Petros Kafe

My coworker and I came here recently for lunch, we are always looking for a new place to grab a bite. We arrived around 11am, at that time there was no issue finding street parking and the restaurant was virtually empty. It’s always nice to beat the rush. There were a lot of menu items that looked tasty, I’ve heard the Petros salad is awesome. I was pretty hungry and didn’t think the salad would cut it (though I’ve since learned you can add a protein). I got the chicken sandwich with the Avgolemono soup as my side. The sandwich was decent but the chicken was on the dry side and overall the sandwich was a bit bland. I thought the spicy garlic aioli would give it a good kick but you could barely taste it.

I’ve been here a couple of times previously and tonight I did take-​out so it was time to post a Unilocal comment! First the essentials: Parking is street or in the parking structure a few doors up. Restaurant ambience is casual and nice, although the restaurant can be a bit cold as it seems to have a metal/​concrete (?) design aesthetic. Great in hot weather; chilly in colder.
The food is generally good. The first time I went, service and food were outstanding! You can’t miss with the Petros Salad and the Gyro Platter were exceptional. Fresh and wonderful flavors. The Loukouma (miniature donuts) were fine, but nothing to write home about imho.
The second time I went, I had the «Special of the Day», lamb chops. Though I was a bit apprehensive, they were delicious! Definitely worth trying!!! Also got the Petros Salad again as it was so good the first time, but it was disappointing the second time. It was not as well executed and the flavors didn’t «pop» as they did from my previous visit. Service was slow and not attentive. It seems as if they were short-​staffed.
Tonight I went in to for some take-​out soup. I ordered the Avgolemono (i.e., Homemade egg-​lemon, chicken, rice soup) and asked if bread came with that and was told «yes». I was charged an extra $ 1.00 for a sliced up side pita. Um, you coulda told me??? Anyway, service was somewhat slow to haphazard as they were definitely short-​staffed tonight and the busboy could not speak English as though he saw me when I came in, he completely ignored me. Crazy!!!
Overall, I DO LIKE THE FOOD. Service is sketchy — there are «on» nights and «off» nights so just be aware of THAT. Prices are better than down in Manhattan Beach. Food is generally good (is it a chef issue???). Atmosphere is casual and «upscale relaxing». I will probably return, but if they would just get their service act together and food execution consistent, it would improve as a favorite restaurant in my book…

I met a friend here for dinner on a week night. It was pretty quiet. The restaurant has nice ambiance. The front has a huge open window with heaters for open air dining and also floor to ceiling windows beside it for a more indoors-​y yet open feel.
My friend decided to order a couple of shared plates as her meal. I thought that sounded good, so I ordered the same. We both got the following:
KEFTETHES $ 9
Petros’ mothers traditional meatballs with a tomato EVO* sauce & parsley, served with mashed potatoes. The meatballs were yummy! They had great texture and flavor. Surprisingly the mashed potatoes were some of the best I’m ever had. I recommend this dish just for the potatoes and have the meatballs as an added bonus!
SPANAKOPITA & TYROPITA (VEG*)
$ 12
Two pies with homemade phyllo dough, one stuffed with spinach, Epirus feta, dill & green onions with tzatzki on the side & the other stuffed with a mousse of Greek cheeses drizzled with Greek honey. Both of these were good, The tzatzki was pretty spicy.
The two dishes made me stuffed and I took some of it home with me as a midnight snack.
Our waitress was nice and helpful. There is free parking in the lot next door. I’m sure I’ll be back.

Petro’s, in Manhattan Beach is a 5 star restaurant, for authentic Greek food. I was shocked to see a new location sprung up in El Segundo. I bookmarkeded it and now have tried it twice for lunch.
The first visit was a weekday and the restaurant was busy. The menu is a subset of Petro’s, but still excellent. We started with the «must have» Tzatziki and a sandwich. The food was great, the Greek coffee is a must-​order.
My second run, we split the Water Melon Salad. OMG, this watermelon salad has heirloom tomatoes, imported feta, manouri cheese and Greek honey. It is crazy good and a large portion for 2. We shared the house pizza flatbread which was really excellent. Too full for baklava, but absolutely had the Greek Coffee, again.
The ambiance is more modern than the MB location and there’s a large garage door which probably opens post– El Niño.
Service was great. The second trip was on a Saturday and the restaurant was much quieter.
Free, plentiful parking!

I came here for a company lunch, so prices aren’t considered in this review.
My company had 4 large tables reserved for them. I sat at a table in front of a window. The sun beat down on us. Beads of sweat formed on me and other people. I was surprised it felt so hot since it was 63 degrees at that time. They opened the window and had a heater nearby in case it got cold. Ironically, there was nothing for if it was too hot. The waitress felt sorry for us but could do nothing since there were no shades. Hopefully they’ll get shades in the future.
Appetizers and desserts were served family style. I’m not a big fan of family style. The plates were placed out of my reach, but the person sitting next to me was nice enough to take my plate and put food on it for me.
They didn’t seem very attentive to refilling my drink. For people with iced tea, I saw them refilling their drinks. I had water though and near the end of the lunch I wanted some more, but I guess since it was near the end of the lunch, I didn’t see any waiters walking around whom I could ask for a refill.
Other than the sun and out-​of-​reach appetizers and dessert, everything else was good. The waiters were friendly and attentive. When taking orders, the waiters made a few rounds to make sure they didn’t miss anyone, since people could get up and talk with others the first time around orders are taken. When taking my empty plate of salad away, they also took away a piece of lettuce I had dropped on the table, which surprised and impressed me. In addition, they periodically asked us if we needed anything.
The appetizers were some pita bread with dips. Dessert included baklava and a few other things I don’t know the names of. They were delicious. I had the Caesar salad, which tasted good, and the filet mignon. The steak was cooked expertly. It wasn’t tough, and it came with some nice roasted or grilled asparagus and fries. The people at my table were raving about the steak.

I like the open air seating by the windows but they need some food specials and more of a variety of food choices. The waiters have always accommodated my wine tasting before I decide on one. Some live music would be a nice touch too, even if it’s just a jazz singer and a keyboard.

This salad and sandwiches place is open and modern. I came here for lunch and it was a light crowd in a weekday.
I ordered Petros salad and added on some protein aka chicken. It was like $ 16 dollars for some chunks of tomatoes, avocado, cheese, and perhaps celery. They were nice big hearty chunks though. It was surprisingly refreshing. However I feel like I could’ve made it?
Oh my gosh there were these annoying flies that kept bothering us though. It’s what happens though with the open windows set up they have going on. The service was good and attentive otherwise.

Came here with a party of 9 for a birthday lunch. I love the space — it was airy, high ceilings, very clean and well designed. There wasn’t a lunch crowd that I usually see in many of the El Segundo eateries I’ve been to, so that was kind of a plus.
For drinks, I ordered a glass of water. The people around me had the same.
Our server came back and everyone got water except me — I got an iced tea.
Server was apologetic, and said will come back with my water in just a few.
Got my water — no straw.
So, I took the one from the unwanted iced tea.
Hmmm…
I was debating about the greek style burger or the gyro pizza… I went for the burger (medium.) I gotta say, the disappointment I felt due to the beginning of my first time experience here (see above) just went away. It wasn’t phenomenal, but it was pretty darn good! The side salad was also well put together — it was dressed just perfectly!
Someone in our party ordered the gyro pizza. I got the chance to try it — now THAT was fantastic!!! If I were to return for ANY reason to this place, that pizza would be why!!!
Overall good experience.

I made a previous post abot Petros when we had about 12 – 15 individual orders. It didn’t go super great but they made up for it during the 2 times we got catering from them!
The service is pretty amazing!!! Jacqueline in the catering department made sure to take care of our very large order, she went above and beyond to ensure that not only was the order in on time (no thanks to my hectic schedule), made sure the payment amount was correct and delivered the food herself! Everyone went home with a doggy bag and we STILL have plenty of yummy pasta left over.
Petros is #1 for our catering needs now!

This place is kinda weird. First off, it was a ghost town last night around eight o’clock, save for two odd-​ends that were sitting at the beer and wine only «bar.» With all that bar space, you’d assume an application for a full liquor license is collecting dust on some City Councilman’s desk. Large TV’s playing the Monday Night Football game had you feeling as though this is a restaurant slash sports bar, but the lighting and choice of deep house music had you feeling like you arrived three hours early to a Vegas club.
The food was decent. I enjoyed my Avgolemono Soup, and it paired well with the «bartender» recommended Petros Pilsner. My friends dish, the Chicken Souvlaki, had real potential, but it was under-​salted and over-​seasoned with oregano. My child devoured her Smashed Potatoes.
If I ever go back, it will definitely be during lunch, when the ambiance has a different vibe (I hope). It was really just too weird last night, and I believe my friend said it best as we exited — quote, «This place is suffering from a serious identity crisis.»

I had lunch here this place is spacious modern restaurant. It was a Saturday afternoon and unlike some nearby beach towns, street parking was easy and free.
I had the gyro platter open-​face Sandwich on pita bread with grilled gyro meat, tzatziki, red onions, tomatoes, and latholemono –olive oil and lemon juice– plus a side of fries. This sandwich is best eaten with a fork-​classic flavors.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good the food is. I’m not a big fan of feta cheese but my friend convinced me to try the feta chicken penne pasta. The feta was so light in the pasta that I could barely taste it. We went there to celebrate a friend’s birthday so it was nice that we also had some ice cream and donuts to celebrate the occasion.
The restaurant is quite large and spacious with a lot of outdoor lighting which is nice.

Since I work in El Segundo getting to Petros for a to-​go order was quick and easy. What made the experience better was the actual food. I ordered the mixed green salad add chicken with the dressing on the side. The chicken was seasoned well and juicy. They did forget the dressing but I was upset about it since the walnuts were savory and the juice from the chicken acted as a dressing. The salad was big enough to serve as lunch and dinner for later.
I also order tzatziki with veggies and pita bread for a snack later. WARNING: Do not order this on a first date or romantic night because it is extremely garlicy but fresh and tasty. I really enjoyed the tzatziki but my co-​workers could smell it from outside of my office.
I was pleasantly surprised that I liked my food so much and look forward to trying more dishes.

I met up with a few fellow Unilocalers here for dinner. The company was wonderful and the food was delicious!
This place has a very relaxed feel to it and is a nice place to meet up with friends and chat it up. It is kind of loud in here and the voices tend to reverberate. There is a long bar area & counter.
There is a window consisting of an industrial garage door which goes up and allows for a nice breeze to flow through.
There are curtain on the right-​hand side of the restaurant with seating in that area which I am thinking is for larger groups? The curtains were not closed when we were there, so I don’t know if they are decorations or to be functional.
The parking around this area is pretty good, easy enough to find parking.
We ordered:
+ Avgolemono (Homemade lemon, egg, chicken, rice soup) — my husband liked it, but I am not a fan of lemons and I felt this was super lemony. For me, without the lemon, it would be excellent! If you enjoy the taste of lemons, this soup is right up your alley!
+ Watermelon Salad — just get it, trust me! The watermelon was really sweet and juicy and with the heirloom tomatoes, feta & manouri cheese, and mint drizzled with honey and olive oil, it was the bomb! I wasn’t sure I’d like watermelon & tomatoes together, but this was really so delicious and refreshing! A nice start to the meal! My husband worked his way around the cheeses.
+ Paidakia (Baby Lamb Chops, grilled) — even with how good these were, I have had better at someone’s house! I didn’t know it, but I really love lamb chops and these were pretty good! I would definitely order these again! It comes with fries that were nice and crispy, but not overly fried. The little salad had a nice light dressing on it. This was a wonderful entrée! The only thing I would add might be a portion of veggies on this plate.
We were too full for dessert, so we decided against trying some out. I would definitely find my way back to this restaurant for the Lamb Chops & Watermelon Salad!

Petros Kafe is the new Greek café that took the place of Schat’s Bakery on Grand Avenue, just east of Main Street, in El Segundo. The center has its own free parking lot, which makes this a very convenient place to come. It is a HUGE restaurant — there are a couple dozen or so tables as well as a huge bar. It is a decidedly chic vibe — with wood tables and chairs and lots of stainless steel looking stuff. There is a large bar with lots of Petros’ own wine. The service is fantastic — very friendly and attentive. The food is okay. This is the low down:
Lemonade ($ 3.75): it’s pricey, but it’s freshly made in house and is not overly sweet. A home run.
Kids’ Grilled Cheese ($ 6): the best deal of the day — 4 stars! Whole wheat bread is toasted with American cheese and cut into two triangles (it is a full size sandwich) and served with a whole order of shoestring fries. Great quality bread and good, crunchy fries. Very good. Great kids menu.
Chicken Pita ($ 12): the most disappointing dish. 2 stars. The pita is soft and super fresh (made in house), but there is a pile of burnt chicken pieces jammed at one end and arugula at the other end with 3 crumbles of cheese and a little chopped tomato and onion. I couldn’t believe how off putting the chicken was or how unevenly distributed the meat was. I would not order this again. It was edible, but it was most disappointing. It tasted burnt and otherwise lacked flavor. I had the side salad which was a generous serving of spring mix in a light vinaigrette. Under seasoned (needed a little pepper) but tasty.
Gyro ($ 14): pretty good but pretty spendy. 3 stars. A pita (not housemade) is topped with a few slices of incredibly tender gyro meat that has been lightly grilled and topped with slivered red onions and tomatoes with housemade tzatziki with chunky cucumbers on the side. The dressing is creamy and has tons of dill and works perfectly with the lightly charred meat. However, I would have like more meat for $ 14. The sweet potato fries that we had along side were AWESOME and were even better dipped in the roasted pepper aioli.
The servers were great about keeping the water glasses full and checking in on us. I don’t think that I would rush back because the food is not awesome but I would not decline stopping in if I were in the area because the service is so good.

Greek for Foodie Freaks. A complex, diverse menu is at hand at «Petros,» but classics like GREEK MEATBALLS and the GYRO PLATTER make Herculean impressions. The silly guy in me liked two not so obvious items: the AVGOLEMONO SOUP with its’ hard stand-​out lemon flavor, and the LOUKOUMA Honey Donuts and Ice Cream with beignet style crumble and Greek honey appeal. I’m going to make it my mission this year to recite those hard to pronounce names to every Greek friend I have, and see where it gets me. Uh, I’ll probably forget how to say it by next week… but I’ll never forget how those things taste!
In case you wanted to know how serious this café is at being legit, they import their feta, honey, olive oil and oregano from Greece. Their pizzas make splendid use of these items (BTW, I like the GYRO PIZZA). A digression, I spent my honeymoon in Greece at several different resorts over a ten-​day period. «Petros» does not compare to Santorini. But then again, nothing in the world compares to Santorini — I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but in hindsight, I believe some of the world’s best food is there. However, I had several nights of food in Athens and «Petros» is about equal, and as real, as that.
If «Petros» is finally a considerable big deal, it’s really because it’s yet another class act that increases the reputation of the city of El Segundo, a quaint little district unlike the rest of Los Angeles, easy-​going and homey, yet more sophisticated because of new restaurants like «Petros Kafe.» The owners of this establishment are very lucky to get a very nice sunshine that comes through open windows for its customers. The whole place feels sun fresh. #classiceats

I went here for lunch recently and came away impressed. They have daily specials which, for that day, was fettuccine pasta, spinach, and served with shrimp. It was rich but not overly heavy and I was satisfied. Another person in my party got the same and was impressed as well.
We also shared their pita bread and trio dip that had guacamole, feta garlic cheese and the refreshing white Greek yogurt sauce whose name I can’t remember. All good!
Service was good even though it the place did pick up around lunch time. Drinks were refilled regularly and we were checked on many times by our waitress. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would come back again but probably not so regularly as it was quite expensive for lunch at 28 dollars a person.

Lemony Snickets the Avgolemono is one lemonlicious soup. Petros Kafe is a scopious Cali-​Greek restaurant as famous for its Homemade Egg Lemon, Chicken, and Rice Soup as it is for its relaxed-​refined vibe just off Main Street in El Segundo. If you like lemon, and by like, I mean lust for lemon, then you must try the Avgolemono ($ 7.50 — 3 stars). The tart citrus flavors overwhelmed anything else in the soup … and the rest of the meal. I loved it. My wife hated it. Like Liz on 30 Rock, this lemon won’t bring joy to everyone.
For an appetizer, we shared the Combo Dip plate ($ 12 — 3 stars) with small dollops of Tzatziki, Eggplant Dip, Kafteri, and Guacamole and Pita Bread. Like the soup, we were divided on our favorites. It’s my review, so, I’m gonna recommend the Guacamole. It isn’t Mediterranean, of course, but think of this as the Cali part of the California-​Greece fusion at Petros Kafe.
A Gyro Platter ($ 14 — 3 stars) featured a giant Gyro Open-​face Sandwich on Pita Bread with plenty of grilled Gyro meat, Tzatziki, Red Onions, Tomatoes, Parsley, and Latholemono (Olive Oil & Lemon Juice) plus a side of Fries. This meaty sandwich may be best eaten with a fork while satisfying my desire for less fusion and more classic flavors.
The previous food was good, but by far my favorite find at Petros Kafe was the Lamb Sandwich ($ 14 — 5 stars). I adored the tender Braised Lamb Shoulder. It was as savory as it was tender. The homemade Olive Bread cradling it was distinctive and a marvelous match for the caramelized Onions, Tomatoes, Mustard, Mayonnaise, Arugula, and Goat Cheese.
Service started slow … really slow. Once the lunch rush cleared out, service became a top notch blend of professionalism and personality. The stark contrast was noticeable, so, you may want to avoid Petros Kafe during peak hours. Free parking was available in the parking structure for the building.
For one luscious lemony Avgolemono and loveable Lamb Sandwich, I am a fan of Petros Kafe.

Yummy
Ordered the plate of lamb chops, salad and bread pudding for desert. Everything was excellent, including the service. Yea, I’ll be back.

Yummy! The lamb here is so good. The restaurant is nice and open. The service was good too.
Their only drawback is the incredible amount of time it takes for the food to come out. I would not recommend this place if you’re looking to get a quick bite to eat.