Nikos Taverna

This was a great place. Light, not greasy moussaka. Wonderful vegetarian dishes, including an eggplant appetizer that quite good … Regrettably, it is now closed.

CLOSED… which is really a shame. We loved their souvlaki, gyros, and fresh bread served before meals.
Here are the details:

On my last visit, after the owner took care of my to-​go order and my husband and I enjoyed the consistently fresh, delicious food I realized – why in the world have I not given this place five stars? Sometimes I forget that fifth star is even there. I think in my mind it was reserved for some restaurant nirvana that doesn’t really exist. This place has fresh, delicious food and a unique menu. The inside is comfortable and tastefully decorated. But what better reason than to award that fifth star than for a place that also seems to always have the owners actively engaging with and serving the customers?

This place is great! The feta dip is amazing, the salad dressing is tremendous and the Gyros are the best around!

I’ve never had a bad meal here. Granted, I’ve only been here for lunch, and I always get the same thing – the chicken souvlaki platter. However, it’s just the right amount of food for a lunch portion and the food is rather tasty. Service is courteous and prompt – I have no idea how it is for dinner. I’ll have to take my boyfriend one night and try it out!

My wife and I really like this place. The Calamari is our favorite appetizer and my wife really likes the spanikopita. I personally enjoy the specials. They use fresh ingredients and pay attention to the flavor.

So here is the thing — I originally thought this place deserved 4 stars based on my experience with lunch here.
So I went back for dinner with a bunch of friends and it was a total let down. I ordered some fish and it was definitely frozen. In general the other dishes too did not taste like they had been made fresh and it was very bland — no flavor at all!
We ended up paying almost 30 dollars per head for an entrée and 1 appetizer split between 4 people. Not worth at all!
That said — not sure if the lunch is still as great as what I had on my first experience. I am definitely not motivated to go back and try!

I love the gemista and kokkinisto! Delicious.

Hmm… after reading all the reviews I was excited to try this place. First off, I’m an adventurous eater, and I get pretty picky about the authenticity of «ethnic» resaurants because I tend to try the more obscure items that are loved in their home country, but might not go over so well with the typical American diner.
That being said, I found Nikos Taverna to be a disappointment. Honestly, I can make better tasting and more authentic Greek food at home (and I’m Danish!). It wasn’t awful, but it certainly wasn’t that much better than what you’d find at a typical gyro shop, other than the ambience and nice selection of Greek wines.
My absolute favorite Greek food items (other than lamb dishes) tend to be the various «mezethes» (appetizers), and when I’m dining alone (as I was tonight), I typically make a meal from these along with a glass or two of wine.
Tonight I tried the Taramasalata (fish roe «spread»), Taverna salad, and the grilled octopus (another of my usual favorites)
The taramasalata was not pureed the way it usually is– the actual fish roe «pearls» were still visible in the mixture. I hadn’t had it like this before (and I’ve had taramasalata probably 100 times or more). The flavor was overwhelmingly fishy and reminded me too much of those bright red salmon eggs you use for bait when you are a little kid. The interplay of salty, savory and tangy flavors was out of whack, and there was a really odd flavor that was unpleasant enough that I quit after eating about ¹⁄₃ of the serving. Also, the pita bread that was served with it was NOT the typical thick soft Greek pita, but rather that thin dry stuff you get at the grocery store. D+ on the Taramasalata
A Taverna salad is usually a rough-​cut mix of cucumber, tomato, red onion, along with kalamata olives and feta cheese, typically dressed simply with good olive oil and a squirt of lemon or red wine vinegar. Unfortunately, this taverna came without olives or feta (despite the description on the menu to the contrary). I asked for and received a side dish of olives and feta which helped things. The olive oil was good quality, and flavorful, but applied very sparingly to the salad (I’m used to having enough of a pool of oil in the plate that you can dip your bread into it while you enjoy the salad — not at Nikos). C+ on the Taverna Salad
At its best, Greek octopus is magical; it is tender and flavorful without being fishy tasting, and has a crispy crust from the charcoal grill. Ideally, it will be dressed with just good olive oil, some lemon, and perhaps some salt and pepper. This is another dish that is great to dip your bread into the pool of oil that dresses the octopus. Unfortunately, he «grilled» octopus at Nikos was really odd. It was odd looking, odd tasting, and oddly presented. The presentation was like a green salad on one side of a small oval plate, with one long tentacle (about 9″ long) kind of curled up on the other end of the oval. It wasn’t cut up into 1″ chunks like it usually is in Greek restaurants. The salad was dressed with an overly sweet balasamic dressing which just didn’t taste «greek» at all. The texture of the octopus was really bizarre — there were no grill marks on it at all, and the purple skin (which usually becomes crispy when grilled) was slimy and gooey, like over-​cooked pasta. It would be a shame if anyone had «Greek Grilled Octopus» here for the first time; they’d probably never try it again, and would really be missing out on something special.
All in all, the surroundings were pleasant, and the food was average; it just wasn’t authentic. In fairness, I did not try any entrees, so I can’t comment on their meat or pasta dishes. But based on the experience I had with dishes that are typically my favorites, I’m probably better off that I didn’t. Disappointing…

Good place to hang out for lunch. Their food seems very fresh, well prepared. Try their Greek Lasagna — it gives the Italian Lasagna a run for the money. Their saueted, spiced potatoes are simply out of this world.
Cons: Maybe a tad expensive.
Strongly recommended.

We’ve eaten here several times and this place is fantastic. What I love is, the owner is usually there and he greets you. They also always have a maitre de’ on staff, (which is so rare in our fast pace country). The food is outstanding every time and if you don’t love it, the owner wants to know and he gives you for free. I can’t say enough about how pleased I was to pay a place for food that’s actually worth it. I rarely eat out because of the quality in our country and the dining out ‘headaches’, but I would go here any day of the week.

Went here on a whim when a co-​worker needed to run to the bank. My stomach and I are really thankful we went with her, because oh my goodness, I just had the most delicious lunch ever. Yes. Ever.
It’s touch and go with me for certain restaurants because I’m more of a pescetarian these days, so we checked out the menu posted on the window before we went in and I was sold pretty fast.
I ordered the tomato sandwich (sounds simple, right?) and she ordered the chicken souvlaki, and our food was out to us in like less than 15 minutes with quite generous portions and I have NEVER had a tomato sandwich that was so flavorful and incredible, with sweet red onions, feta and some amazing vinaigrette… I almost didn’t want to leave. Oh, and that, the sandwich and side salad there, that was six bucks. Yeah. That’s right. a decent helping of fresh, delicious food for six dollars. It was a lot of food. I don’t feel like a whale from what I just ate, though. I feel like going for a jog. Why? I haven’t been for a jog in months. But just from eating there, I feel healthy and happy.
There are some more pricey things on the menu, but I bet you they’re amazingly delicious and you would pay in plasma to eat them anyhow.
They’re having a wine tasting June 23 @ 6:30 I think. You should check it out. Oh man. This is a place not to be overlooked. Yes it’s in a strip mall, yes it’s out kinda far (close to work, far from home), but it is so worth the meal. I cannot wait to go back and try more. I bet their hummus is to die for.
That’s right, I said it.

A solid choice for greek in the RTP area especially for lunch. It’s a surprisingly fancy place complete with white tablecloths and gussied up waiters. The customer attire at lunchtime was across the board, so don’t worry about dressing up.
Menu wise, it is mostly standard greek fare (lots of apps, salads, grilled dishes) except the absence of lamb. This is a pretty big deal for me because I use greek joints as an opportunity to eat good lamb. No can do here. For starters, you must get the eggplant dip! Freaking amazing. Its kinda like baba ghanoush, but minus the smoky flavor and add tons of garlic. Yum. For the main, I went with the pork souvlaki platter and received nicely grilled pork tenderloin chunks, with salad, pita, pan fried potato’s, tzatziki. Good portions and tastes.
My standard measuring stick of greek places is baklava. Here it was the walnut variety and appeared to be house made. The phyllo was a little tough which gave me the impression that it wasn’t totally fresh, so I rate it average. Minus a star for that.
Beside the lamb and baklava issues, Nikos is a good spot. Great prices at lunch and they get you in and out fast.

ALMOST as good as the homecooked greek food that I had in Greece this summer. My friend’s mother is an amazing cook… and this place was right up there in quality. My husband and I are so excited to find a good Greek restaurant in the area. We just moved from Chicago, which had an excellent Greek town so weren’t sure if we’d be subjected to eating gyros here… but this is going to be our go to Greek restaurant!
My husband and I took my mom and brother to dinner here last night. Both of them have never had REAL greek food before. They were so impressed that there was more to greek food than gyros! (Novices…)
We ordered the saganaki and tzatziki for appetizers. Then we ordered the spinach pie, braised lamb, and moussaka to share family-​style. The moussaka was hands-​down the favorite from all four of us. We were stuffed, but ordered a baklava for dessert to share. The baklava is one of the best that I’ve had… it wasn’t over-​the-​top sweet like most baklavas that I’ve had.
We all left very happy… and my mom is already planning on going there again with her foodie friends!

My Greek experience has been pretty limited to Gyro Platters until I tried Nikos. WOW! Great, cozy dining experience with a good selection of menu items. I went out on a limb and tried the Chicken Stew with Onions «Stifado» that was simply delicious. From that moment, I’ve been hooked. The Spaghetti with Seafood is also worthy of checking out. Now I still get the Gyro platter on occasion because they fix one of the best around, but I have vowed to try out several other menu items.
The wait staff was very helpful with Wine recommendations. They really know their stuff. Let them help you out.

It took me a while after moving here to finally give this place a try even though its right by my neighborhood grocery store. I saw «greek restaurant» and translated it in my head to be a fast-​food type gyro counter with maybe some spanikopita and kabobs for variety. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s actually a nice restaurant with real servers and white linens. And the food was sooo good! So so very good. Oh and about that spanikopita… yeah they have it. And it’s the best damn spanikopita I ever had, thank you very much!

Yay for manager expense accounts!
Yay for managers!
Yay for Nikos’s humus, feta, fish rowe, and eggplant spread and pita sampler!
Yay for their flaming cheese!
Yay for their spinach rice, baked eggplant, and lima beans!
Yay for their spinach stuffed flounder (I didn’t actually have it, but it looked delicious!
Yay for their Moukasa (I was allowed a bite off a co-worker’s plate).
I *thought* the food tasted a little too aromatic and … well, too unmistakeably *Greeek* to *really* have originated from this really too-​new looking restaurant with faux-​Greek façade interior décor in this suburban RTP strip mall.
«*Old* restaurant — *new* location.»
OK *that* explains it… I guess.