Taverna Opa: Opa! To The Modern Greek Music
Written: Sep 05 '03
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Pros: EXCELLENT food
Cons: pretty slow service, very cramped seating, some very expensive meals
The Bottom Line: It was a good restaurant for food, but not good if you're in a rush and if you want to be comfortable.
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| jetbluefan1's Full Review: Taverna Opa |
We recently went to Florida including the Hollywood area near Ft. Lauderdale. Just a short 3-minute walk from my hotel was Taverna Opa. We decided to drive there because we were planning on driving to Ft. Lauderdale after eating. Taverna Opa only has valet parking. It’s located in the front of the restaurant and extends to Giorgio’s - the Mediterranean restaurant next door. Valet parking is free, and you don’t have to tip.
After our car was parked and the keys were out of my reach, we walked in. There were many Greek waiters and waitresses pointing us to the actual restaurant entrance just a bit further down. When we got in to the actual restaurant potion, the hostess sat my wife and I and took our drink orders in Greek (she heard my wife and I talked in the language when we entered).
The restaurant is very weird. It’s located right on the inner-coast’s water. Inside the restaurant are high-volume fans hitting us in the face, but it felt quite good because it was so hot in Florida that day. A waiter threw about 50 napkins in front of the fan and they fell on the floor. He claimed that it was the natural decor, so I couldn’t tell if the restaurant was clean or not.
The colors inside the restaurant are white and blue - the colors of the Greek flag. The table was very small for the two of us, and the chairs were very uncomfortable. They were tiny and metal. It was in a very cramped aisle where the waiters and waitresses kept on bumping into us. Right next to the table was a huge speaker playing very modern Greek music from Anna Vissi, Svakanakis, Despina Vandi and Kaiti Garbi.
Our waiter came about ten minutes after we were seated with two menus. The covers of the menus were ripped. This shows very poor quality for Greek restaurants which are usually known to be clean, well taken care of, have good service, and of course - exceptional food. The waiter was friendly and was...you guessed it...Greek. He didn’t do anything but give us our drinks and take our orders. A different person gave us the food.
The menu has a limited amount of items that one can actually afford. There was one page with moderate prices from $6-$10. That’s where my wife and I ordered our meals from. There were a couple of other pages with prices from $15-$23 meals. There were also wines, mezedes (appetizers), salates (salads), and desserts.
The menu has all the basic Greek foods. I wasn’t surprised to see a Horiatiki salad, Greek salad, Caesar salad, octopodi (octopus), kalamari (squid) and pita with tzatziki (cucumber yogurt dressing with many Greek herbs) in the appetizer/salad section. The main soup at the Taverna Opa is Avgolemono Greek Soup which has a somewhat lemony taste. It can be made with rice or rosa marina pastas. It’s a very good soup, but I didn’t try it at the restaurant.
Main courses included mousakka indeed which is meat and eggplant in a pasta with creamy sauce on it. One of the people sitting next to us had it, and it was of a very small portion, but it was only $4 - you get what you pay for. There was also pastitio - just like mousakka, but without the eggplant and a little bit less meat. There were gyros and beef or chicken souvlaki (shish-kebab). The gyros and souvlakis come with tzatziki also.
We were quite hungry, so we ordered octopus and kalamari for appetizers. These dishes arrived 15 minutes after ordering. Both dishes were of large portions - stacked well above what a regular restaurant would give you. But hey, whenever you go to a Greek restaurant, it’s impossible to leave and not be stuffed with delicious food. Both the kalamari and octopus were very well cooked and delicious, though the kalamari was a bit tough. They both came with lemon slices on the side.
For my main course, I ordered the lemon chicken dish which came about 20 minutes after ordering. It was delicious, and I mean delicious. It was soaked in a lemon sauce and came with three mustard potatoes and a Greek salad. The Greek salad came in a separate dish, and I gave it to my wife because she likes the salad more than I do. I don’t like it that much because it comes with onions and sometimes scallions.
The mustard potatoes were well cooked and tasted home-made like when my wife makes it, and sometimes my mom and my aunts. The lemon chicken was half a chicken - two chicken legs and the rest of the bottom part of it. There was a lot of meat and hardly any bones. The lemony flavor was only on the skin, but that’s okay because it would have been too sour had it been inside the chicken.
Overall, I would recommend Taverna Opa. I know - there are a lot of negatives. This would include the slow service, high prices, cramped seating (this is starting to sound like an airline review...), and limited menu options for those who don’t want to spend an arm and a leg. However, both my wife and I got excellent meals for under $30. This included two appetizers and two main courses. The reason I recommend Taverna Opa is because the food is delicious, and there’s nothing more important than good food.
Recommended:
Yes
Kid Friendliness: No
Vegetarian Friendly: No
Notes, Tips or Menu Recommendations Lemon chicken, kalamari and octopus.
Best Suited For: Large Group
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