The Byzantion

It is a shame to see that the only somewhat authentic Greek restaurant we’ve ever been to since we moved to Seattle in 1999 has closed. Unilocal has not been very helpful when you look for Greek food, as it does not seem to distinguish between Green and Lebanese or other Middle Eastern-​Mediterranean food. We were used to fabulous Green food in Chicago and in Cleveland Ohio, but here, there’s a dearth. Fast-​food Gyros places are NOT what we’re talking about. And is there a single place making baklava using the requisite amount of actual butter? Every baklava I’ve tasted here has been way too sweet: not buttery, and way too much sugar in the syrup. Well, I may have to learn to make all these dishes myself.

DELICIOUS! definitely pricey but so worth it for a once in awhile treat. I highly recommend starting with the melitzanosalata & pita. So good. ordered the keftethes for the main entrée which was just meatballs smothered in delicious sauce, and not only was it incredible but it was extremely filling. highly recommend this local business

Cute family-​owned restaurant. It’s even owned by real Greeks (a rarity in the PNW). Great opportunity to try out food that is truly Greek, flavorful, and hearty in portions.

Loved this place — massive souvlaki dish + dolmas in chicken drop soup and HOT pitas!

This place is a total bust. Went there on a Tuesday night and it was empty. All 6 of us were very disappointed with the food and it was way overpriced. The gyro pita was stale and the vegetable mousaka was a cheesy mush. The meat was overcooked. Average meal was about $ 16 – 20 $. We didn’t realize until after the fact that we were overcharged somehow by about $ 50. We went back and told the woman working and got about $ 30 back after tax and tip. Sketchy place in general. Will never return.

Cute place for dinner. Sit outside when the weather is nice!

My best friend asked me what kind of food I wanted to have for my birthday dinner. Greek sounded good, and so did The Byzantion judging from the reviews and its menu.
And y’know what? It all pointed to «damn right it’s good» because boy are we full and satisfied!
Being Memorial Day evening the restaurant wasn’t packed, so even though we had reservations they really weren’t needed. The waitress was super friendly, smiling, courteous. We opted to get the Athens Plate and the Byzantion Plate, which came with soups, so we went for the avgolemono. As an appetizer we got the Saganaki.
Saganaki was delicious! Darn thing was a bit fussy with being lit on fire, and we laughed with the waitress when she said it was ‘anticlimactic’ when it didn’t light up in as huge a flash as it could have been. Sometimes such things can be persnickety, and it was fun all the same!
Soup was delicious. Creamy, lemony, with a nice pepper tone thanks to the freshly-​ground pepper that was ground on it at our table.
The plates were very good! Nothing on the offerings were bad at all. Dolmathes were maybe a bit strong on the cinnamon, but again, it wasn’t bad, and we liked everything. The waitress was nice to ask us if we wanted two share plates, she picked up on that we were gonna share and try a bit of everything when we ordered them. Very attentive, and would refill my water regularly.
My favorite offering of the two plates was the keftethes meatballs. I could live off of that stuff for weeks on end. Its rich tomato sauce kept a hint of cinnamon that was not at all overpowering, almost a whisper of it, and topped with cheese and fresh herbs.
I think I want to have its babies.
Call me, keftethes. I miss you already. Let’s hook up again soon.
My best friend said he would give this place an A+ and I have to agree. Courteous and thoughtful service, delicious food, and a relaxed atmosphere made for one of the best birthday dinners I’ve ever had, and I’m definitely wanting to come back and bring family and friends to try it out.

Just had time for soup today, but the avgolimono is fabulous! Generous amounts of ground chicken and just the right amount of lemon and salt. Service is prompt, professional and friendly.

I’m Greek American and have been eating in Greek restaurants all my life. We ordered two dishes that were so poorly cooked and under-​seasoned (surprising since one dish is one of their ‘specialties’. I was very disappointed, as there are so few Greek food options in Seattle.
The avgolemono was thick and eggy as opposed to more refined and lemony. The potatoes tasted OLD. How is that possible? The NTOMATES GEMISTES, stuffed tomatoes and green peppers, was a total embarrassment. Every time I’ve eaten the vegetarian version of this dish at other restaurants or home-​cooked, an entire tomato/​green pepper is used and literally stuff with rice, tomato sauce, garlic, feta, etc. Theirs is sloppy, where only the bottoms of the tomato and pepper were present (buried beneath mushy vegetables). It was as if the tomato and pepper exploded! My guess is the chef knows how to grill or char-​broil meat, but is an amateur when it comes to veggies.
We agreed upon leaving that we’ll never go back. Avoid this place!

This review is purely for the service, since we were denied our reservation.
My friends and I were celebrating New Years Eve in Seattle and made reservations at this restaurant on Opentable a couple days before.
When we arrived (on time), we were told by an unsympathetic and nonchalant greeter that Opentable was letting people book reservations although they were full, and that if we wanted to eat there that night there would be a couple hours’ wait, since they had just seated a big table and there was another large party ahead of us (which has yet to arrive).
I have a hard time understanding how he automatically knew that the other table had made reservations ahead of us, and that their reservations are more «valid» than ours? Have they received notice from Opentable about our reservation and simply ignored it although they knew they won’t be able to fulfill? Is our reservation request inferior to the others because we booked through Opentable? We did not receive any notice from the restaurant prior to us traveling all the way there, nor any apologies from staff other than a tepid «sorry» before the greeter turned around and left us standing there, confused and dumbfounded.
Very poor experience at a restaurant who refused to honor reservations and was completely nonchalant about screwing up and ruining customers’ dinner plans. The greeter seriously could not have cared less about their restaurant’s mistake — he literally just ignored us after he told us the news.
If you’re not going to honor reservations on Opentable, stop getting listed on Opentable!!!

Came here on on a Monday night with my wife for my birthday.
We were greeted by what seemed to be the only person running the front of house at the time, although she made sure to look up from her table she was serving to smile and mouth hello to us. The place was about half full and the space was great.
We were seated shortly after and ordered our food and drinks. We’re both a sucker for a good Gyro, so I ordered the chicken Gyro and my wife ordered the lamb/​beef Gyro.
Both our dishes came out relatively quickly, and were served with «Mediterranean Potatoes» and a mini Greek Salad.
The dishes were fresh, the tzatziki was delicious and the meat was cooked perfectly. The pita was a little more stiff than I am used to eating, and the veggies were crisp and crunchy.
Overall my wife and I really enjoyed our experience.

We have been dying to try this Greek food.
We were greeted promptly and seated. We were treated like kings. Food was delicious and fresh! Staff was very friendly, kind and caring! We will definitely return soon ! A must in Seattle !

Byzantion is a small restaurant with friendly service. I had a cup of Avgolemono soup (one of my Greek favorites; before reading the menu here I didn’t know it had champagne in it!) and a breaded chicken dish (I think it was the Lemonati Kota). The chicken was good, though I thought the portion was a bit small.
It was a little awkward here as the restaurant was almost empty, but the meal was still enjoyable.

Great place for hearty Mediterranean food, with large, satisfying portions that’ll send you to nap right afterwards. Parking is not too bad around here-​got a spot two blocks off Broadway, so had to walk a few minutes, but it was free parking!-so don’t be turned off by the lack of valet service.
I ordered the moussaka, which combined creaminess, eggplant goodness, and parmesan in perfect proportions. This place really should be more popular than it appeared; it was pretty empty for dinnertime on a Saturday. The food is wonderful-​a bit on the expensive end, but you definitely get what you pay for. Service is also top notch: our waitress was helpful with recommendations, and we were always attended to very quickly. I needed a printed, itemised copy of the bill for reimbursement purposes (they usually just draw up the bill by hand, which is fine any other time), and they were happy to go out of their way to present me with one. I’ll definitely be back next time I’m in the area!

This place is really great, we have always enjoyed coming here. Parking always seem to be easy on this end of CH atleast. We have never had to wait to sit down. I wonder if why there isn’t a line out the door?
My husband I watched a very large party come in — looked like a birthday celebration. There was a nice separate party area for almost 20 people.
I cant determine why they are not busy, maybe they need a Groupon?

I greatly enjoyed this family style restaurant where the staff is in fact the owners and they welcome you as though you have always belonged there. With heart felt welcome I was greeted by a kind server who was thoughtful and respectful to my party. Not pushy, not phony.
I ordered the rice and lamb wrapped in grape leaves and it was amazing! These bite size wraps were soft on the stomach and savory on the tongue. I also asked the waiter to chose a wine she thought would go best with the food, and indeed she did. The wine had a rich smell to it, and a soft taste, that compliments the meal well.
literally the only problem (beyond the restaurants control): parking is a bitch!

Food and service seemed to be a lot better three years ago. However now, the service seems to have dropped and the food isn’t as good. I had told our server I had a party of three and it took them the time to take our order to when food was served to get us our it utensils. Pardon if that’s extreme of me, but imagine what happens when they their restaurant is full. What’s that going to be like? Also, the restaurant is only so big and servers are standing everywhere, but yet, it takes them a long time to see that we’re ready to order.
Food was dry, not as flavorful, and burnt. Perhaps it’s supposed to be cooked to well done, but dry and burnt meat is always a hunger killer. Maybe that day wasn’t a good day for the restaurant. It definitely wasn’t my best meal there.

I was not expecting that much last night when I was looking for a late dinner with a colleague and did not know where to go (did not prepare in advance, just went to Capitol Hill area and see what we could like, as we are out of towners). I saw this place was Greek and Greek food needs to be really bad done in order not to please me. This restaurant, however, surprised me a lot!
The calamari appetizer was one of the best I have had for years. The tzatziki sauce accompanying it was perfect, calamari were crunchy (not oily or gummy like in many other places i have been). Even the lemon on them was fresh and very aromatic! We had that dish to share and then we also shared a not less fantastic gyros plate, starting with a very authentic avgolomeno soup (thick, tasty, flavorful!) and a LOT of gyros, salad and baked potatoes to share for 2. Definitively, you get a lot for what you pay.
Service was very sweet and the waitress was on top of everything, checking constantly we did not miss anything. I loved also the atmosphere, not so crowded and noisy, perfect setting.
My only suggestion: those Ikea lamps on the ceiling look too out of context to the Greek look&feel.
Loved the women’s bathroom sink! very original:). I will come back here.

Good food but a little too pricey for what you get.
Charged extra to have vegetables to dip in the hummus, but the $ 7 hummus only came with one pita? The hummus was lacking in flavor is needed more garlic.
The dijon chicken I got was delicious I substituted the rice for roasted potatoes that were a little overcooked but still good.
Dog friendly outdoor seating area was a plus. The server even brought our puppy a bowl of water.
The Syrah wine was good, and very reasonably priced.
My husband had the baklava as dessert and thought it tasted a little old.

My boyfriend and I wandered in here for dinner the other night. The place looked fairly upscale on the inside, with that slightly overdone décor you often see in older restaurants, but it worked. One of the first things we noticed was that on the menu we were handed inside, the prices were about $ 1 higher on every item than the menu posted on the door… they should probably fix that!
I got the appetizer combination plate, which came with two pieces of pita, two dolma (which might have had beef in them, which is a bit unusual), hummus, tzatziki, and an eggplant dip. The plate was filling for a meal and all the items were pretty good. My boyfriend got the lamb gyro, which was excellent. His gyro came with a cup of soup, a fairly large side salad, and some potatoes. It was a good sized meal and the gyro was very well made with good quality meat. Next time, I would get the gyro as well.
Our service was friendly and attentive. It felt like the sort of restaurant I would want to support. The food was definitely good, although my boyfriend’s dish was better than mine. It was a little pricey, with my dish coming in around $ 13 and my boyfriend’s gyro coming in at $ 15. The food was good enough though to justify the price, but just not a place to visit everyday.