A blog to welcome my I'm-never-coming-back return to St. Louis, complete with non-trained, non-scientific restaurant reviews, cooking adventures, and whatever else comes to mind.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Opa?

After viewing an awkward sex scene featuring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, nothing sounded better to me than a little flaming saganaki and various dishes featuring my favorite red meat, lamb. So off we go to the Olympia Kebab House, just a stone's throw down McCausland from the Hi-Pointe theatre.
This place was beyond crowded, and even at 7 PM was full of young children. And those weird couples that sit on the same side of the booth and you can't help but to stare at them. But I digress.
The saganaki was good as any, but the whole reason you order this flamer is to hear the overzealous "Opa!" as your server puts about 20 of these delights on flambe. Instead we got a Opuuuhhhhhh. Come again? Not a single server in the place said this exclamation with any gusto. Yeah, I get it, this job blows, but the place was full of kids and I know their eyes are following that dish all the way from the kitchen just to hear the flaming cheese battle cry.
I ordered the lamb souvlaki and at 8 bucks, this was a steal. I couldn't even finish half of the lamb in my sandwich. Tim ordered the "appetizer sampler" and at 18 bucks, expected a coupld of grape leaves and maybe some spanikopita, etc. Instead it had three dips: hummus, baba ganoush and taziki; and a few olives. I couldn't believe I got all of this wonderful meat and for 10 MORE DOLLARS HE GOT A FEW DIPS?? Weird.
The most disappointing thing of all was the complete unattentiveness of our waiter. We were both drinking beer and he never came by to ask if we wanted a refill. At five bucks a piece, I would assume this would be a near effortless way to increase the bill and therefore, the tip. Never refilled our water. Never stopped after our meal arrived. We had to nearly trip him for our bill.
It really was a disappointment that the Olympia Kebab House was such a hit and miss place. It's clearly popular and there is a paucity of Greek food here in the Lou that it could really build a great business on this fact. Except it needs to fix a few basic problems.

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