Eleni’s Philoxenia

We had dinner here for my sister’s Bachelorette party. We were running late for our reservation, but it didn’t seem to be a problem. They were very accommodating. When we arrived, we were sat immediately. The waiter did mess up one order at the table, but offered us the dish while the correct order was made, which was awesome. In general, the food was good. The meatballs were the best because they were tender and full of flavor. The lamb and chicken were a bit dry, but overall good. Ooh, I really appreciated how often our water glasses were filled :)

This is a hidden gem in the Pearl! I love the ambience and the food. You’ll find fabulous greek dishes you won’t find anywhere else. I met some friends here who were vegetarians and there were some great options. I ended up getting the vegetarian moussaka which was wonderful! I would definitely come back again!

This is a gem of a place. Unless you’ve been to Greece, you’re not going to find Greek food in Portland better than in here. You can try more than one thing because they have lots of tapa-​sized plates.
Among the many phenomenal plates: the grilled calamari, the baked filo dough filled with feta cheese, sautéed mushrooms,
Warm ambiance that makes you want to stay there all night.

Love the service, the food is amazing. Salads are all wonderful and Eleni’s is a family favorite, with a warm and welcoming atmosphere. We hadn’t been here in many months, but after having dinner there last night and now that it is on OpenTable it makes it much easier to remember and make a reservation. We truly enjoy all the fresh ingredients. Eleni is an amazing person and she always makes us feel so welcome. Parking is usually pretty easy in this area.

I cannot even begin to describe my love for this Pearl District gem. The ambience makes it perfect for a romantic date or a classy evening with friends, but not stuffy or overpriced. The servers are friendly and knowledgeable. Often times you’ll be waited on or at least visited by a happy face with a thick Greek accent wich inspires quite a bit of confidence, I’m sure you’d agree.
My suggestion is to make this a «family style» dining experience. Order several things off the menu and then prepare for a plethora of flavors and textures — all to the delight of your senses!
One final note: They also make a mean Gin and Tonic. And if that’s not your drink, a full bar awaits your discriminating tastes.

Such a fun, warm place. I was there with a large group and the service was fantastic, the food warm and flavorful, the wine excellent, and it’s as comfortable and pleasant a place to enjoy food and friendship as anywhere in PDX. It’s rare that you get great service with a large group – really a hard task for the kitchen to manage getting orders out on time and the wait staff also has a hard time dealing with a group – but Eleni’s kept the dishes coming family style and it was perfect. Thanks for another wonderful evening!

We found this place when wandering around the Pearl looking for a dinner option that has some vegan options for our dining companions. We started with the hummus plate that included two different hummus… both delicious. We also ordered saganaki, a.k.a. flaming cheese! I love ordering this dish but I wish more places set in on fire table side; it loses some of the fanfare when they light it up in the kitchen. Still tasty though.
We also tried a couple of salad and vegetable options and the lahano salata with shaved cabbage and fennel was far and away the best. It’s large enough for four people to share and the pistachios are so good in this. We shared the lamb shank special for our entrée and it was damn good.
This place is a great option if you are looking to please people with with different diets.

Lovely and classy fine dining place. It’s run by a very sweet Greek couple who seem to make their food with a lot of care. We had ordered babaghanoush for starters with freshly made olive bread that sold the place for us! They have a great selection of wine and I loved my Riesling so much! I and the pasta with shrimp which was very well made. Other friends tried the eggplant dish and salad which was delicious as well. We got the baklava and cake for dessert which were decent.

If you want good Greek food, go to Eleni’s. My boyfriend took me here on our first date and we stayed until they closed the place down — in fact, it ended up being later because the owner stuck around for awhile and talked to us. We had a lot of fun chatting with her. My boyfriend grew up in Greece and considers this one of the best places for Greek food in portland. Both times I’ve been here I’ve an incredible meal with excellent service. We just recently went again and had just as great of an experience.
Food-​wise, order the lamb. They apparently make it the way the Greeks do. It’s charred and so flavorful. You can just taste the meatiness, in the best way possible. The Greek salad, while simple, is tasty. They also have a nice drink list. I can never resist dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) at any Greek restaurant and I highly recommend getting them here. Give this place a try!

Sooooo amazing! I’ve been here 3 times now and every time has been amazing! We’re just taking off now and they just gave us 2 loaves of bread because it’s the end of the day. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would come back

Lovely restaurant and amazing food. Cannot wait to return! The owner was so sweet and great to talk to! She made an effort to tell us what was good and made recommendations on things to change or to try. Love it!

I think my experience was about a 3 star but the quality of food seems higher because they use some organic vegetables. This is the first time however when I’ve eaten somewhere that claims to offer high quality food that doesn’t deliver in terms of taste. The pasta was just really plain. The feta cheese was nice but it wasn’t worth $ 13 for me.
I am also used to a larger portion size when consuming pasta; the plate here was too small for an entrée. I’m still hungry after eating. The sauce wasn’t voluminous enough either; I like more sauce. The food came out really fast which seems good on the surface but in this case indicates the lack of effort put into the dish.
I really wanted to like this place. I also do want to come back and try some of the other dishes. On the plus side, the bread served as a good appetizer.

I just moved to Portland from NYC and overall I’ve been really impressed by both the quality and the value of the restaurants here. I had very high expectations of Elani’s based on other reviews. Unfortunately, it just didn’t deliver. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Nerai in Manhattan, but this place just seemed a chaotic mess.
I had the lamb over salad, the lamb was charred on the outside making it taste bitter and some of the coriander was burnt as well. The salad was basically a waldorf salad that used bitter arugula and a bland mayo-​heavy sort of dressing that was orange. The raisins and apples brought some sweetness into it, so I kind of see what they were trying to do there but it just fell really flat. The lamb was cooked well enough but the bitterness from the charring kind of ruined it for me. I also got the octopus appetizer over the skordalia… with black-​eyed peas? Really? The octopus was marinated but otherwise bland, overdone and the portion was pretty tiny. The skordalia was plentiful and… well, skordalia. My husband got a pasta dish and I really didn’t care for the olives. The pasta was just dried box pasta and the cheese sauce was good but nothing amazing.
Finally came the bill… it ended up being about $ 30 more than I expected because the restaurant does some shady stuff with their pricing that is not clearly indicated on the menu. The menu lists the appetizer/​small plate size, but when you order, the waiter assumes you want the «entrée» which costs more. In fact the waiter never brought it to our attention. I was frankly shocked to be paying Manhattan NYC prices for food that mediocre.
Service was meh, they weren’t that busy (half the tables at the restaurant were empty) but the whole waiter/​kitchen process seemed to be pretty inefficient. We were seated right away, but it took 15 minutes for someone to take our drink order, then we were ¹⁄₃ of the way through our bottle of wine before we ordered food. Again, not a huge deal overall, but at this price point I expect more.
Honestly the food wasn’t that terrible, but given the price bracket and the shadiness with the menu pricing, I cannot recommend this place. If you’re looking for greek-​ish food and retsina, check out the Mediterranean Exploration Company nearby. They have happy hour specials if you’re on a budget, they actually post the real prices on their menus, and the food and service are on par with restaurants in the same (adjusted) price point in NYC (eg, Nerai).

We came to Eleni’s on the recommendation of friends from Sacramento who visit Portland often. We ordered several dishes and shared them like tapas. Everything was delicious, the chef cooks the fish and prawns perfectly, nothing overcooked.
The spanikopita was the freshest tasting we’d ever had– lemony, but balanced. The grilled calimari were wonderful, as were the prawn/​pasta dish. Three of us had the house wines which were good and one asked for their special Makers’ Mark Manhattan. Oh my goodness, Marcus at the bar makes a stunning Manhattan, complex flavors and not too sweet.
The service was friendly and speedy. We will definietly go back. Lucky Portland to have Eleni’s.

This place has been on my short list of restaurants to try.
I Made reservations and was seated immediately.
Had the calamari and loved it (I’m not big calamari fan) but this was really fresh. (It was grilled or steamed) not the one that is fried.
Had the house Greek salad and this was very good, the tomatoes were so sweet.
Had the moussaka, kinda had to, it’s their most popular and recommend dish, I really enjoyed it.
Service ok.
I would definitely return, when in the pearl.

Modern Greek
Two options of delicious shrimp: garlic or tomato fetta options both are wonderful. Had a octopus special served over potatoes and it was too salty, slightly over-​cooked tentacles but the potatoes were perfect. The lima beans — ehhh.
Next time having the meatballs.
Delicious olive oil and bread.

Where are all the Greek places in Portland? Great service and the cuisine was pretty good. We had a special with dolmathes as an appetizer.
The dessert options could use a little help. Really good coffee, however.

I’d come back here five times, since my first experience in 2008 — which was amazing! The scallops were simply the best I’d ever had.
However, over the years the chefs have changed. The beet salad and the rack of lamb just aren’t as well prepared as they used to be; on my most recent visit, the lamb was barely cooked at all — just about tartare on the inside when requested medium-​rare. The fish was still very good, and service friendly (if a bit slow to start). The other changes, like brown paper over the tablecloths, just make me feel like there isn’t as much care being put into the experience nowadays.
I hope things turn around, as I used to look forward to some wonderful dishes here.

We went to Eleni’s for my birthday last night. Apparently, you can park in a garage across the street (instead of driving around looking for a parking space) — check with them before you go to make sure this is still OK.
They have a huge menu — with many many items that you don’t usually see on a typical Greek restaurant menu. We (we = me, my husband and two kids/​teens) decided to get a bunch of small plates and share everything. The food came out quickly, and was exquisite.
We started with a salad of shredded cabbage, fennel, almonds and lemon — very tart, light and refreshing. Next was a plate of flaming fried cheese (nothing says «Happy Birthday» like a plate of flaming cheese) — which was creamy, melty, crispy, and lemony all at once. There was also a dish with prawns, tomatoes, basil and cheese — cooked to perfection and the prawns were sweet and juicy. We also ordered a plate of meatballs — they were redolent with cumin, light and fluffy, with a cumin-​y tomato sauce.
Getting rather full now! But… here comes a plate with baked eggplant filled with ground meat (not sure if it was lamb or beef). It was cinnamon-​y and onion-​y and also just wonderful — possibly my favorite dish. My husband wanted a bit more, so he ordered a plate of mussels, cooked with tomatoes and I-don’t-know-what-elusive-spice but, OMG, it was delicious.
(Even though they serve many dishes with tomatoes or tomato sauce, every dish tasted completely different — they definitely don’t use the same sauce for everything.)
So… we’re finally done… or so I thought. One of the women who was serving us (possibly the owner?) came over and talked us into trying the spanakopita and tiropita (spinach pie and cheese pie in phyllo) The cheese one was good, but the spinach… it had me moaning in gustatory pleasure, even as full as I was. We decided to stop there before we popped, and had the rest packed up for home.
And then — they brought out a complimentary plate of rice pudding, with whipped cream, cinnamon and what I think was a little slice of glacee peach for my birthday!
And THEN… since we were that last diners in there, she brought out a big grocery bag full of all sorts of artisan breads that they would not be able to sell the next day and told us to take that too! Our freezer is now bulging as much as our bellies.
The service was also wonderful — attentive to the point that I felt like we were being treated like family. I cannot recommend this place enough. Go there — you will not be disappointed!

FABULOUS… Went tonight for our 14^th anniversary, brought us right back to our honeymoon in Greece.
AUTHENTIC flavors, explode in your mouth. Taziki, spot on. Grilled calamari in lemon goodness, flavor exact as on our trip. Husbands marinated lamb was yum!!!
Service splendid, looked for owner even to let her know, Thank you for the honey soaked baklava goodness, it completed our romantic dinner perfectly
OPA!