Cafe Akroteri: Bellingham, WA

I suddenly developed an intense, The Greek House in Norman, Oklahomacraving for Greek food. More specifically, a gyro. After a bit of research, I settled on Cafe Akroteri as the restaurant, since I've not yet been to any Washington Greek restaurants.

It's a pleasant enough location, in downtown Bellingham. It's walking distance from the central downtown, and near enough to the higher end tourist hotels that I'd expect some walk-in traffic. On a Saturday afternoon at lunch time, there was one table occupied in the main dining area (decorated with Greek style Classical imitation frescos and travel agency pictures) and another in the lounge.

We waited for someone to seat us, but after five minutes just walked back to the lounge and seated ourselves. There appeared to be a single server on duty; she appeared (eventually), and took our gyros order, as well as two appetizers. After a request, she brought us a wine and beer menu. There's a decent selection of wine, local, domestic, imported and Greek, as well as a number of bottled microbrews, and two (Widmer Hefe and Boundary Bay Scotch Ale) on tap.

Eventually, our appetizers arrived; beef dolmatheas and spanokopita. Both were presented nicely with a slice of cucumber and a slice of orange, and easily shared. The dolmathes were served with the traditional egg-lemon sauce. Unfortunately, they were cold; so cold that the sauce had congealed. The spanokopita was not only cold, it was dry, as if it had been sitting exposed to air. It was unfortunate, since both are best served warm, if not hot. While we dealt with the appetizers, our beer arrived, Widmer Hefe, in an appropriate glass, with a slice of lemon.

We opted for paying an extra dollar to substitute Greek Salad for the rice that accompanied the gyros. The salad, served with our gyros, was accompanied by a vinagrette; it was a Greek Salad, but I would generally expect more than two olives. The gyros were, unfortunately cold, and if the beef had ever been charbroiled (as the menu said) it had to have been before it was frozen. The pita was completely cold, and the filling did not include any onions (as specified on the menu) and the parsely, once I opened the pita and searched, was there. Sort of. It was perfectly adequate, just cold, and a little dry.

Will we go back? No. The food was mediocre, and the service was, well . . . You generally don't expect a twenty minute wait for appetizers. You generally don't expect a ten minute wait for a beer, particularly when there are at most three tables occupied in the restaurant, and, finally, if I wanted cold food, I'd ask for it. I note that last September, at a local Greek festival, we enjoyed a gyro cooked outdoors in a tent by local members of the Greek church, that was far more enjoyable. We will go back there.