Cafe Mediterranean

If you are looking for a nice quiet place to have to dinner on Erie, come to Cafe Mediterranean. Our first time here and will definitely return for a future meal. It was a cold day and there was no crowd when we arrived so service was quick. Staff and owner were very friendly. We ordered a lot of starters. Hummus, grape leaves, octopus and fried calamari. I usually gauge a Mediterranean restaurant based on grape leaves, hummus and falafel. Technically this is a Turkish restaurant. The grape leaves were enough to tell me it was going to be a great dinner. Owner asked if we would like to try their hot tea for the cold day and of course we took him up on the offer. It was so satisfying and warming. The grilled octopus appetizer wasn't what I expected. I thought I will be getting the usual grilled whole octopus head but it is more like a salad with some octopus tentacles cut up. The octopus was tender and flavorful though. So maybe I was hoping to eat more octopus than salad. The fried calamari was nicely done. I always like lightly battered calamari instead of those thickly doughy calamari. This dish was good. Hummus was good and went very well with the special puffy bread they served. The bread was puffed up like a ball and the owner gave us instructions on how to eat it. I won't spoil your experience by saying how. Special for the day was the grilled branzino fish. It smelled so good. The fish was fresh and tasty. If they have that again, that will be my preferred dish. The beef tenderloin kabab was very good. Tender and grilled to our liking. I prefer to let the photos do the talking so enjoy a great meal at Cafe Mediterranean the next time you are in Cincinnati.

Wow! I was surprised by the very pleasant ambiance and delicious Mediterranean food. We thoroughly enjoyed the sampler platter of appetizers with wonderful sesame bread. The special with grilled sea bass was fresh and delicious and our friends enjoyed the lamb, the salmon and grilled vegetables. They complimented us with a tea and baklava at the end of dinner which was a pleasant and delicious surprise. We also enjoyed the halva, flan, and rice pudding. The service was excellent. The proprietor was delightful and attentive. If you enjoy Mediterranean food, give this wonderful place a try!

Was in town for a conference and Mentioned to a local my niece was headed down for a really good dinner. She wanted something with unique flavors since she lives in a small town without many options. We were blown away with the food! The appetizer was big and so we over ordered... ended up taking a lot home which will make her lunch and dinner! The staff was great too! Friendly and helpful.(Found this place thanks to Jon at TQL who gushed about how great it was, he was right!)

This is the 2nd time we've come here. And we are NEVER disappointed! Service was great, food was delicious. And the atmosphere was comfortable , not horribly noisy, but not so quiet you needed to whisper to avoid other table from hearing your conversations.This trip we had 5 folks, each ordered something different. Between us we had the following:Chicken Shish Kebab, Grilled Atlantic Salmon, Heartland Heritage Farms Lamb Shish Kebab, Shrimp Saute. Several of us also had some wine.I'll keep this short, ALL of us were very pleased and Quite satisfied with our selections. This is a bit of a drive for us, but it is well worth it since everything is so consistently excellent.

I hosted 12 friends at Cafe Mediterranean and they did an amazing job!! The atmosphere was fancy and casual at the same time, with mood lighting, a dark wooden table, and a quiet ambiance. They seated us at a long, wide table tucked in one side of the restaurant, giving us our own privacy. The owner waited on us himself, with a lot of enthusiasm and a great sense of humor. And the food was amazing!! The surprise for me, as I had only gotten take-out from here before, was the complementary balloon bread. They brought 3 loaves for the whole table -- made from scratch, right out of the oven with "performance art" attraction -- we got to puncture the bread open ourselves and cut and/or tear off the flavorful pieces. It was warm crisp comfort food, especially when topped with the equally complementary hummus. The soup of the day was chicken soup, and it had a complex authentic flavor. And for my entree, I ordered the lamb saute, which came out as a rich tomato-broth stew with authentic Greek flavors that warmed me down to my toes. In fact, everyone was pleased with their dishes. I heard that the kabobs were amazing, the accompanying rice was flavorful, and the pork chops were perfectly cooked!! Throughout, the service was attentive, the environment was pleasantly perfect for conversation, and the food was authentic, well-spiced and delicious.

This is some of the best Mediterranean food I have ever eaten! Oh my gosh.The stuffed grape leaves, the humus, the vegetables, the spinach pide, the kabobs, the desserts....where do I start? Everything is seasoned so perfectly and cooked with great attention to every detail. The service is impeccable. The owner takes great care to make sure every customer is treated like family. I have been here twice and both times were an epic culinary success. Highly recommend and we will be back for sure.

This is a hidden gem right in my neighborhood and I had no idea! We had the cold appetizer sampler, comes with six dips and a giant loaf of balloon bread. I loved all of the dips. For my entree, I had the shrimp sauté, it was out of this world. I would have licked the bowl if I thought I could. The owner stopped by our table several times and was super friendly. The only thing that docked them a star, the server was a little rough delivering the food and drink. She would just kind of slam it down on the table, not a huge deal but a little more polish would be good. I am already planning my next trip back.

Ate here with a large group on a Friday evening. Parking can be a little difficult at peak times since there are several good restaurants in this area. They brought us some very large bread for the table which was large and crispy (like a large balloon) and hummus to go with it. It was somewhat unique and very good. I started wiith a bowl of lentil soup, then a small spicy salad called Acili Ezme. It was hot and spicy (probably too much heat for most people) but I loved it. If they had had a larger size one I would have ordered that one. For an entree I ordered the lamb shish kabob. That was excellent also. I probably could have ordered 3 or 4 different entrees and been happy with any of them. On a future visit, I probably will. Service was attentive and friendly (probably the owner.) Even though we had a large group, the gratuity was not automatically added. It was a pleasant experience for all, and I hope to return soon.

Everting is very delicious I highly recommend this establishment to all people who love fast food, the service is very kind and courteous, we will come again many times!

Had the best date night at Café Mediterranean! We made a reservation on Open Table for Friday night at 7 PM, although I do not think one was necessary as the space was always busy but never every table full. When we arrived we explained we had never been in before and received many great recommendations from our waitress. We both started with drinks - I had the Cosmo and my partner an IPA. The drinks came out fast which was great. Later in our meal I ordered a glass of their Lebanese red wine (they were out of Turkish wine) which I was a little nervous for as I had never had Lebanese wine but this was a great little surprise and was full of flavor that evolved as you drank it. For food we started with the Cold Sampler Platter which had Hummus, Eggplant Marinara, Babaganoush, Tabouli, Labne and Stuffed Grape Leaves (the first 6 items on the Small Plates part of the menu). The Eggplant Marinara, Hummus and Tabouli were our favorite - they were bursting with flavor and we could not get enough! This came with some house-made bread which was also tasty. For our main courses we had the Chicken Shish Kebab and the Moussaka - and WOW both were so good! The chicken was SO flavorful and perfectly juicy and you could really taste all the different flavors in the Moussaka. Each entrée came with roasted vegetables (zucchini/carrots and tomato/bell pepper) and a side of rice. The rice deserves it own call out as it was perfectly cooked and also FULL of flavor! We were very pleasantly surprised by the rice and appreciated it had its own rightful spot on the plate and was not just a space filler. Overall the portions were HUGE and we did not finish either meal and took leftovers home. We ordered the pistachio baklava for dessert which came with vanilla ice cream and strawberries on the side. The piece was also surprisingly HUGE and cut like a pie slice. It was bursting with pistachios and perfectly flaky on top. The ice cream was also so tasty with a ton of vanilla flavor - it was so good we questioned if it was also house made?? With dessert we also received little glasses of tea - a cute little surprise and perfect ending to the meal! We will DEFINITELY be back here for more!!