Zorba's Cafe, Connecticut Ave. in Dupont Circle

[youngfood]

Is there really not a thread for this place? It's in Washingtonian's Cheap Eats issue. My first visit was generally charming. I loved it for its total lack of pretentiousness and particularly enjoyed drinking my beer out of a frosty mug. Fits the "casual, cheap, could get any of your nonfoodie friends to go here" bill very well, which I'm not sure a lot of decent places to eat inside the District do.

[Barbara]

Is there really not a thread for this place? It's in Washingtonian's Cheap Eats issue. My first visit was generally charming. I loved it for its total lack of pretentiousness and particularly enjoyed drinking my beer out of a frosty mug. Fits the "casual, cheap, could get any of your nonfoodie friends to go here" bill very well, which I'm not sure a lot of decent places to eat inside the District do.

This was the first restaurant Dame Edna took me to. I was charmed.

[weinoo]

We grabbed a quick dinner here the other night and thought the food was just fine. Ordered cafeteria style, which I'm sure helps to keep the price down, we had an appetizer platter, falafel sandwich and pork souvlaki, with rice in lieu of fries.

The appetizer platter was very good...the one exception being the stuffed grape leaves, which I thought were a little too salty. But the hummus, tara, eggplant and skordalia were all very good. Also came with a small tabbouleh type salad and a big basket of fine, warm pita. Maybe some feta and olives, too. That could easily be dinner at $9. My pork skewers were nice, not dry (which they can very often be) and were served on a big warm pita, made even better by the juices which saturated it. Came with a side of tzatziki. The falafel was perhaps the weakest of the dishes, with only 3 or 4 non-descript falafel balls inside a pocket pita - Significant Eater would have preferred the thicker, non-pocket pita that came along with my pork.

With a Sierra Nevada at around $4, the total for the 2 of us was about $35. Not bad in this day and age. Picking wisely, a nice meal can be had on the cheap.

[Rovers2000]

Had a quick dinner here earlier this week. At around 7:30 the place was an interesting mix of suits and college students scattered across the upstairs sitting area.

Ordered baba ghanoush and a chicken souvlaki sandwich. The eggplant came with nice freshly toasted pitaand the chicken was pleasantly moist and not overwhelmed by the tzatiki sauce. All in all, combined with a Sierra Nevada the meal came in under 20 bucks. Not earth shattering, but if you're near Dupont and want something quick/cheap, this would definitely do the job.

[Waitman]

Nit an issue on a day like today, but Zorba's is the best, cheap (alcohol-friendly) outdoor cafe/people watching spot in Dupont Circle. OK, thw wine is borderline swill, but it's cheap. And you can get a decent beer and a snack for half of what you'd pay for Circa, Sette or any of the spots south of the circle, and seats are almost always available.

[fuzzy510]

Ate in at Zorba's about a week ago with a friend, and really enjoyed my meal. Had their sampler platter (think every stereotypical Greek dish you can imagine on one plate), and everything was great. Nothing was dry or burnt, and the dolmades were probably the best I've had (which isn't saying much - I generally hate the things and rarely order them). All in all, a great affordable option in Dupont Circle.

Youngfood was right, too - Zorba's is now very much on my shortlist of places I'd take a non-foodie friend to with no hesitation.

[Lola007]

Had a nice light bite at Zorba's last night. It was a perfect evening to sit outside and enjoy the breeze while it lasted.

Since I had a big lunch earlier, I wasn't very hungy. So, I got a bowl of Kotόsoupa Avgolémono (Greek chicken soup with veggies, rice, lemon, and egg). I've definitely had better Greek chicken-lemon soup (the best I've had at a restaurant was at Pylos in New York City). Zorba's version is on the watery side and doesn't have enough lemon for my taste; however, it also had a ton of chicken chunks in it, and was really quite filling. Cost: $4.45 plus tax. And the highlight for me was a delicious roll filled with feta. I had tried Zorba's olive rolls before and really liked them, but the feta roll was surprisingly very, very good. My friend got the moussaka, which he said was kind of heavy, but hey, that's the way moussaka is supposed to be. If I had been hungrier, I probably would have ordered a gyro platter. I hadn't been to Zorba's for a while, so last night's dinner was a good reminder that it's still got some of the best cheap eats around, and is a fun place to people watch.

[Tweaked]

Zorba's flies under the radar for late(ish) night eating. We stopped in around 10:30pm on Saturday night looking for something relatively cheap, quick and tasty in between drinking venues. Their falafel sandwich ($8.15) hit the spot. Hardly anyone else was there.

Open until 11:30pm Monday-Saturday, 10:30pm Sunday.

[saf]

Tonight's dinner was Zorba takeout. One of our regular dinner companions was a college friend, and the 3 of us have been eating here since the year they opened, when we were undergrads. The other regular dinner companion is a later addition, but she and I eat at Zorba's every 6 weeks, along with my husband, before haircut afternoon.

And we haven't been here in FOREVER. So we got takeout. The boy had a souvlaki platter. I had the sausage platter. We had a hummus, and baklava, the one that comes in bite sized pieces. Delicious. As ever, fries do not travel very well, but he was happy with them, so that's cool.

We have a bottle of mastiha liqueur here that we brought back from Athens and have not made much of a dent in. So we started with a cocktail. And there was a bottle of retsina in the basement. So that was good too. 

[saf]

Zorba takeout tonight. I had a masthia cocktail to start, and he had a gin and tonic. Sadly, there was no retsina tonight. 

So, from Zorba's - chickpea salad (hummus), eggplant salad (baba ganoush), mixed kebabs, sausage platter, and mini baklava. And it was good.