Greek Islands – Flagstaff, AZ

We stopped at this local Flagstaff, Arizona restaurant for some dinner after checking into our hotel late, at the conclusion of a long day of travel.

I had found it on urbanspoon, which is always a great place to look for local restaurants when you’re traveling. With reviews noting the hole-in-the-wall grimy-college-hangout atmosphere, and authentic, delicious, affordable Mediterranean food, we had to try it.

Service was a bit slow, probably because they were actually preparing our food – okay by me, which would have been totally fine if we didn’t have two sleepy kids with us too late in the evening. The restaurant was also too chilly for what we were wearing, but again, if we lived in the area and knew the nights were chilly and the restaurant wasn’t heated, we would’ve been fine in some hoodies.

Our server was friendly and amicable, and did make an effort to bring the kids’ salads (and our dolmas and tsaziki sauce) out before the rest of our food was ready, so they had something to work on.

When our souvlaki platters (which we got with rice, but no pitas) arrived, the meat was flavorful and just-cooked, not sitting around under lights. The salads were a generous size and delicious, simply prepared.

The rice was surprisingly topped with marinara sauce and feta cheese, which the server explained to us was one of the co-owners’ family recipes from Greece. He also tipped us off to the “secret” ingredient in the sauce – cinnamon, which gave the whole thing a warm flavor that was really pleasant.

I would definitely recommend Greek Islands if you’re visiting Flagstaff and like Mediterranean food. Just don’t go when you need to get toddlers into bed quickly.