Lefkas Greek Taverna

We ordered the set menu, which is delicious but comes with huge portions. The highlights were the chicken skewers, halloumi cheese, and the dips. The only disappointment was the beef, which was nicely charred but overcooked.

When our Greek friend suggested we all do dinner, he was just as clueless as us as to where we should go and left the decision up to us. After a few minutes of Unilocaling we settled on this venue and made a booking for 5 that evening.
We showed up to the restaurant right on time and were seated promptly in the side room on the left-​hand side of the venue. The restaurant was already bustling, with plenty of child-​clad families and young professionals alike.
Generally being the decision maker in the group it was nice leaving all the ordering to our friend who, apart from obviously pronouncing everything on the menu properly, was able to provide a great plethora of feasting plates for all of us to share family style. Hits and misses of the evening were as follows:
Saganaki (Baked cheese): delicious, but not too authentic. Nearly all the Saganaki I had in greece was baked and served in a clay pot which adds earthiness to the cheese.
Melitzanosalata (Eggplant dip): Loaded with dill and lemon and served with warm pita, this entrée was delicious albeit under-​seasoned.
Manitari (baked cheesy mushrooms): Again delicious but not authentic. Large portobello mushrooms griled and topped with cheese. Flavourful and a crowd pleaser.
Chtapodi Psito (Grilled Baby Octopus): IMHO the star of the night. Fresh, tender baby octopus legs simpled grilled/​charred and topped with lemon on a bed of shaved iceberg lettuce.
Paidakia (Lamb Cutlets): Delicious flavourful lamb cutlets on bones. It’s a shame there wasn’t more (only 4 pieces). Again delicious but not authentic.
Moussaka (Layered Eggplant and Mince): Delicious AND Authentic. The mince was flavourful and hit with some interesting spices (cumin and cinnamon I believe). The bechemel on top was of perfect texture.
Gemistes Melitzanes Chortofagos (Stuffed vegetarian eggplant): A miss for the table. Stuffed with flavourless rice and some tomato. The eggplant was soggy and overcooked. Could have done without it.
Patates Lemonates: Texturally uninspired potatoes simply flavoured with a lot of lemon. Could have done without.
Galaktoboureko (Custard dessert): Delicious but not authentic. The top was not crispy and the custard filling was wrong texture. However the hit of rosewater was beautiful and refreshing
Baklava (Crispy filo desert with walnuts): Could have done without. The baklava was dry and stale. The walnuts were too coarse and void of the delicious syrup that’s suppose to permeate all of those lovely layers.
Be mindful of a $ 10/​bottle corkage fee. With two bottles of wine and all of the above split 5 ways, I thought $ 30/​person was quite reasonable. Give it a try if you’re in the mood for decent Greek food, but don’t have high expectations of true authenticity.

We dined for a late lunch, the service was really friendly and helpful. Food was yum but forewarning you won’t need to worry about vampires as there is plenty of garlic!
I had lamb skewers and greek salad and the portion could have been slightly larger and lamb a little less done but in their defence I did not express a cooking preference. In hind-​sight I would have requested medium rare. And what was on my plate was delish. Soft feta and the marinade on the meat was yum.
Steer clear of the Greek coffee (I got curious!) it’s kinda like a muddy and thick espresso. Unless of course that is your kinda thing!
For 2 of us — main, dessert, alcoholic drink & coffees we walked out with a bill less than $ 70.00 which seemed reasonable.

Wow — this is the best way to experience true Greek hospitality! Very good Greek style seafood and Yiros and a quality wine list.
This was a dinner with some mates that suggested some Greek and Unilocal was 100% on the money with its review.
The platter for two is excellent also individual meals very sufficient.
Personable and welcoming this place will not leave you feeling disappointed :-)
The chicken kebabs are out of control tasty as is the lamb :-))
This is a far better option to the mainstream Greek found on the main road of west end…
GIVE IT A GO

I expected great things but was left a bit disappointed. I do not know if it was because it was a Saturday night and it was really busy or if my expectations are too high.
There were two of us and we did not have a reservation but they said that they could fit us in which they did. The table we got was right in the door way and there was a cold breeze. OK — I guess I should not complain about that as we did not ring and book.
We ordered Haloumi and Dolmades for our entrée. The Haloumi — while well cooked — was almost too thin — too thin for my taste. The dolmades however were beautiful.
For our main, we had the quail and the lamb cutlets with Greek Salad, rice and lemon potatoes. The quail was good but slightly overcooked. The lamb cutlets were tough, overcooked and I am sure they had some sugar on them as they were really quite sweet. The Greek salad was OK but had way too much dressing on it. The rice had obviously been sitting there a while as it was a bit stodgy. The lemon potatoes however were perfect.
We had some desserts as well — Baklava, gelatobroueko, katifi and rice pudding. The Baklaka and gelatobroueko were very nice but the katifi and rice pudding — not so nice.
I will try this place out again but maybe on not such a busy night to see if it is any different.

Amazing Greek food!
My FAVOURITE lamb yiros with pita and Greek salad. I am salivating just thinking about it. We usually get an entrée to share, our mains and… I can’t believe it, but have once fit in dessert. But maybe next time, I’d just stick to the first two courses — I say that now but we shall see! It is quite loud with traditional music playing and sometimes people get up for a dance. So it’s all about the atmosphere and charm, if you like that. It’s BYO as well so it’d be great for a fun birthday dinner or a friends get together. This place is really popular and is always packed so I suggest booking if you can.

Since this is just around the corner from my place, we often do takeaway and have been happy most of the time. I’ve had both the chicken and lamb giros and would say I prefer the chicken. The lamb was not tender enough for my liking.
The salad comes with a slice of tomato or two. I would prefer if they had at least three slices to balance the amount of lettuce and cilantro in the pita. The pita is usually delicious but this last time, mine was falling apart which I didn’t appreciate it. I don’t know if mine was the let one in the package or overcooked but it didn’t hold the contents very well. They should have noticed and served a better one to a customer. They were skimpy on the tzatziki sauce as well. I’ve also had the stuff eggplant and mine is much better. Too much rice and not enough meat.
This place is good but it’s important to keep up with a quality yiros that your customers have come to know and deserve. I hope that my next takeaway order is better.

Not sure why this place is getting great reviews. My table had entrees that were mediocre, mains that I could have got from a kebab shop for ¹⁄₃ of the price, a beef dish that was bland and dry and a slab of moussaka that was obviously just thrown in the microwave after being made a few days ago and frozen perhaps? The service was ok but the woman who brought over the first main didn’t know what it was so we guessed what the dish was AND we waited 30 mins for the bill. Kinda strange. Maybe regulars get better treatment because they keep coming back. I don’t think I’ll become a regular. Sorry Lefkas.

I love this place. I have had takeaway dinner a few times. The food is not pretentious it’s pre-​prepared meals which are like nice home cooking. The prices are very good making the meals great value.

My cousin set up a huge lunch reservation on a Saturday afternoon for me to meet all my Australian cousins and their families (30+ people), as I took the long trek from NYC to Brisbane. It made sense since most of us are of Greek origin… what better way to come together than with food you know! We chose to share mezes. I tried so many dishes, all of which were delicious! There was giro, souvlaki, a variety of delicious dips such as eggplant and tsatziki, beautifully seasoned triangles of pita bread, fried calamari (which involved massive round pieces), saganaki cheeses… among other dishes. There was so much food I lost track of what was being passed around. WAAAY too much food, too little time. For all of us to share mezes cost about $ 45/​person, which isn’t bad at all. The calamari was nice and soft, the gyro was extremely moist and flavorful, with just the right amount of crispiness on some of the edges, and the souvlaki was some of the juiciest cubes I ever bit into. The saganaki cheese had a perfectly thin crispy layer that willfully contained the partly melted cheese. Squeeze some lemon on that, and heaven appears. The tsatziki was perfect… just the right amount of onion and garlic (some restaurants in NYC go overboard on the onion and garlic).
The restaurant is a really nice, large, airy and open space with a great dessert display in the fridge by the register. The service was attentive, whether it was bringing more food to the table or clearing plates away. It is perfect for large gatherings, or even just a table of two. If I find my way to Brisbane again I would definitely come here to eat in the future.

I’ve been here a few times now, and I really want to give it more stars, I just feel I can’t.
It’s popular. Hugely popular. And they do takeaway, so there’s big queues outside at night of people picking up food. And don’t get me wrong. The food is tasty enough. But… it’s not amazing? I also stare at the menu and find nothing really jumps out at me, so I end up settling for something that’s okay, but… meh.
I came during the day, it was easy enough to get a table and we sat down to order, but very nearly left because the lunchtime menu is so limited. We both ended up getting the yeeros meat with a greek salad. And sure, the meat is nice, but… it’s just yeeros meat.
Dinner was a different affair, but there’s really not a whole lot more on the menu, and again, nothing grabbed me. I went with the slow cooked lamb shank with potatoes and rice, and again, it was alright, but it was in a tomatoey sauce, and I am not a huge fan of that. I’d have much preferred with lemon potatoes and a salad.
I kind of feel this would be great for a yeeros takeaway (I hope the takeaway price isn’t also $ 20 though), but as a sit down restaurant, it leaves me feeling flat.
It’s not a bad place, I just can’t bring myself to love it.

Fantastic service, amazing food, unbelievable prices!
We had lunch here on Sunday and it was a great meal. The service was fast and friendly. This place does BYO which makes it even more affordable than it already is, with meals costing as little as $ 13.50.
Will go back again and again.

For my entrée, I had the Tzatziki which had cucumbers, a nice creamy yoghurt, garlic, dill and drizzled with olive oil. It tasted fresh and zinggy, if the basics can’t be done right, how would the rest of the meal go, so this was a great start. For my main, I had the traditional Greek Baked Lemon Chicken, which was served with lemony potatoes, yum! I really like acidic food: D The service is also fantastic, as well as the times served. They also do vegetarian which is nice to see as well as live music: D It really has a great family atmosphere and very welcoming which is really nice to see.

I love this place, and regularly drive half an hour there and back to get takeaway. I love the chicken yiros, and one portion (around $ 8 the last time I was there) is so big that it’s two servings for me. Also every time I’m there the place is packed with diners and people waiting for takeaway, so they must be doing something right.

I went here on a Friday night after not being able to get a table at the Turkish restaurant nearby — but not that was a problem!
I was there with some friends and we got the:
— Stuffed eggplant; which was great and very flavoursome, the accompanying salad was way too oily though
— Calarami; not my favourite dish, a bit of a let down but was definitely fresh
— Lamb shanks; soooo very tender
— Stuffed mushrooms with haloumi; yum and unexpected
Oh, and the music and the people — all of it. It was just so fun.

When I first moved to Queensland I searched high and low for a decent Yiros, it proved to be a difficult task. I was assaulted by a variant called a Kebab and was not overly impressed and thought I would never taste the sweet and delicious pork or lamb Greek treat again.
Then one day I stumbled upon Lefkas Greek Taverna over in West End, quite by accident, and it changed my life in Queensland forever. Yes, up to that point I had continued to pine for my home town, where I could simply walk down the street and get a delicious Yiros any time I wanted.
There is no doubt that Lefkas produce the best Yiros this side of the Victorian or South Australian border, and to be honest, I think you will be hard pressed finding a better Yiros anywhere.
If you don’t know what a Yiros is, then you are missing out and I suggest you get on down to Lefkas right this minute… Stop reading and go. NOW.
Right the rest of you that know what I’m talking about will know how great they are. They do other great stuff too, pretty much any Greek food you can think of.
They have recently renovated and are now twice the size, so there is no excuse for not heading over tonight for dinner (unless you are reading this on a Sunday, in which case you are forgiven)
I love Lefkas, I’m positive you will too

Lefkas Taverna is one of the best Greek restaurants I’ve been so far. This little resturant is usually packed with people so make sure you book a table!
Our waitress was lovely with a lot of humour and she stayed calm even though it can get pretty hectic in this place! Prepare yourself for a loud, but fun experience.
My friend and I were really hungry, and because we know the portion sizes of other restaurants we thought we just go ahead and order 3 mains! I have to say, we were struggling quite a bit to finish it!
We had the mousakka, the cabbage rolls and a chicken yiros with greek salad and tsatsiki! (My mouth is watering again! yummmm!) And all that for a very decent price!

Awesome! Food was all delicious and was a decent size (no big plate small serve syndrome). Waiters seemed pretty on the ball. I shared a platter with another person and I think it might have done 3 people.
The table sizes are a little small — there were 4 of us and the table was really for 2, max 3, but other than that everything was perfect. There was a big line for takeaway orders, so I think a lot of other people have already found this gem.

Wow! I’ve been so impressed by Lefka’s every time I’ve dined there. Superb food, every time.
I’ll agree with the other Unilocalers when they say it’s loud, noisy, chaotic and shambolic, yet it combines all these ingredients into one huge friendly, fun atmosphere. Often even dining on the street next to the bus stop becomes a night to remember.
I recommend the grilled octopus, some of the best I’ve tasted in Brisbane, while any type of lamb is cooked to perfection. It’s cheap, tasty and has a great atmosphere — there’s not much more to ask for!

A few Greek friends of mine has been taking me to Lefkas on Hardgraves Road for years. And when Greeks swear by a Greek restaurant you can feel pretty confident It will be good. Loud, crowded and often chaotic eating in can be an experience in and of itself. More often than not we opt for the takeaway option. For only $ 15 each we get a healthy serving of lamb souvlaki, lemon potatoes, cabbage rolls, marinated grilled octopus, haloumi, taramasalta and heaps of pita. Combine that with some wine and a game of Ta Mila for the perfect start to a Saturday night.
Lefkas is also a good option if ever you need to ‘bring a plate’ to a get together. I have often gone by at the last minute to pick up some baba ganoush and pita bread, a combination that always makes me a very welcome house guest. It’s also worth noting that despite the fact they’re almost always busy the food is always quick and fresh.