Greek Cusina

I know it’s closed, but I had to throw in my 5 stars. I fell in love at this place, and six years later we’re still together. That purple octopus will always hold a place in our hearts.

The only reason I am giving the restaurant two stars rather than a one is that the food was delicious. I order the Vegetarian Greek plate, which includes a Greek salad, small spanikopita and a gyro with grilled veggies, sundried tomatoes and garbanzo beans.
The service was absolutely terrible. This was the single worst over all dining experience I have ever had. After two hours of being ignored by our waiter and being given the wrong food we asked to speak to the manager and received the foulest customer service from her!
My local friends in Portland wondered why I would ever have gone to Greek Cusina, since they know the place is terrible. It was walking distance from our hotel and my group needed hangover breakfast food after already having walked 6 blocks in downtown. We didn’t want more Voodoo Donut. ;)

Driving from Washington and we were starving. They were open late and the food was decent. They looked like they were going to close, but they stayed open… thank goodness! moussaka!

Two words. Stay Away. There is better food out there in this world.
Came here on a Friday night. Asked the server to recommend us a bottle of white wine. After what seemed like forever, he came back and opened one for us. I think we should have sent it back but we were too polite. For it tasted like err. water! I know it sounds weird but then it really did! I wish I could remember the name of this Greek wine. All I can say is stay away from the white they recommend! The appetizers (Spanakopita, Falafel Bites) were decent. We ordered two veggie (Meatless Dolmathes, Veggie Combo) and two meat (can’t recollect) entrée. Out of the four, only the Dolmathes were palatable. While we wanted to make our way out of there at the earliest, the slow service turned out to be a major bottleneck!

Considering all the delicious restaurants in Portland this was a disappointment. The giant octopus over the door should have guided us to another restaurant. Instead we sat down to some sub par food.
Although this place calls itself Greek the menu is rather American. They did have the usual gyros etc. but the pasta was what you would expect from a super market deli. Their fish and chips tasted like they had come in a box. I was too discouraged to try any drinks or dessert.
For those who have recently burned their tongue on some of the other delicious food options in Portland this might be an OK place to go. For everyone else I would avoid it.

You know it’s a bad sign when a place just gives off weird, bad vibes, before you even order food or a drink. That’s Greek Cusina. We were starving and mediocre food probably would have been just fine, but this was several steps below mediocre. The calamari on my salad was bright pink and rubbery. The salad was drenched in oil even though I ordered dressing on the side. The gyro seemed ok, but was tiny. The first glass of wine that came to me tasted almost rancid.
The service was also completely inept — our server didn’t seem to know anything about the menu and was running around like a chicken with its head cut off but didn’t actually seem to be doing a thing. There were lots of staff around but every patron in the place seemed to be looking for a waiter. The restaurant was pretty dirty and everything seemed old and super used.
Ugh. I would never ever go back to this dump.

My family used to always go to the greek cusina when I was little and I always remembered loving it, so when my dad invited my +1 and I to dinner this week, I took him up it.
Meh…I’ve definitely had better, much, much better. We got the dip sampler to start: definitely not house made pita bread, the feta dip tasted and looked exactly like ranch sauce, and the hummus seemed a little off in color. My Gyro was dry all around. The pita was huge, but the small pieces of lamb inside were very thinly sliced (which isn’t always a bad thing), and also very dry as if waaaaaaaaaaaay overcooked. The gyro also had very little tziki (sp?), definitely needed more all around.
The saving grace was our server that was nice enough to keep filling our water glasses on the hot day, but the food was just not good enough to justify the price… and they aren’t exactly expensive.
Thinking back, I’m not sure I ate much there as a child other then greek salad and desserts. They do still make a killer cream filled cookie, but alas, my sweet tooth isn’t as strong as it used to be.

CLOSED.
WOW — what the heck are ya’ll whiners expecting anyway, from a Party Room frequented by Sailors and seasoned revelers from all around the world, that has kept heads spinning for DECADES ?! Way back in MY thirties, much of what you all are +panning+ was just what MANY called ambiance and evidence of a Good Time! (Sounds like a few folks are just out of your element — you seem to require every place to look/​smell like a Martini bar, yet you’ll give 5 stars to a freakin’ Food Cart?!)
I agree the tradition of breaking plates is annoying, wasteful, stagey and just so DONE — it actually distracts from the many ordinary delights of Greek Culture .But really, Reviewers, kindly try the food and ouzo before you recoil in horror at the gleeful behaviours of other Patrons, yes? Leave the white gloves at home, and have a good time, dangit.
The Dining Room on the main floor is Wheelchair friendly,
The #15 Belmont Bus stops on 4^th & Washington across the Street, and MAX Light Rail is to the south… and all run reasonably late,
just be sure to head out by 1:30 to get home.

My boyfriend and I were hungry and walking around downtown. We were lured in by the giant octopus and decided to give it a try. First of all, the whole restaurant was relatively empty, but we were sat next to a birthday party of about 11 people — kind of annoying. Our waiter had a poor attitude and acted like we were just taking up his time. We ordered tabouleh and the dolmas plate. The tabouleh was seriously lacking in the parsley department and the grape leaves were okay. The pita bread was pretty good though.
I don’t know — maybe we just came in at a bad time, but we probably won’t be back anytime soon.

This place was great like 4 years ago. The dance area had 2 floors, one hip hop and other a variety of music. Back then it was only $ 5 bucks and it was pretty laid back. Oh boy times have changed. With repeated fire hazzard warnings and an owner who refuses to cooperate, this place has gone down to hell. The dancing on the weekends has gotten pretty bad and they charge a lot now for cover. With repeated calls to the cops, the owner’s days are numbered!

It smells like very old, rancid oil here. Good baklava in the front counter area, but I wouldn’t wander any farther in there and definitely not upstairs, the building is just simply not safe right now, and not up to code.

Will never EVER go here again. Wished I had looked on Unilocal before I went. Got dragged along with group of people — it was way overpriced. Got some 9 $ appetizer as a meal that was coined as «feta, tomatoes, olives» — sounds good right? NO. Along with the horrible service — it was the worst olive plate I’ve ever had. Was way overpriced for the portion and I had to ask for the olives that were on the menu. They threw some feta triangles on some lettuce, added a couple slices of nasty tomato and some mild green peppers (perhaps trying to trick me into thinking they were olives?) And the waiters were obnoxious and running into the customers going to the bathroom. Worst restaurant experienced I’ve had in Portland — and its the kind where I want to tell them this!

I really can’t understand why people eat here.
My fiancé and I thought we’d finally go and see what all the hype was about the «place with the big giant purple octopus.» We ordered standard Greek fair, a salad, gyros, stuffed grape leaves, hummus, etc. and, after having spent the entire summer in Greece, I must say, we were thoroughly let down on all aspects.
The service staff was horrible. I’ve never been to a restaurant before and not had the waiter actually say one word to me the entire time. I was almost impressed by his skill at avoidance.
We were also shocked to find such mediocre flavor and small portions, yet somehow the prices were the same as what we paid on the Euro in the actual country of Greece.
I warned my new coworker not to eat there, but she didn’t listen. She went home sick with food poisoning her first day on the job… Yuck. Not worth it.

Eight of us went here on a Thursday night. We sat upstairs. Even though we were the only ones there, the atmosphere was fantastic. After dinner Christo the dancer came over and taught us a bunch of greek dances. He even got the most reluctant ones out on the floor. Ok. so maybe the wine helped. We got to throw the plates and just had a blast. Even without all the entertainment, the food was great!!!

Every time we have passed by this place for the last 6 months my sons go crazy for that enormous purple inflatable octopus! Honestly! You’d think this was just the end-​all-​be-​all for them! Today, on our way westward in search of the elusive perfect Christmas tree, we found ourselves downtown and hungry. To be fair, our intention had been to eat elsewhere, but we discovered (too late) that our first choice only served Mon-​Fri, so we headed down the block to that giant lurking purple octopus!
My youngest son & I walked in with the others to follow. We asked for a booth & were cursorily seated at a table in the middle of things. Not great listening on the host’s part, I’d say. Due to the season & the weather, we agreed to order hot chocolates for the boys, and would have, except they were not accommodating when we asked for small cups rather than a large size. We would have paid the same price, we just wanted a smaller portion. So, we didn’t order drinks on principal. Both The Big Man & I ordered falafel gyros — his with fries, mine with a Greek salad. Both were fine, nothing to write home about, nothing to complain about. The boys shared some zucchini fries which were good. The red pepper sauce was tasty.
Thus far, I have yet to sample any Middle Eastern or Greek food to compare with Holy Land in Berkeley, CA on College Avenue. Greek Cusina was okay, tho’ I wouldn’t return unless someone just HAD to revisit the octopus!

Oh My Dear Greek Cusina!
I love you.
You are so weird; rare, to put it nicely, since after all, you are worthy of 5 stars in my book.
Mr. Octopus outside welcomes all: the ghetto superstars of P-​town, the underground peeps, the homos, the conservative-​republican people from Eastern Oregon, and even the Californians (thank you!).
You play the JAMS and everyone has a good time. Even the poor obese guy sitting in a table in the corner. Bless his heart.
You charge merely chump change to enter the realm of the purple octopus. God I love Oregon.
Your food is all the classic Greek taverna grub and your pastries are legit Greek certified.
I will forever come back to the Greek Cusina. You even let me in with a fake ID, how could I not love you?

I don’t like Portland. I said it. I really don’t. But on a trip through the state I stopped here and have never forgot it.
The food was great – my entire group left happy and energized by the evening. I had a chicken with amazing rosemary flavor – and also tasted everything my group ordered – splendid.
And that octopus who lurks outside. I chatted with him on the way out. Nice guy.

Something about that enormous purple octopus just kept calling to me… and it was calling to my sister clear to Bend. So, when she came for a visit this weekend we headed over for some lunch. Overall, things were okay — but just not great. The tabbouleh was better than some, but certainly not the best. They could really cut down on the bulger wheat — I don’t know how many times I have to mention that tabbouleh is parsley first, first! The wheat is like the salt… just add a little.
The gyros were average. The sauce was light (i.e., there wasn’t much of it on the sandwich), so we asked for more… but had to go inside to ask for it. Let’s just say that our waitress was pretty absent and there were hardly any people in the place. Also, when I ordered my glass of wine it took some reminding to actually get it. The waitress was definitely friendly, so that was a plus…
Sitting outside on such a beautiful day was great (save the construction going on part of the time). Our waitress was friendly but not very good at being our waitress. The food was good, but not great. The wine average. I would return if someone wanted to go — but probably will not return of my own accord. Solid place. Just not great.

So I went through Portland last week on a road trip, and stopped at Greek Cusina for dinner one night. It was my first time in Portland, so we got some street seating so we could check out the Saturday night vibe in Portland. Portland and its people were great. Small city feel, but vibrant. and a lot people seemed to be out having a good time. Or maybe it was just Saturday night. Either way Portland is A-​OK in my book and I will need to visit again since I was only there for 6 hours.
Ok back to Greek Cusina, I think they were really busy with a huge party upstairs (we kept hearing plates smashing against the floor). It also seemed like our waitress had an absurdly large 10-​table or so section. So our waitress was pretty slow in getting to us at pretty much all stages. It took us a while to even be able to order, then another while for drinks (on the weaker side of what I’m used to). Then, our food was brought out wrong AND before we had gotten our soup/​salad. We had politely pointed out the mistakes in our order but now I was pretty sure our waitress hated us.
I think, though, that she was just a bit stressed from the end of a long busy Sat night shift, and some servers are just not the big smiley type. Which is fine, given that was more my style back in my serving days. The food was pretty good though, my seafood paella was very different than others I’ve tried in a good way (spanish mostly) and the peppered rice pilaf was a highlight.
After dinner, we chatted with our waitress about finding some good spots to hang out in Portland. She was really helpful and gave us some good tips. She seemed much more relaxed at that point, as I think the big party upstairs had exited.
Anyway, despite some miscues and slowness, I find myself a pretty tolerant given the busyness and my experience working in many restaurants myself. The food was good, the outside ambiance was great, and we ended up making peace with our waitress. Not a bad place for a random stop.

After reading the other reviews, I wonder if I’m just inexperienced, but I had a great experience at Greek Cusina tonight. The soup of the day was like nothing I had ever had before and Ioved it. The Birima was tasty and the orzo on the side was just the right texture and taste. The deserts looked lovely, but I couldn’t cram anything else in.
If I had one complaint it was that they sang happy birthday in Greek 3 times while we were there and it ruin the atmosphere of the nice quiet dinner we were hoping to have.
This is a nice small restaurant, not meant for a quiet night out, but certainly worth stopping in to have a unique bite to eat. I was very pleased with the service and the food.