Taverna Opa’s Lucky Seven Haunted Casino

Wow, wow, wow, this event was so fun! I can’t believe I hadn’t written my review until now. Hors de vours were passed around the entire evening; the Greek sausage and the lamb chops were my favorites, but there were several other items as well! Drinks were also plentiful the whole evening, and the bartenders were pouring right. I was with a group of fellow Unilocalers and we had so much fun playing Black Jack for raffle tickets. Other game tables were available but we loved our dealer so much we stayed at Black Jack the entire time. Cupcakes from Sweets! by Good Golly Miss Holly were served, and their Halloween themed cupcakes were awesome. We were entertained by aerialists, fire handlers, and belly dancers; who all did a fabulous job. This is definitely a MUST go to event if Taverna/​Give Kids the World does it again. Trust me, you don’t want to miss the next!

This was a fun event. Plenty of food and games and all for charity. They had a giant sweet table with cupcakes, baklava, cookies and all kinds of other tasty treats. The waiters came around with savory dishes to try my favorite being the lamb chop. I meant to grab another but got wrapped up in the games. I played roulette with my 50,000 until it was all gone. Glad it was fake money because my gambling skills not so good. Was my first trip to this restaurant and would love to try it again when there wasn’t an event going on.

WOW! I have been to a lot of events — both through Unilocal and through Organizations that I have been a part of and this one tops them all in so many ways.
One of the things that I was the most impressed with was the fact that at 9:00 pm they were still coming through the crowd serving trays of HOT Baby Lamb Chops! That is a pretty impressive detail, considering that the event started at 6:00 pm and they were serving full trays from the beginning. There was a huge table of sweets — they could so easily have backed off the hot trays of food early and just had a few of the less impressive, inexpensive items floating around but they kept the good stuff coming until the very end!
So the food — I was very, very impressed. When I first got there at 6:15 pm I walked in and was immediately offered a signature drink from the EG Ice Drink Slide. It was a tasty concoction. But the glass was kind of small. I walked around and saw a couple of drink stations and then wound my way in to the back area and found the food. I was so disappointed … It was all desserts. Oh, well, so this isn’t going to be a great event — small drinks and just a bunch of sweets… WRONG! Within a few minutes a waitress came up and asked if I would like a drink. She offered several things and said if I wanted a mixed drink I could go over to any of the specialty bars. I opted for a glass of white wine. She brought back a very full glass of wine and then right behind her came a Gentle Ghoul with a tray serving chicken on skewers. Not my favorite thing but better than just sweets. WRONG again! The chicken was hot and incredibly juicy. OK, I decided I should stop making assumptions about how this night was going to go… Even still, I was surprised when the next Ghoul came along serving shrimp, then behind him came Greek Meatballs, Greek Sausage, Baby Lamb Chops, Spanakopita, Caprese on a stick, and more wine whenever my glass was even nearing empty. WOW! The staff was awesome. I was also swigging water and that glass was never left empty either. Great service.
The Spanakopita was the best I have ever tried. I usually don’t like it because I find it to be dry. This was buttery on the outside and very moist on the inside. The flavors were all melded together perfectly. And as I have already raved — the baby lamb chops were all hot, moist and cooked perfectly — just above a medium rare. It is so easy to undercook them or overcook them — that medium point is so easy to pass, but every one I had (hope no one was counting) was cooked perfectly — even the one I had at 9:00 pm ;-0
And the desserts … Now that I had my fill of savory I very much appreciated the sweets. The cupcakes were all decorated with the Halloween theme and they were all pretty tasty too. I stuck with chocolate, and if I hadn’t indulged so much in the savory I would have loved to have tried some others — I heard people raving about the rest of the flavors!
The entertainment was also great. The gambling tables are always fun and the dancers and entertainers were fun to watch.
I had never been to Taverna Opa and have wanted to go because I wanted to see the «touristy thing» of everyone dancing on the tables — after this event — I still want to see that but I will definitely be going back for the food and the service.
Great night — Huge Success — Kudos to all who were part of putting this event on!

Opa!
I had tons of fun at this event. I’ll admit, I did have a Unilocaler fail, as I quickly got distracted by the event festivities and didn’t get any photos!
First and foremost, this event was a win for me as it supported Give Kids the World, a local non-​profit very near and dear to my heart. Entrance to the event was provided with a suggested donation of $ 7, with proceeds going to Give Kids the World. $ 7 was more than fair for all you got to experience as part of the event, especially since it’s a charity that I volunteer with regularly!
Upon checking in, we were given a wristband and a card to get a raffle ticket and 50,000 worth of casino chips to play at the various casino games.
Inside, the place was fully decked out for Halloween, with many of the staff in costume. There were several complimentary drink stations throughout the venue the drink my friend and I sampled was served in a very theme-​appropriates skeleton glass! Food included multiple passed appetizers. I sampled grilled chicken and sausage, a deconstructed Greek salad served on a skewer and spanakopita. There were also lamb chops, meatballs and shrimp cocktails going around. The spanakopita seemed to be adore limited– it took almost all night for my friend and I to get our hands on one to share, but it was definitely my favorite!
There was also an extensive dessert table with candy and a variety of sweet treats, including delicious baklava, a must at a Greek restaurant, and Sweet! Halloween cupcakes! I’m obsessed with Sweet! so I may have sampled a cupcake or two.
In terms of entertainment, there was an area in the restaurant with performers. We saw an aerial contortionist, fire juggler and some belly dancers, all of which were a lot of fun! There was also casino games to play! Tables included black jack, poker, craps and roulette! You receive 50,000 chips to play with and at the end of the night, for every 20,000 points you received a raffle ticket! It was a fun way to learn some casino games I had not played beforehand. Once you had the raffle tickets, you could drop them in three bowls for different prize packages, featuring a variety of event tickets, hotel stays and gift certificates. The top package had a. Aloe of about $ 1200! It made for a great grand prize, but it would have been nice if they split the packages up so more people could be winners!
I was a little unclear early in the evening as to how the raffle would work, but it turned out that you did need to be present to win, so I’m glad we stuck around until the event’s end (although we didn’t win).
It was a wonderful evening! Happy 7^th anniversary, Taverna Opa!