Souvlaki Bar - Northern Virginia Greek Mini-Chain with Generous Portions

[ktmoomau]

Souvlaki Bar has multiple locations in the DMV, I couldn't find a thread, if there is one, please merge.

We have gone to Souvlaki Bar a few times now as it is super close to the house.  We took Mom there the other night as it has really good salads that are a pretty generous portion that you can top with lamb, chicken, pork or falafel.  Last time I went I had a greek salad with chicken.  I thought the chicken was a nice texture of juicy, flavorful and crispy.  So the other night I got the kale and spinach salad with chicken, and I enjoyed it as well.  The kale was nice and tender, the salad greens were very fresh, again the chicken was good.  A girl had a wrap beside us that looked good too.  I don't think they are per se better than like Plaka, and they don't have as big of a menu, BUT they have really nice salads and at least the chicken has been delicious, I will try a wrap with gyro meat next time to see.

[DonRocks]

Their Instagram handle is @SouvlakiBarUSA, so they may have more than regional aspirations.

[KeithA]

Had to drop someone off at national airport before heading south and found the Alexandria branch of Souvlaki bar on yelp less than 10 minutes away. Was very pleased. Nice bright, clean space right off route 1 with a little parking lot in back. Very friendly service and great with my kids. My picky eaters enjoyed most of the kids' meal - they chose the chicken souvlaki skewer as their protein and white rice and it comes with apple juice boxes. The rice was a little bland (usually a plus for the pickies) but they skipped it and ate the not homemade pita rounds instead that came with the decent tzatiki app. The chicken though was a big hit and I had a bite too and thought it was excellent - juicy, flavorful. I opted for the chicken gyro/yeero which was rather good - they put fries on the sandwich (which I like). The fries were crisp and covered in paprika but somehow lacked flavor - more of a crunch element to the sandwich. The chicken yeero meat was good with a nice char on some pieces and moist on others like you want but the souvlaki was better. Should have gone with the name of the place. We also tried their greek cinnamon-walnut-honey cookies which had a nice flavor but only so so as the texture was a bit hard and overly crumbly (that may be the authentic recipe, I don't know just speaking from personal taste). I would go again if I was near one and load up on skewers and maybe get the baklava instead. 

[ktmoomau]

We go here somewhat regularly.  I noticed last Saturday they had taken the moussaka and pastitsio off the menu, at least when we were there for lunch (but they might have them as specials??) and have added 1/4 chicken and 1/2 chicken platters.  I normally can't get past the salads with chicken yeero.  If I do, it is normally for a souvlaki sandwich or chicken yeero.  A small thing of fries will serve 2, the box of fries with the feta easily is for four.  The pita despite not being homemade, to me makes nice sandwich bread- not too fluffly not to hold up, but not dense or chewy.  

I drove by the Sterling location by accident the other day, so they now have multiple locations.

[ktmoomau]

Went here on Sunday.  I was going to splurge and get a chicken yeero with fries.  Unfortunately, Hubby ordered beef/lamb yeero and chicken souvlaki.  Not that either of those are bad, they just aren't the sheer perfection of their chicken yeero.  I took the beef/lamb, which is good, it isn't bad at all.  And was still a good sandwich (not as good as Plaka though if comparing actual beef/lamb).  But it didn't fulfill my jonesing for the chicken yeero.  I am not sure how Hubby hasn't figured out that the chicken yeero is by far and away the best menu item.  He screwed up my take out salad last time and got chicken souvlaki on that too.