North Seattle, WA

I thought Greek food was so-so until I went to Taki’s Mad Greek restaurant. This restaurant has amazing food! I’ve been to this restaurant two times so far. I plan on going more.

The first time my boyfriend and I visited, I was taken aback. It wasn’t what I envisioned. It was smaller and looked more cafe-like than I would have liked. When you walk in, you immediately see the kitchen and a cluttered counter but your eyes will wander to the rows of tables and the pleasant muraled walls. Really, it doesn’t look bad, just different. Who cares about how it looks anyway, trust me, this place has food that is so good, you’ll be too engaged in your meal to take your eyes off of your plate.

The restaurant is owned by Taki, a Greek musician/amazing cook, and his wife, a sweet homely-looking waitress who knows good customer service. You’ll see their kids helping out as this restaurant’s essence is family. Even the non-family staff gets treated like family. I mention this as it was one of the first things I noticed while waiting on my food. All around, you’ll see images of the things they take pride in–their homeland, their kids’ awards (apparently the musician gene was passed on), and Taki’s music cds.

Taki’s wife, on my first visit, explained that their specialty is souvlaki. Yes, yes it totally is. I had the beef souvlaki–tender marinated skewered beef. It was served with choices and I had the rice pilaf (aka rice heaven) and greek salad. I also recall pita and tzatziki sauce. The hard part is trying to break away from the souvlaki and having something else. Not so easy. I have yet to try their desserts–only because we get too full–but I bet they’re also tasty.

On a scale of 1-5:

Filled Cup: 3
Cleanliness: 3
Atmosphere: 4 the first time, 3 the second (they were stressed out on the second visit)
Service: 4