Santorini’s Mediterranean Cuisine

Just OK. Went for lunch. Paper table cloths. atmosphere fairly nice. I just got the gyro sandwich which was ok, but not mind blowing. They were actually out of fries so I had to do a salad. Personally I would look elsewhere.

While the island of Santorini is absolutely breathtaking this Santorini is lack-​luster. I finished work early and wanted a nice lunch and glass of wine. The glass of wine was poured from a bottle that I think had been sitting open for a while so I returned it. I was brought a different glass of wine. The owner/​manager came to me to inquire about the wine. It was a half hearted apology as he blamed me for not understanding that varietal of wine (of which I had tasted before). It would have been better if he had not visited my table as the waiter had quickly addressed my concern.
I ordered off the lunch special menu, a falafel platter. Given the appearance of a finer dining restaurant I expected the food to be much better than it was. The serving was an appropriate portion, not too large. The falafel was a but dry and bland. Given the price, I wished I had fulfilled my Greek/​Mediterranean craving at one of the many counter/​take-​away establishments which lack in décor and service but are robust in flavor.
Sorry for the poor marks but this is SF and you need to step it up a notch.

It’s amazing that my girlfriend and I stumbled into this restaurant after an exhausting shopping trip at nearby Union Square. I love Persian food and I noticed they had kabob on the menu so we walked in. The place was empty – and it’s 6pm so that left me a little leery – so that was good and bad. No wait. Window seat. Quiet conversation. The reason I said bad at first is because that typically means the food isn’t great but since we don’t know San Francisco I didn’t feel like walking after walking all day long. So we ordered two dishes; Adana Kabob and the Pomegranate Chicken. Let me tell you… the flavor burst out of each piece of chicken. Simply delicious!!! Bön appetite!

Was very good, had a peppercorn steak that was delicious.

Decent meal. Had lamb kabob. Rice was ok. Veggies were average. Meat was tasty.

I went here with my friend who is an absolute hummus freak! We needed a place for our girls’ night dinner close to Union Square, and this sounded the best to us. We were a little skeptical of the place at first because it was pretty empty on a Friday night, but it ended up being a good experience. I gave it three stars because I’ve been to many Greek restaurants, and this one was average to above average in comparison.
— Service was great! Our server, Nancy, was very pleasant and attentive.
— Hummus and pita were very good. Their pita is very different, as it’s thin, but I liked it, as it wasn’t as filling.
— Moussaka was a little bland. It was still good, but it didn’t seem to have the spices I was used to. My friend had the chicken and said it was very good though.
— Embiance was nice. It was quiet, but once again, it was only a quarter full at the time.

Wasn’t thrilled experience. Server and décor good, but food was not which is usally reason i go to restaurant.

rather expensive, somewhat watered down, weak on the spices Mediterranean cuisine. I went for a professional lunch with people from a conference nearby and it suited the purpose as some were not very adventurous about food so getting them to go somewhere that did not serve hamburgers was a stretch. I am sure that in San Francisco one can find much more authentic and much less expensive Mediterranean food in numerous other locations. The atmosphere is nice, our waiter, a young guy from somewhere in Latin America, was actually very good. They have an electronic menu, he went through it in great detail explaining what each menu item contained.

I had dinner here with my sisters last month. The food was very authentic and delicious. The live music was a nice addition to our evening and the atmosphere is just you’d expect from a mediterranean restaurant. Very relaxed and welcoming. I noticed it was great for large groups. I’ll be going back for sure.

Weirdest service ever. While I appreciate the effort, our waitress was ALL over us… definitely a hoverer. I think she had the best intentions, but made a lot of strange comments — for example, when asked about their bar selection, she said they didn’t have a full bar, but could make lemon drops (I’m guessing soju?) for the women, which I took offense to as an equal-​opportunity drinker!
Most importantly though, the food was seriously sub-​par and the prices are definitely aimed at tourists. It wasn’t terrible, but with so much tastiness in the area, this is one spot I’d skip :-/

Last night we (4 of us) had trouble finding a place to eat around 5:30PM. Places were full and we could get reservations at a number of places but that would be 7:30 — 8PM. We decided to take a walk off of Union Square and stopped outside Santorin’s. There appeared to be only one table with people at it. Oh could this be a bad sign. We walked in and were greeted quickly and seated. Service was reasonably fast. We had 2 Lamb shanks which were done to perfection. My girlfriend had Rack of lamb which turned into lamb chops but were done perfectly medium rare with a wonderful pesto sauce. The 4^th meal was shrimp linguine cooked perfectly.
The server had a slight accent and we asked where she was from! «Russia»! Really wonderful English and an extremely smart gal who was at our service even before asking. She has only been here 3 years and is now studying to get her master’s in Business Admiration. She will be great for whoever hires this charmer!
Also the guitar player was great keeping the music at a wonderful level so that we could talk and yet enjoy the music.
FYI — Families and a lot more people kept coming in last night and it became pretty busy.

My friend and I ran into this place because we were starving. Walking in, you can sense the friendly and tranquil atmosphere. We were promptly seated and a nice, bubbly lady appeared and took our order.
I didn’t know what I wanted. The lady was funny and kind in making suggestions (especially on the wine, good on looking out on the wine!). We started off nibbling on olives and cheese, then hummus and pita which was OH SO YUM. Loved how warm the hummus was and the pita was perfect!
I had a salad before my dinner and it was good too. The dressing made it so zesty and I loved the large peppers.
Food arrived. I had a falafel platter, which I devoured (hey I was hungry) and I ate it with some of the olives and hummus. My friend had the lamb chop which looked delicious. We ate until we were full until the waitress appeared and said one word, «Dessert.»
Oh hell yeah I wanted dessert. All I remember was we got some kind of cake that had strawberries, can’t remember what it was exactly, my memory’s fuzzy. But it was SOO GOODD!!!
All in all, wonderful experience, food, company, and music! Will be back!!!

Santorini isn’t what it used to be.
I used to really like this restaurant. When I would visit SF in the past, this would be one of my favorite places to eat around Union Square. I recently moved into the city a few months ago, and finally went back to Santorini with my Mom visiting from out of town.
Unfortunately, the service and food have declined since my last visit back in 2009. While we were seated quickly, it took awhile for us to get our water and have the server take our order. Additionally, the two items we ordered (fried calamari and the grilled veggie platter) were nothing to rave about.
I remember in my last 3 — 4 previous visits, the food and service were always good. It was quite dissapointing for me to see their quality go down quite a bit. It’s possible that we were unlucky, or the fact that we didn’t order one of their specialty entrees — but I was not impressed this time around.
Yes, I’d still come back, but I won’t be in any rush to. Hopefully Santorini will be better to me the next time around.

I got a coupon for this restaurant off
and decided to give it a try.
We got seated pretty quickly, but that’s because the restaurant was mostly empty.
Surprisingly, we sat there for a good half hour with menus before anyone even came by to ask if we wanted appetizers, water, or if we were ready to order.
As we ordered our food, my friend, who is allergic to cucumbers, asks if he could have the tzatziki sauce replaced without cucumbers. Waiter says that the sauce was premade, which, understandably, could not be done. We then asked for maybe a side of hummus or any other non-​cucumber based sauce instead. Server says they do not have it.
This did not sound quite right for a Mediterranean/​Greek restaurant. My friend decided to settle for a pasta dish.
As we waited, we received our appetizers, which included bread, with a mixture of olive oil, vinaigrette, and cucumbers. It was tasty, but here’s where the problem starts. We asked for them to mix a plate of olive oil, vinaigrette, without the cucumbers, and the server said, rather politely and annoying sheepishly «sorry we can’t do that».
I finally firmly said, yes they can, it’s not that hard, and I would do it myself if I had to. That’s when the waiter, again annoyingly sheepishly, served a plate of olive oil and vinaigrette.
I believe this place might be owned by some Cucumber mafia.
The food was mediocre at best. Our water glasses remained empty throughout dinner. This restaurant was not crowded.
After receiving the bill, I presented the coupon. As a paid-​for coupon from
, there is no expiration date, and the fine print said dine in, food only, no drinks. Fine, no drinks. Waiter looked at it and said that he could not accept that for dinner. I asked him where it said so on the fine-​print, and he replied that’s just the manager’s policy. Having to catch a theater play, we did not stay to argue.
Overall, this place has mediocre food, terribly inflexible and slow waiter service, and a whole lot of bullcrap.

I made a dinner reservation here for my birthday yesterday, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect because I had read a lot of iffy reviews. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised!
The service wasn’t slow like many Unilocal reviews said. Our waitress may not have been the friendliest, but she wasn’t rude either, and she was quick to refill our drinks and take our orders.
The food was great! We ordered the Santorini Island platter as an appetizer, and the hummus and bread was delicious, and everyone loved their entrees. Even the gyros pizza was good!
It’s a little pricey for what I’m used to, but I think it’s worth it. Overall it was a very nice and yummy dinner, I’d love to eat here again!

Our company ordered breakfast from J&V catering the year before, and unfortunately we didn’t have the best experience. This year we decided to try something new for Administrative Professionals Day! …and it was great. Santorini had a wide selection of breakfast to choose from. We chose to order the breakfast burrito wrap, eggs, potatoes, sausage, french toast, fruit bowl, and the fresh squeezed orange juice. All of it was very good, but my favorite were the potatoes and OJ. Rene is the man in charge of the catering at Santorini. He is very kind and tries his hardest to satisfy your needs. He was the one who came to our office to let us sample the breakfast we selected. From then on we knew that this was the catering company to go with.
Day of the event:
*They showed up on time, not too late and not too early.
*They set up the food nice in an organized way on the large table in our conference room.
* The canisters were lit so the food stayed warm
* All the employees were satisfied.
* I thought there wasn’t enough food, but there was more than enough.
* I am now in a sleeping coma.(lol)
All in all, Santorinis catering company served more food, it tasted better, and it was less expensive. :) What more can you ask for?
Thank you Rene! We will be ordering from you guys for future events. :)

It’s a shame how much bad service can impact a restaurant experience. I was at a conference in SF with two friends and we were looking at a place to sit down and eat. We were a little reluctant after seeing the Unilocal review, but Chipotle was super busy so…
The hostess was very rude and pissed off. It took us forever to get our order taken. When she brought my friend the wrong thing, she looked really irritated and didn’t apologize. When I asked her for a box she threw it on the table.
Okay… on the other hand, the food was pretty good. I ordered the chicken wrap with the falafel soup. The soup kind of looked like it was from a can, but it was still pretty good. The chicken wrap was excellent. The chicken was tender, and the veggies were fresh. My friend was satisfied with her veggie sandwich. And my other friend liked her sandwich, but the fries were soggy and cold.
They probably deserve a 2 ½, but it is very clean and spacious. Would not recommend this place, since there are so many better options in the area.

During the weekends they have live music and belly dancers. This was the only restaurant where they could seat us a large group of 9 people. Our original plan was Cheesecake Factory and during x-​mas season, their wait was 3 hours!!! At Santorini’s, we were seated within 10 mins.
Food was pretty good here, portions are just right. I’m not going to say it was the best food ever. Took a long time for the waitress to come over and take our order. We saw her like 3 times the whole time we were there. But I was super happy that we had found a place to eat. I had the cup of soup and salad. Most of the meals start at $ 13 and up. Our bill was $ 209 for nine people.

Tonight Alan and I went to a benefit performance for KCSM/​KJAZ DJ John Rogers, who suffered a fall a while ago. It was at the Rrazz Room and as we walked down O’Farrell from BART we noticed Santorini. Always up for Greek food, we decided to give it a try after the show. If we’d had an iPhone or iTouch we would have checked it on Unilocal,but we didn’t.
We walked in to a largely empty restaurant and were seated after a very brief wait. We were brought warm flatbread (it’s not pita) and a tasty olive oil/​balsamic dipping sauce enhanced by chopped tomatoes and seasonings. We checked w/​the waiter whether the calamari had tentacles and when he said it didn’t, we passed on it. I asked if they had skordalia and was surprised when he didn’t even know what it was.
We shared the Greek salad, which was tasty, a combination of crisp romaine, cucumber, tomatoes, slices of red onion and kalamata olives, w/​a tangy lemon dressing. I liked the dressing better than Alan did, but he liked the onion better, so it sorta evened out. He ordered a seafood pizza, which was full of seafood, onions and cheese. It was good, although we agreed cloves of garlic would have improved it. I ordered the lamb souvlakia, which came w/​rice and seasonal vegetables. It had been marinated and ad been interspersed on a skewer w/​pieces of red onion. The lamb was cooked to order and was tender and flavorful. The rice was good and the vegetables were a nice mixture of carrots, zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower, cooked a bit past al dente but very nice nonetheless. Because we’d already had drinks at the show we just drank water.
It was a good dinner but definitely not the best Greek food we’ve had. When we’re in Pacific Grove in a couple of weeks we’ll go back to Epsilon, the Greek restaurant in Monterey where we can have skordalia and proper calamari.

I was feening for a good Mediterranean platter with hummus and falafel tonight. So I placed a to-​go order with Santorini at 9PM. (Sunday) I didn’t think they would be that busy. The man said it would take about «6 – 7 minutes». So I walked over at 9:10PM.
The restaurant was packed and there were 2 couples ahead of me waiting to get seated. The hostess was nowhere to be found. Finally, a girl walked up to the stand and I caught her attention. I told her that I ordered over the phone 15 minutes ago. (it was 9:15pm by this time) She said that the «kitchen was very busy» and walked away. Needless to say… I finally got my food at 9:30pm. I had been waiting for 20 minutes after the guy said it would only take 6 – 7 minutes. WTF?!
What sucked even more was that my «Santorini Island Platter» cost me $ 15 bucks for the WORST falafel and less than mediocre hummus and tabbouleh I’ve ever tasted!!! Never never again.