New Greek Cafe
The business section of the FNP has an article about a new Greek cafe that has opened called Greek Aroma. Based on the address of 177D Thomas Johnson Drive, that puts it in the Weis plaza. Has anyone tried it yet? A quote from the article by the owner, Hakan John Buyukcan:
“A lot of people think I am really taking a chance in this economy,” Buyukcan said.
Greek Aroma offers sandwiches, platters, salads and side orders.
“My customers really like the gyro,” Buyukcan said. “It is all homemade, including the dressing.”
Baklava is on the dessert list, as well as a daily house special.
“Everything is homemade. I use my mother’s recipes and what I learned in college classes,” he said.
In spring he will add outside seating.
The restaurant will offer catering with sufficient notice. “And we can do special requests for customers,” he said.
I’m sure as soon as my husband reads the word “Gyro” he will want to try it. I bet at that location, they get a good lunch crowd.
Oh, I’ll definitely try it!! Maybe today!
Just did a mapquest and it’s not in the Weiz shopping plaza but up on TJ Drive. Must be in the industrial section where all the drs. offices are located.
Glad to hear of a new local place, especially a variety like Greek food. If business turns out to be good, it’d be great if they could consider expanding their menu. I’d love to find someplace that serves authentic Greek food beyond gyros.
Monica, I looked up the address for Henning’s which is also in that plaza. Their address is 177 Thomas Johnson Drive. Now I’m wondering if 177D puts it in the building with Lintini’s? Let us know if you try it today so the rest of us can find it! Haha!
It is actually located next to Subway in the Weis plaza behind Lintini’s. I just noticed driving by it on my way to work on TJ drive.
Okay, I just came back from eating at Greek Aroma. It’s located at the Weis shopping plaza at the very end of the strip, just down from Hennings.
The place has about 10 tables but has room to grow if they do well.
The menu consists of:
Side Orders:
Rice Pilaf $2.95
Grilled Pita $1.50
Hummus & Grilled Pita $3.25
Tzatziki dip $3.25
spinach pie $4.75
Stuffed grape leaves $4.50
Salads range from $3.25 to $6.25 and includes a junior and regular greek salad; grilled chicken salad; and shepherd salad.
Sandwiches range from $5.25 for their greek salad ‘veggie’ sandwich to the $6.45 lamb souvlaki sandwich. In between you can order the gyro, chicken or beef souvlaki, and the kofte sandwich.
Baklava and a daily house specialty is available for dessert ($1.95, $3.95).
Platters are similar to the sandwiches but served with a small greek salad, rice pilaf, and pita bread; $7.95 to $9.95 for the Mediterranean platter.
Okay, I ordered the hummus and grilled pita along with the kofte sandwich. My friend ordered the gyro platter.
My kofte was served on top of a grilled pita with lettuce 2 koftes, tzatziki sauce, 2 slices of tomatoes, and onions. It was filling for lunch, although I know my husband would complain about the portion of the meat. I would have enjoyed another kofte. The kofte was nicely seasoned. The lettuce was topped with some olive oil.
My friend said she liked the gyro meat, but again, the portion wasn’t large.
The hummus was lacking in flavor, as it needed salt and garlic! I like hummus that has that “bite” with the taste of garlic. The same goes for their rice. Plain, lacking of salt, and no flavor.
I will go back to give them another shot. Maybe they’ll read this and take note – use the garlic and other typical Greek and Turkish seasonings.
A place that my husband and I go to is in Germantown on 355. I can’t think of the name, but the portions are great and everything is well made.
Monica
Wow, thanks for reporting back so quickly Monica! My mouth started to water when I read the words “hummus and grilled pita” but I agree with you. Hummus needs lots of garlic! I will definitely try it when I go over that way soon.
I’ll definitely look into this new Greek cafe. It sounds like a good place to hang out. Does it have internet capabilities?
The place is very basic. Simple tables, chairs and cold. They need to turn up the heat. They have Greek photos on the walls (gee, I wonder if I can sell any of mine!), otherwise there’s not decor. There doesn’t seem to be any internet capabilities.
Oh, the tzatziki could have used more garlic too!
PS: I will say the ingredients were fresh, even the tomatoes. The pita bread was very good and I like when a place grills them.
In conversation with the manager, he is getting ready to have wireless set up for his customers. YIPEE… Food is delish and fast service.
Juliana, what did you have?
Anyone who opens a restaurant, cafe or coffee shop in this austere economic climate deserves a standing ovation–and plenty of fanfare.
Good Greek fare is always a welcome addition here in Frederick County.
I had the mediterrean platter, – beef.. it was so much food, I ended up taking half home for my lunch the next day.. i must say the food is great, i liked the tzatziki sauce its not heavy like some places i have tried.
Lizfrog, I agree. Good, authentic Greek food shouldn’t skimp on garlic and should be on your breath the next day. I love garlicky hummus!
The chicken soulvaki is delicious and cooked well on the grill. I am glad we have a new place to hangout now since I work right around the corner. Good to hear that it will be internet friendly. I like to eat and catch up on my emails. PS.. The hummus is the bomb, my friend had the kofte sandwiche and raved about it, and its a little chilly inside and more tables are needed. But thats an easy fix.
FYI, the place I mentioned in Germantown is the Caspian Cafe on 355 (19911 Frederick Rd). Excellent food!
My fiance and I had dinner at Greek Aroma this evening and we thought that the food was delicious! We both had the med. platter — mine with beef and his with chicken. It wasn’t busy when we went in, so we were able to chat with the owner for a little bit. He is very friendly and you can tell that he wants people to like his restaurant. I mentioned that I heard about his place on this site and he said that he saw the comments about the heat and he is going to make some improvements this Sunday when they are closed. The space has a high ceiling and it’s hard to keep it warm, so he said that he’s probably going to add space heaters near the tables.
I was impressed at how much care goes into making the food. Our food was made to order and everything tasted very fresh. The tzatziki was very good and I loved the grape leaves. The baklava is also super yummy!!
One other note: the restaurant is spotless. For those of you that watch Kitchen Nightmares, you will be impressed to know that the cooking area was dismantled and washed down while we were there. This place gets an A+ for cleanliness.
We definitely plan on going back soon and wish the owner much success! Spread the word about this place because it’s a little tough to find at the end of the Weis shopping center on TJ Dr.
Thanks for the review aks! It’s nice to know that restaurateurs are willing to take little criticisms/suggestions to heart and figure out a way to make things more comfortable for their patrons. We are going to try them tomorrow.
Greek Aroma has their website up. I’ll edit the post and add it in but I’ll leave it here too.
http://www.greekaroma.com/Home_Page.html
(Be sure to read the reviews section. Hmmm, sounds familiar!!)
“…and he said that he saw the comments about the heat and he is going to make some improvements …”
I hope he read the GARLIC comments!
Looking forward to returning there.
I thought that there was plenty of garlic, so I guess it’s a personal preference. I think a lot of people would be turned off if there’s too much — especially if they go there for lunch and have to go back to the office.
I was very excited when I heard about a Greek Restaurant opening up in Frederick. I have been to Greek Aroma several times now — both dine-in and carry-out. The restaurant looks great and the music and atmosphere inside adds that special touch to it.
I have had the gyro and several of the souvlaki platters and they are all EXCELLENT! The portions are perfect and the taste is exceptional. I would definitely recommend this restaurant to friends. I would also recommend staying for coffee and baklava after dinner. I had the Bakhlava for dessert and I must say its been a long time since I’ve had baklava that tastes so good.
To top it all off… the price is unbeatable!!!
If you haven’t yet, go try it today… I’m sure you’ll love it!
The location is at the end of the strip of stores, next to Subway. This is the former home of Loco Johnny’s, an excellent coffee place that closed last year, due to the lack of foot traffic. The storefront is set back from the rest of the stores on tha strip, so you can’t see it unless you are right in front of it. So good luck to the new owners in overcoming this problem. (I think before it was Loco Johnny’s, it was a nail salon).
ask,
I know when there is too much garlic. Maybe what was served to me was just a ‘bad’ batch.
Just wanted to say I had lunch here on Tuesday. Had the gyro sandwhich, which was delicious! Met the John, the owner: very nice man. A friend of mine joined me, which was her first fisit. I have to say the food was much better than my first visit. The portion for the gryo is huge! So delicious. I also had their baklava for dessert. Yummy! My friend ordered the same thing but also ordered the hummus. Again, it was better than my first visit.
Looking forward to going back soon.
Monica
I finally had a chance to try Greek Aroma today (and it still bugs me that they have quotes from this website on their “review” section with no credit as to where they came from). My daughter and I went there about 11:30 and after looking over the menu, she realized there weren’t many vegetarian options beyond the salads so she ordered the tzatziki dip and the Greek salad sandwich. She loved the dip and the lightly grilled pita that came with it. She offered me a bite and I agreed that it was delicious.
Our orders came up quickly (I ordered the chicken souvlaki sandwich) and the sandwiches were so stuffed that we couldn’t decide quite how to eat them. She decided to eat the topping like a salad and then dip the pita into her left over tzatziki. I decided to cut my sandwich into manageable pieces to eat but still my toppings spilled all over the place that I ended up eating it with a knife and fork (plastic ones which don’t “cut it” all that well). I loved the grilled chicken which was tender and flavorful and I especially liked the homemade dressing on the sandwich.
My first bite of the chicken was nice and hot but it quickly got cold as the restaurant was freezing. Considering it was a cold, rainy day I was surprised by how much air-conditioning there was in there. I think it must be a very popular lunch destination though, because it started to get pretty crowded in there right as we were leaving.
The food here is authentic, delicious, and very reasonably priced. I’ve lived many different places, in the US and abroad, and this ranks among my favorite quick Greek restaurants anywhere in the world.
I have never been there, but I think the name is totally hilarious. We all know what that means, right? I hope the owner’s decision to name it that was an intentional joke. Especially since it is next door to a sex store. HAHAHAHAHA!
Also, I love greek food. Just hoping the name wasn’t a total fail.