The Greek Cafe

Located in the same Mission Valley  strip mall as Tandoor Indian Cuisine and El Portal is The Greek Cafe. 

More of a "casual-fast" style restaurant, the Greek Cafe serves everything from Lamb Shank to Spanakopita. But the item I usually order is the Gyros Sandwich($4.85)

Though I can get a pretty decent sandwich with salad and fries for $4.95 at Mediterranean Cafe in Hillcrest, the Gyros Sandwich at the Greek Cafe is not too bad. The sandwich is served on a large toasted pita and I enjoy the really thick and creamy tzatziki that is slathered on the sandwich. On this visit the roma tomatoes were especially ripe and added a nice sweetness to the Gyros Sandwich. Other then that, it's a purely routine Gyros sandwich, whose taste faded into memory almost as soon as I devoured it. Not good, not bad, but still better then any of the fast food options available.

On a recent visit I decided to order something different and had the Beef Souvlaki Sandwich($4.85).

Same toasted pita; though the tomatoes were not as ripe. But what threw me off was the lack of Beef Souvlaki. As the old commercial used to say; "Where's the beef?"

Here have another look. Can you find it? Seems more like a veggie pita, doesn't it?

But after some digging, I did discover some beef. The Beef was very mildly flavored though very tender, but totally "lost" in all of the slightly bitter iceberg lettuce. What a waste.

I did learn a valuable lesson. Sometimes it's really not worth trying to find a "hidden gem", in an environment that really wouldn't seem to support such efforts. After all, it seems that The Greek Cafe is just Casual Fast Food, nothing wrong with that. At least there is another option that adds some variety in the "Fast Food - Chain Restaurant Purgatory" that is Mission Valley.

The Greek Cafe
5618 Mission Center Road
San Diego, CA 92108

Comments

[MEalcnetric]

Greek food is a mystery to me. I love it, but I can never tell the differnce between a gyro, gyro plate and souvlaki. It seems like every place does their own version of a "gyro", meaning some meat (beef, chicken, lamb or mix), various combos of onion/lettuce/tomatoes, tadziki sauce (hmm) and pita. Then its a matter of whether its wrapped in the pita, stuffed in a pita pocket, placed next to a cut up triangles of pita bread or placed on a pita. Hey, it all tastes the same but it would be nice if they could standardize the system. You know, like the Euro.

But all kidding aside, gyros and falafels are too good to pass up. If you're ever in Costa Mesa, there is a place by South Coast Plaza called "Greek Island Grill" which does a way better job than its chain counterpart thats across the street "Daphne's". Ok, this was looooong.

[RONW]

while we're on the topic : ), are the owners of the restaurant, Greek?

[Kirk]

Hi MEalcentric - Usually there's no lettuce on a Gyro Sandwich, but for Beef & Chicken Souvlaki sanwiches, I've found that places do add lettuce. Go figure! Sort of like tacos I guess. I find Daphne's mediocre chain food. thanks for the rec - it's one of many I have from You and Elmo for OC!

Hi RONW - The two Gals that have been working recently seem to be either Greek or Eastern European.

[Reid]

Hi Kirk,

Looks like too much tzatziki on that souvlaki sandwich. The gyros sounded great though. =D

[Rachel]

heya kirk that tzatziki sauce looks good. Pity about the bitter lettuce yuk. I guess if its the only one in that area then if you are craving for a gyros or something like that then well a bad one is better than nothing.

[Kirk]

Hi Reid - Too much of everything, except beef on that sandwich.

Hi Rachel - That's the main reason this little pseudo-food court area is popular - convenience. The Gyros sandwich is really not bad.

[Jack]

Looks like what you get from a strip-mall greek restaurant, which it is. It's hard to find good Greek in San Diego.

[Kirk]

Hi Jack - Yes, exactly......

[yara]

I used to work there and the food is good i loved the chicken sublacki if thts how you spell it