Spiro’s Taverna of Vero Beach — Restaurant in Vero Beach

Edited in response to owner: It doesn’t matter whether you offer free food for only good reviews, offering free items for *any review is considered unethical and violates Google policies. I didn’t receive any free items from your establishment. Asking for a review is fine but when you offer free items that violates Googles terms and accepted norms and ethics surrounding reviews. Confidence in your reviews is gone. I wondered at first why there was a discrepancy between your Google rating and other review sites, we can see why now. And you also proved my point, instead of hearing the complaint (hygiene issues in kitchen) and working to improve, you instead ignore customer feedback.

Beware: Don’t trust the reviews! They are giving free Baklava for reviews which may improperly inflate their good reviews. Not in a subtle way they are pushing it hard at the counter and putting people on the spot. They should focus instead on improvement and hear what their critics say, acknowledge them and try to do better, but instead seems like they have a campaign to essentially “buy” good reviews.

Went to get a falafel sandwich they were out of falafel. That alone is strange I don’t think I’ve ever in my life been to a Greek spot that was out of such a fundamental Greek item. While there I also heard them telling others about other items they were out of. It gave the impression that they didn’t really have their ish together.

At one point a there was a young guy with long shaggy hair behind the food line, who definitely should have been wearing a hair net. Also it maybe a good idea to have the cook with the beard wearing a beard net too.

Opting for the vegetarian sandwich and side Greek salad: the side Greek salad and dressing was standard and was good. The sandwich on the other hand, the pita was drenched in the juice from the veggies and it made it extremely messy to eat the pita started to break down immediately. The taste was okay but the whole experience left much to be desired.

From the web: Offering free food in exchange for reviews at a restaurant is generally considered unethical and can violate the terms of review sites as well as Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines. The FTC's Endorsement Guides suggest that if a reviewer has received an incentive to post a review, they must disclose that fact. Failure to disclose such incentives can mislead readers and affect the credibility of the review Moreover, the Consumer Review Fairness Act protects the ability of consumers to post honest reviews, and contracts that prohibit or manipulate honest reviews are illegal Ethically, it is important for reviews to be based on genuine experiences without undue influence. Accepting a free meal and then writing a review can create a biased perspective, as the service and experience may not be representative of what a typical customer would receive The Association of Food Journalists' Code of Ethics also emphasizes the importance of transparency and honesty in food journalism, suggesting that critics should pay for their meals to avoid bias Google's policies for Local Guides prohibit content that has been incentivized by a business in exchange for discounts, free goods, or services, as this can undermine the integrity of the reviews Additionally, offering free products or services in exchange for positive reviews can damage a business's reputation and is considered unethical In summary, while asking guests to leave a review is acceptable, offering free food or other incentives in exchange for reviews is not recommended due to ethical considerations and potential...

This review is solely based on the service. My wife and I came in on 2/17/2025 to place a to go order. I advised the person taking the order, I believe his name was Brent as the name appeared on my receipt. I advised him there would be 2 separate orders as I was using 2 birthday rewards of $5 each. My wife ordered the famous gyro with no onions. He rang up the item and I told him again I had the $5 reward, so it took him a minute or two to re-ring the item. I placed my order, the same item and told him I'll take my wife's onions on my gyro so make it extra for mine. I also ordered the dolmades. When I got my receipt, I noticed I was charged extra for the onions??? Well, my wife didn't get a discount for no onions, so I told him I wanted her onions on the side! We waited about 15 or so minutes for the food and left the store. I inspected the order when we got to the car and noticed I did not get my salad which was included with what we ordered. My wife got hers. I went back a got the salad. Needless to say I would have been VERY unhappy had I gotten home to find the salad missing!! When we got home, I noticed I only got 5 dolmades in my order. When I looked on the website for ordering prior to going to the restaurant, the picture shows 6 dolmades. I called the store, I believe Brent answered, and I asked him how many come with the item? He said "I think 4 or 5". I told him the picture shows 6....no response from him other than "Is there anything else I can help you with". I told him no. You would think that an employee there would know what and how many an item comes with! The order was $8.95 which I thought was EXTREMELY over priced to get only 5!! Not once did he ever welcome us when we came to the counter and just seemed to have no interaction with customers,...

I had a frustrating and disappointing experience at Spiro’s Taverna in Vero Beach. It’s important to reconcile your receipts against your credit cards. Thankfully I get a text each my card is used, whether it is in person or online. My husband and I had lunch today at Spiro’s and the bill came out to $31.95. The server ran the card and she handed it back with the bill for me to sign. As I was about the sign and add a tip, I got my text and it showed the card was charged $38.34 – an extra $6.39 was applied, which works out to 20%. That is what I normally tip. I show the text to the server, and she sends the manager over and he says they haven’t applied the tip yet. I called the credit card company, spoke with Amy the CSR and she verified the charge to my card is $38.34 and I told her that I approve that amount. I went up to the front and the server told me that she didn’t apply a tip. The manager came over and said the same thing. I told them that I just spoke with the credit card company and would be happy to get them back on the phone. The manager’s response was to show me the bill again. I told him that my card was charged $38.34, the 20% tip was applied and to give it to the server. Many of us are good at reconciling our checking accounts, but you need to do that with your credit cards too. Be careful if you eat here because you may end up paying a 40% tip and not realize it. This manager backed down immediately when I told him I’d be happy to call the credit card company back and put them on speaker phone. Here are photos of the bill, the text message and my statement when I logged in online from home. Needless to say my husband and I will never go to...