Nikos

The atmosphere, the staff, and the food here is phenomenal! I can't wait to come back and try the other things they have. Serving sizes were huge so expect to bring home to go box.

Atmosphere: Nikos is a warm and sophisticated restaurant in Downtown Durham. The decor and ambiance felt very authentic and welcoming! Service: Overall, our service was just lackluster. The food came out much slower than expected, and they forgot one of our dishes (the Keftedes) until we asked for the status of it midway through our meal. We also had to hunt down a server to refill our water. Food: We started off our meal with the Eggplant Baladi and Turkish Carrot spreads. Both of them were flavorful and great in their own ways! We enjoyed the spreads with their homemade flatbread. For our main dishes, we ordered the Braised Short Ribs Youvetsi, Keftedes, and Byzantine Chicken. The short ribs were tender and soft, going well with the tomato orzo, but we would've liked a larger serving! The Keftedes were juicy and went well with the accompanying scoop of tzatziki. The Byzantine Chicken was probably our favorite dish. The chicken was flavorful, and we especially loved their unique coffee-carrot sauce. The spanakorizo was light but packed with bright flavors! For dessert, we had the Fig Feta Cheesecake, which was delicious! The cake was light and had a great balance of flavors between the pistachio crumble, crust, and filling. Overall: We enjoyed all of the dishes we ordered. The only thing holding us back from a 5 was the service. Our general philosophy is to focus on the food for our ratings, but we felt that the lack of attention from the service side impacted our experience at Nikos.

Second time for me, third time for my wife. I can only give this a "meh" rating. Service was a bit confused and our server was slammed. Completley. That only slowed up the service a bit, so not really a complaint. But the food...ordered what they called their "Summer Salad" which was thinly sliced watermelon wrapped around arugula. Great premise, "meh" execution. The watermelon was warm. The arugula was warm. This should have been chilled, but I have to compliment the chef for slicing watermelon on a meat slicer. Assembly and execution could have been far better. My entree was supposed to be ravoli stuffed with walnuts and an olive salad. The idea of an olive salad was what sold me. The plate came with three very plump ravoli, which was undercooked and doughy. There wasn't an olive on the plate. I mentioned it to our server, who was nice and the kitchen gave her a small ramekin with some olives in it. That is NOT olive salad. The real problem in this restaurant is the kitchen. The dishes themselves sound great on the menu, but the delivery from the kitchen was just "meh". They need to bring up their kitchen mojo to get it right. They've been open long enough to have it together, but apparently not.

To start, the food here is incredibly solid. Amazing Mediterranean options with quality ingredients and you can't go wrong with any of the choices. What makes this a three star experience was the service. Our waitress was helpful overall but we waited extensively to receive service. Lastly, I paid our bill (with 20% gratuity included for larger party) with a $100 bill. I expected to receive change back (about $6), but didn't. The waitress didn't ask me about change nor is it acceptable to tip yourself on top of a bill that already has gratuity. I didn't address this because it's only $6 bucks and not worth the hassle, but I find it rude to not simply ask for change and tip yourself. Unacceptable.

Came to nikos last night for the first time. The ambiance was nice. The hostess seemed scrambled when I arrived and had to collect herself before seating me. The bartender was super friendly and helpful. The food however I was not impressed. I ordered a cocktail the soup and the shrimp dish. The soup was a chicken soup that barely had any chicken which was really disappointing. Otherwise the soup was okay and had a bit of flavor. Understanding that this is a tapas restaurant and that portions are smaller and meant for sharing. However the shrimp dish I ordered came with a whomping 3 shrimp for a grand total of $20. As a tapas restaurant that serving size is not enough to share with a table of 4. For that price point I expected more atleast 5. This was extremely disappointing. I wasn't impressed by the foodThough my bartender was great and provided great service, I would not recommend this place. I won't be back.

If you are craving Greek food then Nikos located in BrightLeaf Square in Durham is a spot that you need to check out. I started off with a beer then a glass of rose and my husband tried both of the sangrias (red and white). For food we split the zucchini cakes, keftedes, lamb manti, flaming saganaki and brussels sprouts. All were really good but my favorite was the lamb manti. You can't pass on dessert so we ordered the galaktoboureko and cheesecake. The baklava ice cream that is served with the first dessert option that I mentioned was so tasty. I also had a pour of the port wine and highly recommend it. The service here was also really good. I'll have to return to try more soon.

We had a great experience at Nikos. Our waitress was very knowledgeable and friendly. The ambiance is really pleasant and has beautiful decor. They also have a great drink selection including specialty cocktails.We tried a ton of things on the menu. The food was really beautifully presented and tasted great. We really enjoyed all of the dips and vegetables that we started out with. The spanakopita was different from the traditional dish but still tasty. I really loved the sauce that came with the zucchini cakes and everything was very fresh.

We had a great dinner at Nikos. The highlights were the feta and fig cheesecake and our lovely server Tyler. Tyler was amazing and definitely one of the best servers I've had in a long time. She was fun, friendly, and made great suggestions.They have an extensive Greek wine list and I was able to try one before deciding. We got the carrot dip to start which wasn't my favorite. I'd probably just stick to hummus next time. The grape leaves were tasty and very lemony. The salad was good and the lamb pastitsio was great. The start though was the dessert. Tyler suggested the cheesecake and we went for it. It was so fluffy, flavorful, and delicious. Highly recommend! Parking was easy in Bright Leaf Square and free when we were there.

I could have sworn I wrote a review of Nikos but I can't find it, or maybe Yelp removed it. We've been here twice, once for brunch during Triangle Restaurant Week and once for dinner. Everything we ate was delicious. Special shout out to the nontraditional spanakopita. Both times we ate indoors, once at hightop seating and once at a dining table. Our first server was not great (we had to track her down) but our second server was very friendly and attentive. When the weather is nice, people like to sit outdoor as well, although we enjoy the interior Medierannean-inspired decor. Another fine restaurant from Giorgio's Hospitality Group.

WOW!! I am a nut for Mediterranean food and this stacked up to what I ate when I visited Greece. Super fresh and flavorful! The grilled lemons with the falafel were paired excellently. The Turkish Carrots were amazing as well! Very cute place in a great location.