OPA! Italian & Greek — Restaurant in West Des Moines

We recently visited here for our first time and went with people that had been here once before and raved about how good it was. We made 5PM reservations on a Wednesday night and arrived by 5PM as we had somewhere to be by 6:30 that was right around the corner. We were asked if we wanted a booth or a table and we said wherever was fine. We were placed on the bar side where there are only two booths. We waited roughly 15 minutes before a waitress finally came to our table and took our drink order. Another couple was seated at the booth right behind ours several minutes after we arrived. After some time, the waitress returned and took the other tables order first even though we had been there longer and were waiting for her to come take our order.

Dinner was served roughly 20-25 minutes after the order was placed. During this time, the waitress never came by to ask if we needed anything. Once dinner was brought out, the food was excellent! After finishing our food, we waited another 15 minutes with no sign of our waitress. We were able to flag her down and we politely asked if we could have our checks as we needed to get going since we had a 6:30 appointment. The waitress responded with an attitude asking if we needed one or two checks. She then picked up our cards and the table behind ours. She then returned and threw down the books with our cards on our table and the table behind ours without saying anything. On top of the attitude once again, we weren't even given the correct card back and had to switch with the table behind us.

The positive from this experience was the food was good. The negative was the attitude from our waitress, and not expecting for dinner to take an hour and a half on a Wednesday evening. I understand that some people have bad days, but it did not make for a pleasant dinner experience. We may be back as we like to support local business and since the...

I was in town with a friend and this restaurant sounded interesting, so we tried it. And let me tell you...WOW!! Opa was AMAZING!! We both tried the Greek Trio, which is pictured. First of all, the meal was huge!! There was so much food to try that I easily could have taken half of it home, but since we had a long drive home, I ate every bite and skipped supper. 😁

We first got a basket of absolutely delicious bread. There was some sliced bread that was soft and yummy. And there were some rounded pieces of bread called garlic knots! Fantastic!! I will definitely be ordering them as an appetizer next time! Then, came our side salads. The server, who was so nice and helpful, suggested their creamy parmesan dressing to try on the salad and let me tell you...always try what the server suggests!! It was fabulous!! Loved my salad!!

Next, came this fantastic plate of yummy food! Starting from the left was spanakopita (a wonderful pastry with spinach and cheese), moussaka (A layered casserole with hamburger, eggplant, and a delicious cream sauce), below it on the picture was chicken souvlaka (yummy!), and the lamb or beef gyro meat, which was so tender and flavorful!!

Everything was simply wonderful!! I loved everything I ate, as did my friend. The restaurant was very clean and nice with Greek and Italian pictures and decor and our server was so welcoming and friendly. My only complaint is that this gem of a restaurant isn't closer to where I live as I'd be visiting often. As it is, I will definitely be coming back here when I'm in Des Moines again! Thank you for an...

Update May 2025 - Sadly, I have to update my review. We had reservations for Mother's Day buffet, and the entire experience was so horrible!! :( We waited forever, despite reservations...there was a German cockroach crawling around people's feet as we waited....the servers and owner were clearly all in poor moods and in poor communication about how to manage the number of people they had accepted for reservations....once seated we weren't waited on for some time and when we were we didn't see our server again for a long time...when the owner happened to walk by and we kindly asked about some items we had been waiting on for a very long time he snapped at me (the mom of the group) it was clear he was just frazzled and having a bad day but it took a really bad experience and made it so much worse...$160 for our family of four to stand at a crowded buffet line and sit without service for an hour only to get snapped at like it was our fault. The entire experience was just a disaster and we likely won't ever go back to Opa. :( So much for feeling like home.

Previous review:

This place always feels like home. The food is delish and the staff is wonderful. My young kids love Opa too! We enjoy a comfortable and welcoming family environment with the bonus of...