Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe

Nice atmosphere, pleasant staff, and cleanliness all get 5 stars, but the food was lacking. Andrew ordered the chargrilled lamb feast and it had less lamb than the gyro I had and $ 5 more in cost. The Lamb was overcooked and bland. BUT, I do like this place and I intend to go again and ask for their most popular dish (let’s face it, everyone doesn’t know how to prepare lamb).

As one of Tuscaloosa’s healthier restaurants, this location comes as a great disappointment. The price in comparison to portion size is what I struggle with the most. None of the ‘feasts’ on the menu are enough to completely satisfy my hunger. In addition, I have to order additional portions on the meal just to feel satiated. One of the problems in this restaurant is consistency. The salad portions consistently differ with the feast options on the menu. Sometimes you receive a half salad, sometimes a full. For two people, we spend about forty dollars per visit. The food is tasty and well seasoned, but overpriced and underwhelming. For this reason, I have to give Tazikis the rating that I did. I am hoping to see improvement with pricing and portion sizes.

They get stars for having yummy food but they lose points because almost every time I walk in there they mess something up in my order. It’s quite frustrating. I wish they would read the order back to me so I can see if they are paying attention! One time I had some beef in my salmon salad, they have confused my sides, pasta in my cucumber salad. List goes on. I keep coming back though for their fish tacos, vege gyro and salmon.

I’m shocked this place doesn’t have more reviews and high praise. I visited Taziki’s while on a business trip. The first night I got the salmon salad and a side of chicken kebab. It was so good I came back the second night and had a salmon entrée and a lemon chicken soup. The salmon was seasoned and cooked to perfection. I’ve never had a lemon chicken soup as good as this. Extremely good portions at a very reasonable price.

The freshest tasting salad I have had since moving to Tuscaloosa 10 months ago. I ordered the salmon on the Greek salad, and no dressing was required. Simply beautiful, fresh foods with flavors that speak for themselves. Thank you, Taziki’s. I’ll be back!

I’ve been to many different tazikis locations and this is by far the worst. Food was cold and when I sent it back, they forgot about it. Waited 20 minutes without food and they truly didn’t care. Seriously don’t go here

This was the worst experience I’ve had at Tazikis by far. My chicken was very old and cold and the lettuce and cucumbers on it were old and soggy. There was barely any dressing on my gyro. They were out of my favorite side (the roasted tomatoes) so I went with the cucumber and tomato salad which was old and soggy as well. Very disappointed and will not be going back.

Me and my husband used to like going here but not anymore. A month ago, we ordered takeout and hubby was mad when he got home. He had ordered the Mezedes platter which is supposed to come with Dolmades, Taziki dip and hummus, complete with pita bread to eat with the dips. He checked the bag before leaving the restaurant and the pita bread wasn’t there. He goes to the register to let them know he didn’t get his pita bread and he says that one of the workers gave him a dirty look as if he was implying my husband was being «difficult.» You know that kind of look. HELLO! THE PITA BREAD COMES WITH THAT PARTICULAR DISH. Hubby didn’t appreciate that. So then they give him his pita bread and they gave such a small amount that it was ridiculous. We have ordered this dish many times in the past and they give a decent amount of bread so we knew this had been done on purpose because they obviously perceived us as being «difficult» even though we had every right to ask for what we were SUPPOSED TO GET AND FOR WHAT WE HAD PAID FOR.
So after he tells me all this I decide to contact their customer service e-​mail and I pretty much explain everything as I am writing now. I even included a picture of how much pita we got so they could see for proof. As of today I still never heard anything either from the company; not by e-​mail, phone # or letter in the mail. This tells me that Taziki’s main headquarters apparently does NOT CARE about the customer complaints. So we will probably NEVER EAT AT TAZIKI’S AGAIN! Even if it’s another location somewhere else, they’ve lost our business for good! I advise anyone who wants to eat here, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!

Do you see silverware on any tables? Just the tip of the iceberg. My rice is crunchy. Waited have way through my meal for a glass of wine. When I asked about it the lady said someone would bring it to the table. It never came, has to walk to the register and get it myself. This place has really dropped the ball since our last visit!

Just ok at best. the lamb was weird thick strips for some reason and small portions. Between Big Daddy’s and Hooligans there are better places for a good meal. I know this is suppose to be a Traditional more upscale Mediterranean restaurant but fails miserably at it.

I love the Fish taco which is only available on Thursday because it’s the special. The weekend pasta is great too. Chicken salad and pimento cheese is wonderful too!

I just had the worst experience at Taziki’s. The wait was 52 minutes for our meal. The Manager Matt was so rude to table after table of people. Tuscaloosa is a college town and Sunday’s are always going to be busy. They need new management quickly before foorball season starts or they will have more disgruntled and unhappy customers like me.

Tazikis is a staple memory and food from visiting friends in Birmingham on 280. I’m glad to see it in Tuscaloosa. I ordered the lamb feast and was pleased with the promptness and delivery. The interior of the restaurant was nicely decorated and woody. Peaceful. We are outdoors as the weather was nice. My lamb was slightly dry but not too bad. The rice was good, salad was good. Meal was good. Definitely a recommendation if you’re in town. If you’re in Birmingham on 280 give it a try too. Definitely a highlight of taste in the area outside your traditional bar-​b-​q joint.

I am a bit conflicted on the 4 stars for a chain restaurant, but there aren’t many original restaurants in the area, and this place is better than other dining options in the immediate area.
This past visit, I ordered the Greek salad with grilled lamb, and my companion ordered the daily special of a grilled portobello mushroom sandwich. Both dishes where good. I enjoyed my salad (the dressing could have been spicier), and my dining companion enjoyed her sandwich. Service was fast, but is was a Monday lunch, and most places aren’t busy. Given this experience, I’d come back.

Like here~I forgot to take the pictures of our food. My order was grilled chicken roll-​up and the choice of my friend was roasted chicken salad. Both tasted good~

I pretty much love everything on the menu. Even the basic spicy pimento cheese sandwich is awesome. One of my favorite lunch spots.

Very clean restaurant including the bathrooms. Paper towels, so that will keep the funk away as you turn off the faucet and open the bathroom door. I had the pork sandwich with roasted potatoes, and it was very exceptional. I have no complaints on this one including the price.

Taziki’s frustrates me. Good atmosphere and location, and I really want to like it. I was excited when it first opened, but that’s fizzled. There’s a lot of potential it just doesn’t live up to. Here’s what I mean–
–As another reviewer notes, there are several other places in Tuscaloosa to get a gyro, and at much better prices. Tazikis is a little on the pricey side for what you get.
–I wish they had spanikopita. I wish they had falafel. I wish their sandwiches were less oily. But I understand that it’s a chain and there’s only so much control they have over the menu, I guess. (The salads *are* really good, although they could be more substantial for a $ 9 salad.)
–They used to have a really good grilled shrimp salad and now they don’t. They replaced it with a grilled shrimp dinner, which has shrimp and a small side salad and white rice. (Does anybody actually like just a bed of white rice?) Basically, this dish is the same price as the salad, but with rice filler thrown in to replace some of the salad. Not a fan of that.
–The service was pretty good when it first opened, but after a few rude or just weird encounters with the cashiers and food pick up, we’ve kind of just forgotten about it and dropped it from our radar. For example–
Once after the cashier ran my card and handed it to me, she didn’t say anything. Not «please sign your receipt,» not «do you need a receipt?» not «thanks and have a good day,» not «your order will be up soon,» not «you can pick it up at the next window when it’s ready.» It was bizarre. She just stood there looking kind of sullen and, I guess, waiting for the next customer. I said, «is that it?» and she looked at me like I was crazy.
Another time we ordered pick up, my husband went in, paid, and then had to MAKE the person go back and get his food. Apparently after taking payment, she just stood there like a lump. (Same cashier?)
Also, when you call in an order for pick up and you want dessert, you have to grab it off the counter yourself! If you don’t do this, you won’t get your dessert. They don’t put it in the bag for you. I don’t have a problem with putting the dessert into the bag myself; it’s just that since this isn’t really standard practice in most restaurants, I forget to do it.
Anyway, there’s not one particular glaring problem, or one particular glaring thing that’s great. It’s just OK.
UPDATE!!: There’s a new manager! And she just left me a really kind note on here! And they apparently *do* have my shrimp salad now! So we may try them again after all…

Service was fine, new clean attractive décor, nice menu…
The food just wasn’t very good. I can’t really describe any particular issues so it could very well be that it just wasn’t what my familt likes… but none of us cared for what we ordered.

Ok, so I’m adding onto my review but leaving the review from my first experience below for reference. A manager contacted me after seeing it and offered to give me some coupons to come back and try it again. This is basically the kind of attitude I wish I had seen the first time I went when nobody really seemed to care that I was having a bad experience. So my husband and I went back. We didn’t go at a really busy time, and this time got our food insanely quickly. He got a gyro and I got a pasta dish. Both were tasty, my complaint is that it’s a bit expensive for what it is. You can get a cheaper, better gyro on the strip. I think what you are really paying for here is the atmosphere and to be in Midtown. I don’t know that I’ll be making regular stops here, but it’s no longer on my NEVER GO THERE list.
Old Review:
This review refers to the service, not the food. We waited about 40 minutes and after I had seen people who came in after we did get their food, I went up to the counter to ask if there was a problem. A waitress told me that they hadn’t lost my ticket or anything. After an hour, I had seen several more people who came in about 30 minutes after we did get their food. I went back up to the counter to ask about it, and they were just starting to cook our food. I said I wanted my money back so I could leave and eat elsewhere.
If they had been at all courteous about it, I could have given two stars despite the poor service. However, I was offered incredibly weak excuses for why my food was just starting to be cooked when people who came in a half hour after I did were eating: «we’re really busy» «people have made mistakes» «some of the cooks are faster than others.» I told them I was never going to come back and they basically didn’t seem to care or offer me anything to placate me. At no point did they even apologize for it taking so long. I’m not planning on going back and if that’s how they treat their customers the place is doomed to fail.
Also, it wasn’t air conditioned. I get that with an open kitchen the heat is going to disperse around the room but the atmosphere was miserable.