hyped by my S.O. for quite some time, so I was eagerly anticipating dinner here.

Let's begin with the positives and give credit where due: Server #1 was so friendly and fantastic with our party. I wish I had taken the time to ask her name as I'd give her a 5-star shout out here. Made fun of me for not liking feta. I respect that. The stuffed cabbage was great. So great, I probably should have just gotten two orders of it. Maybe even three. I'm not sure how they make flatbread taste this good. Even day old and reheated it was still yummy.

And the not-so-great Two of our party had steak skewers, neither made a dent in them. Flavor was exclusively charred beef and was tough and chewy. Flavor of the grilled shrimp was underwhelming. The stuffed grape leaves were extremely stringy and just didn't have much going for them flavor wise. It's too bad because they looked fantastic. Server #2 acted as if she couldn't be bothered with the likes of us. Thousand yard stare out the window the whole time like she had been overcome with melancholy. I think she might have even let out a sigh or two. Maybe she was going through some personal stuff, who knows.

The atmosphere was pretty hip, with the demographic skewing younger than most in our group. Seemed to fit with most of the crowd I see around Assembly.

Prices were comparable to other restaurants I've been to in that area. No sticker shock there.

Were I to return I'd likely stick to gorging myself on flatbread & dips and the amazing...

DINNER REVIEW

Great food plus great service earns this place a 5!

Came to Zo for a date night with my girlfriend on a Friday night when we just didn't feel like cooking. We went around 7:30 PM on a Friday night expecting a wait but were lucky to get seated immediately (the place was still pretty busy).

This place is casual sit-down with a takeout option. The rotating pillars of gyro meat in the kitchen make it seem like one of those gyros places but then the front of the house is a casual sit-down dining area. We were dining in and were pleasantly surprised by the excellent service, both the polite and attentive waitress and the speed at which the food came.

FOOD: We ordered the Spinach and Artichoke dip to share and then I had the Lamb Chili and the Original Pork Gyro for dinner. I would recommend all 3 dishes and wish I could have gotten more (but I was full!). The Spinach and Artichoke dip was very tasty and came with this delicious warm pita that I started eating alone once we ran out of the dip (my only wish is that there was more dip!). The Lamb Chili was perfectly spiced and warming on a cold evening in December. Lastly, the Gyros is very large and stuffed with veggies and tzatziki, in addition to tons of pork. Perhaps the best thing we had was the side of fries. They were thick-cut but crispy on the outside but warm and potatoey on the inside. Perfect fries!

Next time we come back, I would like to...