Mykonos brings Greek delights to Culver City

Like all of America’s best Greek/Mediterranean/gyros joints, there’s nothing fancy about the Mykonos Greek Grill. Situated on Washington, just off of Sepulveda, Mykonos is a glorious little no-frills, cantina-style café, where you stand to order and then pour your own soda. This is fine – it’s the way it should be. All that matters is the quality of the food when it arrives, and it is magnificent.

The menu is a treat in and of itself. Everything looks amazing, particularly those tantalizing Greek sides such as the spinach pie, and dolmas (grape leaves). You could literally go in every day for a year and not get bored – even their regular old hamburgers look and smell great.

We went for the gyros salad, because we wanted some lighter lunchtime fare, but the meat smelled too good to resist. The salad itself was relatively basic, but good – a little heavy on the tart Greek dressing, but the juicy tomatoes and the rich feta cheese compensated.

Also, nothing about the salad tasted stale or bland. It’s a good salad – no complaints.

But the star is clearly the gyros meat, which is dreamy. The ground beef and lamb is house-made, and shaved just thick enough to offer a satisfying bite, but thin enough that it sits comfortably on a salad without looking like a pile of chunks.

It’s not too greasy, but tender and moist, and that’s not the easiest line to balance on. But the whole thing works perfectly – a bit of gyros meat with a spot of feta and red onion is magical.

The meal is served with a slice of warm, thin pitta bread and a side of tzatziki. The dip is fresh and brings the dish to life – the cool flavor only serving to enhance the gyros. It also calms down the vinegary Greek dressing on the salad, so it’s a multi-purpose side. The bread is simply good pitta, and it acts as a wonderful mop at the end of the meal, for getting those last bits of feta, tomato seeds and tzatziki.

Next time we go it, it will be for a more filling plate – the combination plate looks amazing, but so does the Mousaka. It all looks tremendous, and we highly recommend a visit.