The Parthenon

One of my all-​time favorite restaurants. Great atmosphere and impeccable service. Definitely get the saganaki, and I just love the vegetarian moussaka. Tons of flavor. Also love the greek salad — always flavorful and fresh. Everyone I’ve taken here has gotten something they loved. Huge portions, always plenty to take home. Plus free valet parking, although depending on the night street parking can be found, as well. Really can’t go wrong here, I highly recommend it.

Started coming here 35 year’s ago & always order the combo plate, because everything is so good can’t decide so I bail and just go with that. Be sure you ask for some olive oil to dip your complimentary bread in for starters. House Red Wine is good enough to wash down your meal. I have sampled many other items of which lamb was always ordered and good. One of their recipes on their menu is a chicken breast stuffed with spinach, feta, and 2 types of onion with a dash of dill… to die for, and, it’s on a foodie search site and a regular at my house for a go to great meal. Now go fish!

Started coming here 35 year’s ago & always order the combo plate, because everything is so good can’t decide so I bale and just go with that. Be sure you ask for some olive oil to dip your complimentary bread in for starters. House Red Wine is good enough to wash down your meal. I have sampled many other items of which lamb was always ordered and good. One of their recipes on their menu is a chicken breast stuffed with spinach, feta, and 2 types of onion with a dash of dill… to die for, and, it’s on a foodie search site and a regular at my house for a go to great meal. Now go fish!

The braised lamb was out of this world! At first I thought the wine glass was small HOWEVER it was perfect I chose the house red and loved it. Quality over quantity!!! The appetizer was beyond belief… And the baklava and espresso the perfect ending to a perfect meal.
I’m typing this without my glasses on sorry about the spelling…

Been going here for 45 years, and it’s always awesome… authentic, friendly, and great food and wine!

Best greek food in chicago the Grecian chicken made me a believer… oppa!!!

Yum! I don’t want to come across as a slovenly lackidaisical cynic but I never thought I could find authentic greek food in Chicago, US of A.

Massive portions, unbelievably fast service.
We were here for lunch– sat outside. We were very promptly greeted by our server.
I got the gyro plate– it must have been at least 2 pounds of meat. I had to order extra pita to go with so much of the meat that came.

What else more could you ask for in a visit to Greektown?! Fantastic flaming saganaki… and some of the best gyros you’ll ever have. A plate of their meaty gyros was perfectly seasoned and given a once over on the grill after their removal from the spit, lending texture to your typically greasy limp lamb shavings. Accompanied with creamy feta tzatziki sauce, it was a meal made for a king… or at least for these weary midnight voyagers. Top notch, easily one of our favs in this Mediterranean district.

It couldn’t have been better to have Greek food at foodie meet. Both were new to me and I am glad to have them …
Be it starters or dessert everything served was amazing. I personally liked Saganaki (it was a delightful experience to see cheese with flames) and egg lemon soup.
Greek salad was fresh with perfect seasoning. After having starters and salad there was no room left for Gyros and Baklava but I was excited to have them. Gyros was served with pita bread and tzatziki sauce. Baklava tasted as good as it looked.
The food and the people I met, made this dinner memorable.

Came here around 9pm… The food was really good… I had the grill octopus with pepper and lemon… And the flames cheese was really yummy too… Great customer service as well …

The broiled octopus is phenomenal! Service is outstanding. I plan on visiting again.

‘Opa!’
Did you know that the now commonly-​performed act of shouting this Grecian exclamation whilst setting fire to cheese originated here, at The Parthenon? Yep, in 1968 a customer suggested to then-​owner Chris Liakouras that he try something ‘new and exciting’, and exciting it would be. So exciting, in fact, that he set lit his hair aflame while attempting it! [photo attached]
Their saganaki (flambéed appetizer) was made with a Kasseri cheese, which was milder in flavor but retained its form well. By contrast, a Kefalograviera or Kefalotyri have a sharper, saltier taste (which Eric S prefers) but are mushier almost to the point of being spreadable. But The Parthenon serves the original, and there’s no denying that. It is an absolute MUST ORDER on your visit here.
I got what amounted to a split bottle of their house red for a reasonable price of $ 9, and the wine selection was ample. The food menu is jam-​packed with traditional Greek entrees like spanikopita (flaky spinach & cheese pie), athenian chicken, roasted lamb, and the obligatory gyros. My mom and I chose the ‘dinner for 2′ option for $ 22 per person, and all things considered it was a great value. Included in it were:
*Saganaki, taramosalata (whipped fish roe spread), gyros with tzatziki (cucumber sauce), a greek salad, moussaka (layered eggplant dish), pastitsio (basically greek lasagna), dolmades (stuffed grape leaves with lemon sauce), your choice of chicken/​lamb/​pork, rice pilaf and roasted potatoes, as well as baklava and galaktoboureko (vanilla custard) for dessert*. Needless to say, we were completely stuffed and took a substantial amount home.
Our server Rene was outstanding. Good-​natured, funny, and he even taught me some Greek words. Truthfully he was one of the best waiters I’ve had in quite some time. The interior décor is pretty minimal in comparison to other restaurants in Greektown, but that’s fine since they shine on great food and stellar service. Although I won’t likely come back for a while (gotta give Pegasus, Athena, and Santorini a shot), I will return and will certainly recommend The Parthenon to family and friends.
Efcharistó. [thank you]
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{evidently Unilocal doesn’t allow greek characters, because I totally had an awesome tagline that didn’t show up. bah humbug.}

Big portions — all (salad /​shawarma etc) but…
Sorry — it’s not better than 2 stars.
And also the restaurant was almost empty — the service were slow and for sure not «friendly» as Greeks should be

Where do I begin!
This place is the best Greek restaurant I’ve ever had. This place introduced me to Greek cuisine since I was a little girl.
My father began dining here many years ago when he first moved to Chicago. From as young as I can remember, I remember coming here for my kindergarten graduation. I’m 22 now. I’ve celebrated family reunions here, 3 graduations, my parents wedding, my brother and sister’s graduations, engagements, and now, tomorrow my brother’s wedding.
The owners are super kind and polite and always accommodating. I wish them truly the best in years to come, because through their food and business they have watched my family grow. Thanks Parthenon!
Food is delicious!
Music is spot on!
Atmosphere is on the money!
And service is excellent!

I was excited to try this place because I heard they have great authentic Greek food. However, our experience was awful. I will never go back to this establishment.
When we arrived, our waiter took forever to take our order and we couldn’t understand what he was saying.
The worst part was the food. Someone ordered the chicken skewers and every piece of meat was raw. So naturally we sent it back. The food returned with half of the pieces cooked and the other half still pinker than a breast cancer parade.
We insisted on talking to a manager. A large, elderly man came over and asked what the problem is. We responded with showing him the cooked pieces and the raw pieces. He was shocked and said «this is the first complaint in 47 years». Based on the Unilocal reviews, that’s shocking to me. In addition, he said «do you know what a marinade is» and «I don’t understand why some pieces are cooked and why some aren’t. They were put in the microwave for the same amount of time».
For the record, yes I know what a marinade is but it’s very insulting when an owner is talking down to a customer about their mistake! I think the bigger problems are that he didn’t understand that some pieces are larger and take longer to cook and that a restaurant uses microwaves to cook their food.
I guarantee that this restaurant won’t be around for another 47 years if they continue to serve raw meat, disrespect their customers, and cook everything out of a microwave.

The service is so slow and horrible. Takes forever for your orders. So you’d better have some snacks with you before you come in.
The entrée didn’t come in 2 hours.

I will confess that I have been coming here since I was five years old, so I may have a slight bias. I can honestly come here and just feast on the delicious appetizers. I also start with the saganaki, which is always solid. (even though it was better when they used stinkier cheeses ten years ago) From there, I always go with the egg lemon soup, which is the best soup I’ve had anywhere in Greektown.
The Parthenon also has some of the best gyros you will ever have in your life. They are warm and crispy, just like they should be. Also, do not skip out on the char-​broiled octopus. If you love calamari, you’ll like this even better. If you have any room left, get the loin of lamb with boiled potatoes. The key to this dish is the lamb gravy, which can turn any meal into pure gold. Get the lamb gravy and just dump it all over whatever lamb or potatoes you get. (You’ll thank me, I promise!)

Recently dined for restaurant week. Food portions were significantly large and plenty of food to take home… for restaurant week diners you will definitely get your moneys worth.
To start we were brought a plate of gyro meat and cucumbuer sauce as I like to call it… OUTSTANDING and perfectly cooked gyro. slightly crispy is how I like it. The cucumber sauce was well whipped and thick which gave you the feeling that you were fine dinging. The next plate we obtained was the famous greek cheese and an ample OPA followed — cheese was perfect on the hot plate but slightly chewy for my liking. 2 soup options… the lemon rice soup and the beef stew… i recommend the beef stew due to the lustrous flavor of the tomato broth but for a lighter option the lemon soup will due. A greek salad followed which was nothing out of the ordinary however the olives were on point! For my main entrée I tried the braised lamb… BEST COOKED LAMB i’ve had in a long time… meat fell off the bone and was perfectly tender and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
Deserts — Try the chocolate mouse cake and THE BAKLAVA — the waiter was generous and offered us to do a split half and half so you could try 2 deserts for the price of 1…
Restaurant was very clean, our waiter was very nice and generous who offered a fair share of honest opinions which is very important to me and he was not pushy at all. He made our dining experience very relaxing and even brought me a few cucumbers for my water!
Will definitely come back and in my opinion top spot in GREEKTOWN!

One of the first restaurants we came to when we first moved to Chicago as a family, then later I came here on my first dates out of the neighborhood I grew up in. I like the touristy décor, the food is still good American-​Greek with nothing fusion, pretentious, or nouvelle. This is where they invented Greek-​American, like saganaki (when we were in Athens as a family, dad ordered saganaki and the waiter derisively called us «Americans.»), both the cuisine and the restaurant style. This is a dependable place to eat before downtown shows, you’ll pay less than you would at the trendier places, and they will get you in and out more predictably. There are two bars (not sure why) and they would never upcharge you for ordering Ouzo or Greek Brandy wihout ice.
I lived for a while in Greektown way back when I was working my way though a couple of degrees at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus (now UIC), and I asked myself many times, is the Parthenon really any better than the dozen other Greek-​American restaurants around here? Well no, but I’ve got a number of fond memories here, and it hasn’t changed in a lifetime. I find value in that.

This place is awful, on so many levels, don’t waste your money, go some place else.
My boyfriend and I went here with the Groupon deal back in October, I was incredibly disappointed with both the service and the food. Also the Groupon is not much of a deal anyway, they have family style ordering on the menu for similar prices.
When we arrived we informed our waiter we were using a Groupon and he was polite about it. He promptly brought the «house wine» which, no doubt was watered down and came from a box. What can you do, we thought. It tasted like church wine, maybe. Next we ordered our cold appetizers and hot appetizers. Our waiter then brought out the salads. The salads were made with iceberg lettuce. They were also drenched in olive oil. The soup was next, it tasted like cream of chicken soup bought in bulk with lemon juice added. It was basically disgusting. The waiter acted insulted that I didn’t eat it. This was comical because it was not like the soup was homemade.
After the waiter brought our appetizers, I asked if we could order and he acted insulted that I was requesting to order. I really did not understand. I thought it was weird we had not ordered, or been offered to. We ordered our entrees and after that we never saw the same waiter again. Some how we insulted him to his core… not sure how. The entrees were completely so-​so. I ordered the chicken kebab and to me it was inedible because it was drenched in oil. Very disappointing. It was also dry. My guest ordered the combination plate and everything tasted old, not fresh and pre-​made. It tasted like it had been sitting out awhile too.
In the end we got our desserts to go. We left a tip on the table and left. We figured that be fine since our waiter had not been paying any attention to us for most of the meal. But naturally, he noticed and chased us down, letting us know we need to pay «4.50» in tax. This I found to be absurd. Why are we paying tax on the cost of the Groupon when 1. the restaurant does not get the full groupon amount (groupon takes a cut) 2. I did not pay the full groupon amount (promo code). It seems to me they were trying to squeeze a little extra cash out of every groupon. I was appalled and found this practice to be unethical.
Overall, major disappoints in food and service. I recommend never visiting this place even with coupon/​deal/​etc. We would be better off ordering less food and real wine at a better restaurant. We would probably pay comparable prices to this «Groupon deal» after tax and tip.
Don’t go!!!

We had a Groupon for this restaurant and almosst didn’t go because of the bad reviews we saw about how the Groupon customers were being treated. I’m glad that we decided to go and see for ourselves.
This was an amazing deal from Groupon at the end of the day we got a bottle of House Wine, 1 cold appetizer (6.50 and under) 1 hot appetizer (7.50 and under), 2 Main Dishes (17.45 and under) and 2 Desserts anyone on the menu except the Brandy Ice.
We ended up getting the flaming cheese after we saw so many people ordering it around the restaurant which not included in our Groupon deal since we had already ordered our Hot appetizer.
Being this was our first time here we didn’t know what to expect but our waiter was great and we even got one waiter in training which was okay with us but we weren’t able to truly experience the flaming cheese dish (Flaming Saganaki) because he didn’t pour all of the Brandy on the cheese so we got a puff of flames and not a burst of flames. The flaming cheese was the highlight of the meal for me though… I love love loved it!
We also had Hummus which was okay but my girlfriend liked it a lot and I also appreciated the fact that they gave us extra pita for the mound of Hummus we had left.
Meat Pies were okay and they were very fresh it just wasn’t my cup of tea but again my girlfriend enjoyed it.
There was a lot that came with this Groupon deal including a bottle house of wine which was not top shelf but it was good and did what it was suppose to do.
The soup was a creamy chicken and white rice soup with a lemon essence to it which was good but not the best soup I have ever had.
The house salad was made with fresh lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, olives and peppers. It had a piece of Feta Cheese and drenched in a house dressing. Unfortunately, I didn’t like the Feta Cheese, peppers and Olive but my girlfriend did so I just transferred it to her plate.
I ordered the Rotisserie-​Roasted Lamb topped with a lamb sauce it was good but I think it was slightly over-​cooked but I could be wrong I’m not sure what the coloring is suppose to be on a Lamb. I only had a bite of it while at the restaurant but I took it home and ate it for lunch and it still had a good flavor if not better.
The Lamb came with a half order of Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans… I was not a fan of the potatoes I can’t put my finger on it but I wasn’t wowed… the green beans were good but kind of greasy… I would have preferred some fresh green beans that were not overcooked.
My girlfriend ordered the Shrimp and Spaghetti (Tourkolimano) the shrimp was cooked perfectly and I found myself wishing I had got a shrimp dish.
For Dessert I got the Chocolate Mousse Cake (Sokolatina) it was so good I wish I had a piece right now.
My girlfriend got the Greek Yogurt with Honey and Walnut (Yiaourti) I tasted a little of it and it was very good. I am still glad I got my cake but for a healthy opinion this is great.
This wasn’t the best place I have ever gone too but it also wasn’t the worse. The waiter and I wish I could remember his name made the experience a very good one for us and I even have to say there was an older gentlemen there who was celebrating his birthday and the entire restaurant sang along with his waiter and his dinner guest… It was fun and awesome to see people having fun.
I will give this place another try and I will definitely make sure I have that Flaming Cheese and Chocolate Mousse Cake.
Enjoy!!!