Wyndsong Writes

I generally don’t like doing negative reviews.  I know it’s supposed to show that your neutral, objective, but I am kinda old fashioned in thinking that if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.  However, when you come across something that makes you feel just a little bit ripped off and you want to warn others, you have to bite the bullet and let it all out.  Unfortunately, this restaurant fit that bill!I love greek food, my boys and my boyfriend loves greek food, so when we were out and about near the Market Grille Cafe, I suggested we eat there.  After all, it won a “Best of Las Vegas 2009″ award from the Review Journal, and my sister had eaten there and said it was good.  I’m beginning to wonder about her taste after having gone there.  I’m also wondering about how exactly the “Best of Las Vegas” is chosen.  It certainly couldn’t have been chosen for the over all value, the portion sizes, or even the taste of the food.  So exactly what was “The Best” about Market Grille Cafe?

I’m still wondering.  It won the category for best “Other Ethnic Restaurant“, which makes me wonder what else was in that category?  They had categories for everything from Chinese to Thai, even a Middle Eastern category, so what is in the “Other Ethnic” category?  I realize that Las Vegas doesn’t have much in the category of Greek food, which is too bad… Luckily a Mad Greek is coming to Vegas VERY soon.  At least it is worth the price your charged.

Here’s my complaints about the restaurant:

First the meat was very bland.  If you’ve had good Greek food, then you know bland is never a description of the meat.  If you live near a Daphne’s Greek Cafe and had their food, then you know exactly what I mean.  There’s has to be one of the best Greek “fast” food restaurant around.  They are not cheap, but they are worth it.

Then there was the salad, which was litterally swimming in what may have been a good vinegrette if it had been used sparingly.  With the lettuce drowning in the vinegrette you tasted more vinegar than anything else.  Although I think I tasted some rasberry in it, which reminded me of a Rasberry Vinegrette that I bought in the store and really liked, but was too overwhelmed by the vinegar taste to really enjoy it.

We also ordered an “appetizer” of Plato’s Potatoes, which are basically  herbal french fries.  We paid $3.75 for this appetizer.  What we got was maybe a 1/4 of one potatoe.  They brought it in a plastic red basket with paper on the bottom, and the amount of fries didn’t even cover the bottom of the basket.  It wasn’t even enough fries to fill a small bag from McDonalds at three times the price!  Maybe, if they tasted special I might have been willing to overlook the lack of fries, but they barely had any special herbs on them and certainly didn’t taste any better than McDonald’s fries.

Last and definitely NOT least….. For a family of Four, not purchasing the most expensive item on the menu, getting 3 Gyro platters (which comes with a little bit of rice, the drowning salad, 4 triangles of pita bread, and a teensy bit of humus on the side), plus a platter of Falafels, we spent more than $61!  That’s about what I would expect to spend at Outback Steakhouse…. and actually LIKE the food I get!  Generally when something is that expensive, I expect to get enough food to take home for left overs.  In this case, there was nothing left over.  In fact, we were even still a little hungry afterwards, enough so that we were able to go to TCBY and get some  yogurt for desert.  We are not big eaters either…. well maybe my 13 year old is, but he doesn’t count in this particular story.  I’m talking mostly about me, I wasn’t full!  I should be well past full for $61 bucks!

I will never go to that place again. I am also highly recommending all my friends to never go there.  It certainly isn’t worth the price, doesn’t have the good taste of Greek food, and even the service wasn’t good enough to make up for anything.   No matter what the Review Journal Readers have to say, this is definitely NOT the Best of Las Vegas!  Hopefully the Mad Greek will open soon and I can have some GOOD Greek food!