Costas Restaurant

Costas Restaurant offers authentic Greek dishes and a relaxing escape from the bustle of the Ave. Costas’ menu is large and diverse, including both American classics as well as a near-endless selection of Greek and Mediterranean specialties.

Costa Antonopoulos founded the restaurant in 1961 upon arriving in Seattle from his native Greece. His family soon followed to help in his business venture, and today the emphasis on family dining is still very evident at Costas.

“Nearly all of our dishes are family recipes,” restaurant employee Alex Barkalakis said.

Barkalakis, a high school senior at Roosevelt High School, is Antonopoulos’ nephew and works at Costas on the weekends.

Although the menu includes a variety of gourmet burgers, sandwiches and pastas, the specialty dinners offer the best of Costas’ Greek-inspired cuisine. The dishes include spanakopita, a flaky pastry made with butter and olive oil and stuffed full of fresh spinach and feta cheese, and moussaka, savory layers of eggplant, ground beef and tomato, baked and topped with a traditional béchamel sauce.

If you’re looking for a more familiar plate, Costas’ menu also features delicious beef and chicken gyros served on homemade pita bread with tzatziki and a side of roasted potatoes. All of the specialty plates come with a choice of soup, including avgolemono, a Mediterranean rice-based soup made with whipped egg and lemon juice.

Although the food is reason enough to visit Costas Restaurant, it is the pleasant atmosphere that makes the experience truly special.

“I enjoy the ambiance; it has a small café feel,” junior international studies major Alex Cargol said.

The windowed dining room is spacious and surprisingly quiet given its prominent location on the Ave. Whereas many Ave. restaurants are more concerned with cheap, fast eats, Costas offers a place to enjoy a real sit-down style meal in a relaxed setting.

The service is especially friendly in the later hours when the restaurant is less crowded. My waitress was particularly amiable when conversing about her family and their Greek roots. As it turns out she is Antonopoulos’ sister, Anastasia Bekris, and she provides further evidence of the central role of family at Costas.

Cargol shared this sentiment in discussing his first experience at the restaurant.

“The service was very friendly. It was my first time at Costas, but they made me feel like a regular,” he said.

In addition to its dinner menu, Costas also features a full breakfast, the central feature of which are special omelettes. The specials include dungeness crab, Denver and smoked salmon omelettes, all of which are served with sides of toast, hash browns and fresh fruit. The breakfast items are not without a Greek influence, as the menu also includes the gyro omelette and the Greek village omelette, which consists of green onions, tomatoes, olives and feta cheese.