Apola Greek Grill — Restaurant in Yorba Linda

If you like Greek food but don't want to pay big bucks at an traditional sit-down restaurant, Apola can be your yummy, budget-friendly alternative.

The Food: Let me start by saying this is clearly an American take on Greek food, so if you're looking for super authentic food, look elsewhere. But if you're OK with a fusion, Apola will satisfy your Mediterranean craving.

There are gyros (pita wraps), bowls, combo plates, and burritos (see, there's that American take I was talking about). All of them range in quality from average to really good. Though I've been here several times, I'll focus on my last visit when we got "the Works" pita wrap and a Greek salad bowl.

For the Works, it comes with all the fixings, your choice of protein, and fries stuffed inside (yes, inside, not as a side). I chose beef-and-lamb gyro meat, which came in a huge portion. (Pro Tip: I pulled the fries out and got a "free" side. Of course , there's not a lot of fries, but enough to satisfy my fried food craving.) The gyro was big and tasty.

For the Greek salad bowl, we also got beef-and-lamb gyro meat. Once again, they hooked it up with the quantity. Nice! The ingredients (tomatoes, cucumber, feta, etc) were all fresh and seasoned nicely. Side note: I do find it odd that they call this dish a salad bowl when it comes in a rectangular plastic tray. But semantics aside, it was quite good.

I also ordered a fountain drink and got a Coke. It was nice a crisp with a lot of carbonation. Just the way I like it. It's not as good as the exclusive Coke blend at McDonald's, but was a close second. I have had some pretty watered down Cokes at other places in recent years.

The Service: There were two young gentlemen working the last time I visited, and they were both friendly and knowledgeable. They even brought our meals to our table, which was a nice touch for a fast food establishment.

The Setting: It's located inside the recently revamped Yorba Linda Downtown, which has revitalized the area and made it a pleasant place to hang out. Unfortunately, on weekends, it's hard to find parking sometimes. Fortunately we came on a weekday and got parking nearby.

Inside, Apola is clean and tidy with roughly enough tables and chairs for a variety of party sizes.

The Conclusion: Apola offers good Mediterranean-inspired food for a reasonable price (compared to other restaurants these days) -- just don't expect it to be 100% authentic Greek food. With the right expectations set, I plan to return on...

*Update: the manager sent a new order out to me and verified I received it ok. The food is fabulous no complaints there, just beware of Post Mates.

The food is great! The problem is on the website if you order for delivery it gives you the impression the restaurant is doing the delivery. It is not, it’s a third-party, through Postmates. You don’t get an accurate tracking number because you didn’t login through Postmates… I got a notification that my order was picked up more than 35 minutes ago and it’s still not in transit, there was no way to trace this. I live not even five minutes away. I would’ve gladly picked it up myself if I weren’t stuck working from home, more transparency is needed on the website regarding the delivery options. When I called the restaurant to find out what was going on, I got a simple “it’s out of our hands When the delivery service picks it up.” I wasn’t even aware there was a delivery service outside of the restaurant, AND it turned out my food was actually still sitting on the shelf more than 30...

Food is good, but I expected more for the price. I bought their apola gyro combo (cost was $13) which comes with fries and a drink. The business model is kind of like a Subway. You just pick and choose and they add the ingredients right in front of you.

So why the 3 stars? My gyro meat was noticeably cold on first bite and I ate there. Which is probably due to the fact that the meat is precooked and then displayed for you to choose, (meat could have been sitting their for several minutes or an hour who knows) which is disappointing because the cold meat definitely took away from the overall satisfaction of the gyro. I also found the overall portion size a bit small for the price. So if the entire meal came in at $8 - $10, this would be a solid 5 star rating.

In conclusion if you are going to charge your customers a premium price then you should provide a premium service. I think this place is still worth a try if you are a fan of Mediterranean food, but I wouldn't go out of my way...