Elia

Great sea bass and orzo. Elegant setting & service. Even the bread & olive oil were great.

We love downtown San Carlos and honestly find the restaurant options better than any city on the Peninsula. My favorite kind of food is Mediterranean and my bucket list trip is to Greece, specifically the Islands of Mykonos, Santorini and Crete. The ambiance at this new restaurant matches the decor and essence of the Greek eatery of my dreams,with gorgeous sections and private rooms, an expansive outdoor patio featuring beautiful light fixtures and white and blue decor with breezy drapes , comfortable seating and cozy blankets. The menu is inventive and service is very good. We enjoyed our octopus appetizer ( my favorite although apparently we are no longer supposed to eat them becauseof their superior intelligence: although I give a slight edge to the more tender iteration of this dish to Mykonos in Burlingame, this version was served with a beautiful arugula and tomato salad)Otherwise I was very impressed by everything we ordered. Food was elevated by the freshest ingredients.For my main course i had the lamb chops off the lunch menu. They were perfect. i cannot wait to return. Put this establishment on your first date, " impress the clients" or hosting a small private event list!! I have heard the cocktailsare phenomenal and I cannot wait to try more things on thr menu.

Great ambience and service, food was decent.The interiors are beautiful. We ordered vegetarian food only so I can only comment on that. It was good but not great. The butter lettuce salad was just ok. The htipiti and crispy zucchini cakes were good.

A lovely ambiance, but service was chaotic and there are not enough vegetarian options.Elia opened only 4 months ago, so growing pains are to be expected. We had a reservation at 7pm for 2 people on a Saturday night, and had to wait 5-10 minutes for a table to open up. Once we were seated, we were told by multiple servers that the kitchen was backed up and food might take a while. We were also given the lunch menu. There's only 1 vegetarian main, the truffle mushroom risotto. I elected not to go for this, and try the veggie apps instead. The cauliflower dish was good if you had feta in your bite, but the saganaki was underwhelming. I wanted to order tzatziki as well once I realized the saganaki was an oily disappointment, but we never got a hold of our server. I flagged down the hostess when she walked by and told her I wanted to order more, and she said she would tell our server... but he never showed up. My husband says the lamb riblets were well flavored, but he wishes they were more tender. All in all, unfortunately not worth the price. Would not return.

5 out of 5 amazing Mediterranean Food.They have the best lamb and beef meatballs. It comes with a small salad and fried eggplant. It can be a meal even though it says appetizer. The lambchops are juicy and well seasoned. My coworker had the moussaka last time and she loved it. I've been here several times and the service and the food has been amazing each time. A really good restaurant for San Carlos!

It's a cute spot for date night!My husband chose Elia randomly one night when we were both lost on what to eat for dinner. We did arrive without a reservation and got seated outside which was fine as they turned on the heaters for us and had blankets available at each table for convenience. The menu was easy to navigate and we had a difficult time making a decision because everything sounded delicious. Ultimately, we landed on their cauliflower starter to share and then I got the lamb chops while my husband opted for their lobster pasta. We were given bread and oil as a starter upon sitting down which helped with our hunger while we went through the menu. The food came out in a timely manner and the caulflower and lamb chops dish were both seasoned beautifully. While the lobster was tender, the pasta didn't have as much flavor as I would've anticipated so that was a little lackluster for me.Overall, the food was good and fresh. The service was attentive and personal. The street this restaurant is on is blocked off for pedestrians, but we were able to find parking a block away without any issues.

From the very beginning my family and I were greeted with big smiles and exemplary service. Although this is a nice restaurant, it is kid friendly. There's plenty of seating arrangements and the team coordinated placements well. The staff was also genuinely excited to interact with my 8mo daughter. The exchanges brought a smile to all of us and it was nice to feel everyone's warmth especially during the holiday season. The drinks here are fun, delicious, and Greek inspired. The Medusa is more citrusy and refreshing while the Evil Eye is more fruity and floral. If I had to choose one over the other I would say the Evil Eye drink was my favorite. It had a lot of great flavors that blended nicely with each other and it was chilled perfectly.For appetizers - we ordered tzatziki, crispy olives, calamari, and the keftedes, which are essentially meatballs. I feel like you should always have an order of tzatziki. It's a great item to start the pallet since it's light and easy to nibble with bread. The meatballs were good but seemed a little dry. The sauce definitely helped and it was also a great catalyst to dip our bread. The calamari had a nice smokey and tangy flavor but keep in mind that they're grilled and not fried. I think I would opt for the Spanish octopus next time. Finally the olives were reminiscent of fried pickles. They used large green olives which were milder in flavor. I would have liked the olive to be a little saltier since it's fried and it pairs well with alcohol but it was still delicious. Just be careful when you bite into it because the juices from the olive may scald your mouth.I ordered the lamb chops which came with garlic potatoes and brussel sprouts. The meat was seasoned well and cooked to my liking. I loved the char flavor and the portions were generous. My only gripe was that the brussel sprouts were a bit oily. There's a lot of heavy flavors so something fresh would have been nice. The grilled tomato definitely helped balance things out though.My wife ordered the Moussaka. I only tried a small portion but from what I gathered it was more like a Greek lasagna. My personal preference would have been for it to be creamier and more comforting like a Sheppard pie.Overall, we had a great experience and we can't wait to come back!

Reservation - easy to make on open table. Highly recommend, when we got there on a Friday night it was packed with a pretty lengthy waitlist.Location - downtown San Carlos. Easy to find parking and free public parking garage nearby.Ambiance - the restaurant is beautiful, even the outdoor seating was well decorated. The views of the bar was amazing when you first enter. All the rooms are a bit closed off so sound does not travel. Music was played low enough to have conversations with your table.Service - this is where it was lacking. Long wait in between being being served bread and water before they even came back to check on our order for drinks. I actually had to flag someone down. It was unclear who our server was for the night... food came out quickly once it was ordered though.Food - everything was AMAZING. You are started off with free bread and olive oil. We preserved the fried olive, Greek salad, and octopus to start with. they were all fresh! The olives were fried to perfection and did not taste oily one bit. For entrees we did the bucatani lobster pasta and the Arnisia Paidaikia (lamb chops). Def enjoyed the lobster pasta more, generous portion of lobster. However, lamb was well cooked also. For dessert we got the Galaktoboureko, highly recommend! Drinks - Evil eye. It was really fruity and fresh. Also presentation of use was well done. We also got wine, the cab sauv tasted like it's been open too long, but the Greek wine was something interesting to try. Espresso martini was good, not creamy like other places but a good choice to end the night with.

My gf and I decided to have a quick bite during the SC Art & Wine Faire. We were seated quickly, but they took some time to get back to us.When we got their attention, everything came out quickly. We always had water. The server was charming with a smile and pointing to a special libation while I was visibily indecisively figuring out what I wanted to drink. Yes, I was amused. LOLI was ready for some smelt but not yet! So we ordered the Spanish octopus with beets. It was simple and delicious. We also ordered the meatballs which were soft and flavorful- clearly made fresh. We were served some homemade warm pita bread with olive oil, and it was perfect for dipping in the red sauce!The whole restaurant itself definitely gives you the feel of Greece. It brought me right back having just returned from Greece last month. - love the blue accents and white throughout. The interiors are so well done with Greek motifs throughout. Even in the restrooms were given attention to detail, and I love the placement of the mouthwash in there! There was also some live jazz playing. It's going to be a fun place, and I can't wait to return and explore the menu further!

Has the potential to become the best spot in San Carlos. It offers a great combination of interior design, fresh ingredients, beautiful local decor, and fantastic oysters. Selection of bubbles is so good! One star is missing because of the team. Although they were very friendly, they didn't know much about the menu and couldn't guide you through it. I'll be happy to return and hope that the team will match the quality of this fantastic place!"Let me know if you'd like any further tweaks!