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Restaurant Ratings

The ratings are based mostly on the degree to which the food excites us, and a little on environment, service, and other considerations. I rate restaurants relative to all other restaurants in the New Orleans area. Here's what the stars mean to me:

starstarstarstarstar
Among the best locally.

starstarstarstar
Excellent and ambitious.

starstarstar
Worth crossing town for.

starstar
Recommended.

*
Acceptable.

No star
Unacceptable.

Cost Ratings
Each dollar sign indicates a ten-dollar range, including a normal meal for the restaurant (dinner, if they serve other meals), not including drinks, or tips. So, for example. . .

1$--$5-15
2$--$15-25
3$--$25-35

. . . and so on, with no upper limit. While this scheme may suggest mathematical precision, know that perception of price varies from diner to diner as much as the star ratings do. So consider this an estimate.

All reviews are based entirely on meals I have personally taken at the restaurant and paid for from my own pocket. I don't take free review meals, nor am I reimbursed by anybody for my restaurant expenditures.

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Acropolis Cuisine

Greek. Pizza. Pasta.
Metairie: 3841 Veterans Blvd.. 504-888-9046. Map.
Lunch Tuesday-Saturday. Dinner Tuesday-Sunday.
Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Although New Orleans has a large, active Greek community, the city has never had many good Greek restaurants. This is a really good one. The Acropolis, despite its small size, has a large menu of the Greek standards, with a strong slection of complete dinners featuring offbeat specials. The presence of pizza and pasta makes it family-friendly.

WHY IT'S GOOD
The appetite niche Greek restaurants formerly filled has been co-opted in the last decade or two by the somewhat similar Middle Eastern restaurants. It's nice to find that the Acropolis sticks mostly (but not entirely) with actual Greek dishes. The daily specials are of particular interest, because they include a range of uncommon dishes with a home-cooked style.

BACKSTORY
The Acropolis is the who-knows-how-manyeth iteration of restaurant spinoffs going back at least two generations, starting in the CBD in the 1950s at a place called Teddy's Grill. (This may be too tenuous now to be worth talking about.) It opened in 1999, and quickly caught the attention of the fairly small audience for Greek food here with the goodness of its food. (Ethnic Greeks, curiously, are not especially good customers, because they cook this kind of food at home and think they do it better than any restaurant does.)

DINING ROOM
The tables are a little crowded into a single small, usually full dining room in a small strip mall. It's a little hard to see, mainly because you're focused (or should be) on the herky-jerky Veterans Blvd. traffic.It appears that there are virtually no parking spaces in front, but there are more behind the restaurant (and a rear entrance, too).

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Appetizer sampler.
Fried calamari.
Stuffed grape leaves.
Spinach and cheese pie.
Garlic and potato soup.
Moussaka.
Lasagna with Italian sausage.
Gyros sandwich or platter.
Roasted chicken.
Pizzas.
Pork chops.
Lamb chops.
Grilled pork tenderloin kebabs.
Baklava.
Tiramisu.

FOR BEST RESULTS
The markerboard with its table d'hote lunch and dinner specials offers the most interesting eating here. In addition to the few parking spaces in front, there are many more behind the restaurant (as well as a rear entrance).

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
There's a lot of Greek food that never turns up in New Orleans that this place would do well to explore.

FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

This review was updated with new information on 12/20/2009.

A list of all 300 full, current reviews is here.