Nick the Greek

Back in 2014, three cousins – all named Nick – opened the first Nick the Greek in San Jose, establishing a template for a stripped-down Greek restaurant chain focused on gyros, souvlaki, rice bowls, and salads. After kicking off franchising in 2019, the chain reached nearly 50 locations at the end of 2022, when it sold majority control to a large Jack in the Box and TGI Fridays franchisor. Today, there are around 100 locations, including four in Orange County: Newport Beach was first, followed by Fullerton, then Yorba Linda and Irvine, the latter opening in the same week and just down the street from The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill. Although these Greek chains overlap in concept, they’re a lot different in execution.

Nick the Greek has a smaller menu, smaller footprint, and in our experience, slower service. The menu consists largely of variations on pitas ($12.50 each), with three types of gyros (beef/lamb, chicken, pork belly), falafel, pork or chicken souvlaki, veggies, or ground beef, in addition to a beef burger at the same price. Two bowls lose the pita in favor of basmati rice, giving you the choice of gyro meat ($13.25) or newly introduced Mediterranean steak with chimichurri sauce ($15.25). Side and full-sized salads, lemon chicken soup, hummus, and fries round out the savory options, with baklava, loukoumades donut puffs, and frozen Greek yogurt with or without baklava are offered as $4-7 desserts.

The items we sampled ranged from okay to good. A beef/lamb gyro pita was the best of our picks, combining an actually fluffy pita with plenty of tender, well-seasoned gyro meat, respectable fresh tomato, onion, and tzatziki portions, and a few french fries. For $4.50 more, we added a totally fine side salad, and for another $4 added a side of fries – lukewarm, greasy, and not good enough to finish eating – plus a drink from the soda fountain. In retrospect, we wish we’d just grabbed a bottle of Loux sour cherry, lemon, or orange juice instead.