Agora Tysons Mediterranean Restaurant — Restaurant in Tysons

My husband made a reservation for our 30th anniversary. He had tried Agora as a to-go option from work and was excited about me trying it. We had been to Greece many years ago and fell in love with a little Lebanese/Turkish restaurant there. So, he introduced me to Agora.

The decor is magnificent with a combination of Moroccan, Greek, Turkish, and Lebanese items. The atmosphere is cozy and welcoming. It's a small dining floor downstairs, so it can get loud with everyone's conversation. However, as the crowd dies down, so does the noise. It doesn't ruin anything about Agora.

The wait staff is very pleasant and gracious (since I'm bad at pronunciation of most Mediterranean languages). However, our server was astounding. She checked often on us and made sure we were having a wonderful meal.

Our meal consisted of The Spread Sampler, Grilled Octopus, Mixed Mushrooms, and İmam Bayildi (stuffed baby eggplant). The samples provided all of the spreads for a wonderful tour of taste! My favorite was the Taramosalata, a cod roe mousse with lemon juice and olive oil. However, all of the spreads were amazing with the provided bread. The octopus was fork-tender and flavored amazingly with the grill char and citrus. Mixed mushrooms were something my sister would have put a unicorn in a headlock for. They were that good. And the Imam Bayildi, while not my favorite dish, had a familiar flavor of our travels in Greece. The meal was very enjoyable and palate pleasing.

For dessert, I ordered the Kunefe, almost like a cheesy hashbrown type dessert. Drizzled some sweet honey on it, pistacchios, and top with the rose kulfi provided. It was such a texture and flavor extravaganza! I need to learn to make this. It was really delicious. He had chosen the Chocolate-Avocado Mousse. It was so decadent! The fresh fruit and edible flowers in a classy Martini glass. I almost thought he out-desserted me. In addition, they treated us to two Turkish baklavas as an anniversary gift. It was such a sweet gesture and very appreciated.

Overall with the bottle of wine, the meal could get a little expensive. You don't have to go our route and get the wine and desserts (but we recommend you do). It's a very nice tapas assortment to choose from and plenty of food given. I was thoroughly impressed. We will return here.

PROS: The Food The Decor The Staff

CONS: Google Maps will send you around the entire building for parking. The parking deck is a bit tight and you're competing with residents who would rather park in retail than in their own parking area. Plenty of handicapped parking available. The Price (ordering tapas can be intimidating and sticker-shocking, because of the guess of the amount of food to order or if you're free-falling it and ordering some of everything. I recommend starting out with 3 dishes [a meat and 2 veggies].) The smell in the hallway going to Agora. It's not Agora's fault, so I can't even hold it against them, but that hallway smells like sewage and after a meal isn't a good time to smell it.)

OVERALL: I totally recommend Agora, even if not for a special occasion, or just the occasion of being alive and hungry. It was worth the trip to Tysons and the money spent. The food was glorious. It's a relaxing environment, easy to access facilities and beautiful...

I went to Agora for brunch on a Saturday and here are my first impressions on food, service and atmosphere:

Food: $42 all you can eat per person The server ordered all of the starters for us without really asking which for me was a great way to start the dining experience. We loved all of the appetizers on the menu. I hadn’t had homemade hummus in decades and it was so refreshing tasting the blended cheek peaks with the subtle hints of tahini.

All you can eat fresh bread. It was delicious. Like I said, we got all of the apps and I attached a picture of the menu so you can see the list. We loved every single dish.

The “eggs and protein” side of the menu under performed. We only ordered the salmon eggs Benedict and the kyimali eggs Benedict and they were okay. Something about the taste and texture of the bread, eggs and salmon didn’t taste quiet right.

The sides were really good and the sweets were healthy—a mixture of fruits and parfait that tied the notch for the dining experience. We did not like the lokma which are kind of like churro balls that were really hard (maybe they’re supposed to be like that). Not sure since it was my first time trying it but I would skip that.

Service: Our server went above and beyond. He was friendly and professional. The food came out fast. They accommodated to change tables since we were sat by busy stairs. We ended up getting a table by the nice modern booths.

Atmosphere: very calm, clean. I expected different music to be playing. They were playing top 100 hits type of playlist with a few country songs in the mix which threw me off a bit. I’d recommend throwing some modern Mediterranean songs in the mix so it matches the decor and food a bit better. This wasnt a turn off because hey they played harry styles and I love harry styles but maybe it’s the brunch playlist.

Overall, I thought the restaurant was beautifully decorated, good location (it’s on the other side of Tyson’s which is less hectic than the Tyson’s corner side), we found street parking when we got there. The service was great. I’d...

Pros- nice location at Tysons. Clean cute place. Staff were pleasant. Free Parking. Cons - Nouvelle garage does not have a sign for Agora parking No arrow direction to Agora restaurant. Only sign was for”Retails” Food - Taste average Serving size less than half compare to others in same location. One order Ottoman rice $11 only for tiny tray of Rice. Taste okay. All main lunch orders are average $12 to $17 No main lunch order has rice or salad or bread or chips. One Adana mince lamb Kabob with lavash - a Single piece Kabob, (?mince beef or ? Lamb) placed on Lavash bread amazingly tiny 1 inch wide 7 inch long😀 Never seen kabob serve on such a miniature lavash. With one tiny cherry tomato, few thin slices of onion and one small pepper. Taste average. One order water crest soup taste bitter. No flavor of watercress One order Falafel double cooked, blackened.3 pieces on tahini. Taste so so. One Minced chicken kabob . Taste okay. One zuchini tiny plate. Taste okay. Only one cup Espresso. Taste like any average coffee. We did not order other drinks Bill for food listed as above $95 Agora Website 20-22% service charge on group 5 or larger. We are 3.They still added service charge in addition to the bill for food. We paid separate Tips also. Few bread with one 4 ml size tray of olive oil dip added when we laughed at our main orders. Bread was good but olive oil taste cheap.And remember barely 4 mls tiniest plate.😀 Most high class restaurants serve the complementary bread with cheese or dips pending main orders. Some designer restaurants may offer small servings but quality of food is superior. Real steak, real fresh tuna or wild caught fresh salmon. I do not mind to pay the price if food is satisfactory in quality in a classy relaxing place. Note: We are health conscious adults not over eating type. We feel satisfied with half of the servings on our plates in other restaurants. I wonder the 4 star reviews are by those even tried Mediterranean ,Greek,Italian, Turkish, Persian or Indian...