I've eaten at Opa! Los Altos once. It was mediocre Greek-ish food, but competent and very popular. In this price range I prefer the Sunnyvale places like Athena Grill and Asteria Grill.

I highly recommend Galata Bistro in Menlo Park. Excellent food and reasonable prices.

The name of the chain, Opa!, is cliche. Will it also feature roaming wait staff smashing cheap plates on the floor for show, reviving memories of tourist traps in Greece?

We'll see. I hope they can distinguish their food from the Turks in PA; down University and near California Ave.

I'm part Greek and I cringed when I saw the name of this restaurant.

Galata is not Greek. They have good food its not Greek. Yanni you can cringe all you want

Galata is Middle Eastern, which the restaurant states on their own website.

http://www.galatabistro.net

Kebabs, pita, and falafel are all Middle Eastern foods.

There are a couple of Greek items on their menu, but it is >85% Middle Eastern cuisine.

Galata is a reference to the old citadel near historic Constantinople (today it is part of modern day Istanbul). There's a Galata Tower built by the Genoese in the 14th century which replaced an earlier Byzantine structure.

Note that the famous Istanbul soccer club Galatasaray is named after this same citadel.

I continue to be amazed that in an area with so much money purveyors of overpriced tasteless food like Opa thrive.

Guys, I don't think I said Galata was a Greek restaurant, although it falls it a reasonably similar category of Mediterraean. I also like Sultana in Menlo Park for similar fare, and yes, I know it's not a Greek restaurant either. :)

Mike

Mike,

The blog posting is about Opa!, a restaurant that describes itself as "authentic Greek." Thus any commentaries and recommendations for competitive restaurants would naturally be assumed to be "authentic Greek" since that is the topic of conversation.

In the same vein, if the article were about "authentic Nicaraguan," one would expect recommendations/discussion to stay in that category, and not veer toward taquerias.

Until you mentioned your alleged heritage, there's no way anyone here would have known your basic grasp of culinary differences. And even then, you still did not differentiate between Greek and Middle Eastern cuisines.

That said, we appreciate your recommendation for good Middle Eastern cuisine, despite the tangent from the topic at hand...

:-)

Lighten up, Jay Park. Call it "Middle Eastern", "Greek", whatever, it's all Ottoman cuisine.