Jimmy Su

Came to Café Santorini for happy hour with my brother and started with the grilled octopus and Santorini garlic fries. Both were delicious and our bartender Eduardo was amazing. We moved to our patio reservation once our friend arrived and ordered a pitcher of red sangria. At $65, it felt overpriced and not worth it. We would skip it next time. We ordered the grilled octopus again so our friend could try it. Also got the pear and walnut salad and the burrata. Both were fresh and full of flavor. For mains, we had the steak and frites with an incredible au poivre sauce, red curry seafood risotto, and beef brochette with hummus and pita. Dessert was a hit. The tiramisu was one of the best I have had. Service from Samuel and the rest of the staff was excellent. I have been coming here for over 10 years and the food is always consistently great. Parking can be tricky but there are paid garages nearby. The balcony patio is perfect for fresh air and a great spot for a first date. Inside can get loud so not ideal for a quiet conversation.

+7

Steve Reed

It’s always a wonderful experience at Cafe Santorini. Jessica was our server and she was delightful! A great smile goes a long way to make the food taste great! 4 men, 1 being a boring vegetarian! I split the chicken kabobs and the beef kabobs with one of my friends! Perfect combination! I wish they would expand their menu to include Greek classics but that was yesteryear! A wonderful lunch on the patio! The atmosphere is so pleasant and the noise level is as expected in a great Greek Restaurants!

Naira Sukoyan

Cafe Santorini in Pasadena offers a great Mediterranean dining experience. I had the Seafood Risotto, which was rich and creamy with perfectly cooked seafood. My husband had the Branzino, which was tender with a crispy skin, letting the fresh flavors shine. The ambiance is charming, with a lovely rooftop patio. Service was friendly and attentive. Highly recommend for a great meal in Old Pasadena!

Emiliano Noriega-Petti

My boyfriend I had a wonderful time at the cafe. Location is really cute and the views are nice if you eat on the outside balcony. The cocktails were very good I had a negroni. This place has made the most tender lamb shank that I've had so far and the potatoes that went along with it were really good as was the apricot sauce. I would definitely go here again expect to spend around $100 for a good time and a very well cooked meal. Finally our waitress was very nice and her suggestions were excellent. Service was very quick and we never had to ask for refills on water or anything like that.

JohnB 00007

Delicious as always. We had a delicious appetizer plate with olives, feta cheese, cucumber etc. It was perfect. I had the seafood risotto and my relatives had cioppino and a shrimp dish. All wonderful. For dessert we had flourless chocolate cake. Everyone was happy. The service and seating on the balcony were great. Try it.

+3

​We were here for a company event, and the outside balcony is really lovely—it’s a beautiful spot in a great part of Pasadena. The food was good and flavorful with a solid variety of Mediterranean dishes, and the staff were both pleasant and helpful throughout the evening. ​However, from a logistics and planning perspective, there is a major accessibility issue: the restaurant is not ADA accessible. You have to navigate large flights of stairs to get to the space, which is a huge factor to consider depending on your group. For parking, there’s a lot across the street that runs about $10–$12. It’s a nice venue, but the lack of accessibility is a significant drawback for me.

Chat Sarmiento-Steinwald

Stop by here to have a quick dinner after my appointment in Pasadena. I basically googled the place and checked it on open table then booked it. It was on a second level which I wasn’t expecting, but not a problem at all, and I was received well by the receptionist. She offered if I wanted the Patio, but since I was alone, I opted for the inside table, which was fine because it was more quiet. Steffi, the table server was super nice in spite of being very busy serving the patio area as well. I had the grilled octopus for my starter, and I’m so glad it was one of the best octopus I’ve ever had. For Dr the portion was pretty generous so I ended up just ordering the Mediterranean salad. It was really good. But I needed some kind of bread to eat those lemony tangy flavors of both the octopus and the salad, and so I asked Steffi for some bread I guess just to lessen the acidity. She responded sure you can have some, but we charge for it. And at that point, I didn’t care cause my food was too tangy to be eaten by itself. I figured for three bucks I can pay for bread that used to be a gratis in most restaurants I go to. And I’m not a person that would nickel and dime everything but because it kind of is weird to be paying for bread in a restaurant like this place. I made sure I checked how much they charged the bread that they served me. Much to my surprise I was charged six dollars for the bread. You’ll be the judge if it’s truly worth the six dollars. I took a picture of the bread in here. Ambience was good and quiet because I was inside there was only one other table with a couple eating next to me. I looked outside on the patio. It was almost full, and the ambience was really nice also as well. There is paid public parking across the street which was $10 for me for the whole time I ate. Would I go back there? Probably will if I will not be alone because I felt I wasted so much by dining alone. For example, I wasted 4 slices of the bread because I only ate two slices, and barely finished half of the big bottle of the Pellegrino sparkling water which I wish I was told they only had one large bottle being that I was alone.

+4

Daniel Naccarati

This restaurant is on my top 3 of all LA. I have brought at least 67 new families to this restaurant. All 250 times I’ve been here I’ve gotten the Calamari, Bruschetta, Large greek salad extra cheese, and the absolutely mouth watering Farfalle con pesto /pollo and add shrimp. Nothing better than this combo in all of LA. I went back recently and then again today only to find out 2/4 of those items changed. Not necessarily for the better either. The salad no longer has lettuce, i under the traditional (Horiatiki) does not have lettuce, but its always had lettuce and now without the lettuce the plate is 50% smaller yet the price is the same. Then the worst part that broke my family’s heart, was changing the farfalle to paccheri… dont get me wrong, the paccheri is good but it comes with like 12 pieces. The farfalle was a lot more filling and was absolutely perfect. I literally had to go to Mi Piace after to eat again because the portions were not filling like before. I understand there is new ownership and the sons are taking charge and I commend them looking for change, but for all thats good in this world, please put that lettuce and farfalle back.. some of the other regulars said the same. I love this place but really hope some miracle happens so the farfalle gets back. Ironically i went in to record another video for my social media food page and out of respect held back. Hope to come back to the amazing food that was always here and hope to be to adjust this review to the 5 stars it deserves and to re-write this whole thing.

Jenny Garcia

I’ve been to this place many times, and it never disappoints. The service is always excellent, and the rooftop seating offers a nice atmosphere—perfect for a relaxed meal or drinks. The food is consistently good, and they have a solid wine selection. It’s become a favorite neighborhood spot for me. If you’re looking for a reliable place with good food and a pleasant ambiance, I’d recommend giving it a try.

Luxury Ride

Excellent food food, very good service. On the pricy side. I would have given it 5 stars, but for some strange reason, management decided to put a pretty loud group of 8 people right next to our table, although the restaurant was empty as you see on the pictures. There was no reason to put those people right next to our table.

+3

Peter Chun

The food was delicious and the upstairs patio was very nice. The tables are really close together so once someone is sitting next to you, it is hard focusing on your conversation when you can hear everything the other party is saying. Staff was efficient and courteous but waiter could have been more engaging. He did his job. Had the lamb kebab, red curry risotto, and fried smelts and all were tasty. The apple tart dessert was a little over cook and had a weird texture. Would order the tiramisu next time. Parked across the street which was $12 dollars. Next time we will park in the structure one block to the east on Union. They charge $1.00 per 20 minutes on the weekdays so we could have saved $6 there. Glad the elevator was working. Just to the left of the main entrance in the alley way. You will have to call them to come down to open the door. Will probably come again.

Kim Kieu

I have been here over 30 times since my daughter was born until she went to college. This review is for overall experiences. When I first went there, the food was good. They gave free bread, it was a stable to this restaurant. They no longer give the bread. They also add a 3% fee on top of the tax. It's hidden at the very bottom of the menu. Why are customers paying for your staff health care, if your staff are that important to your restaurant, provide them with health insurance. The food is not as good. The removed a lot of vegetarian options (no more pasta, no more pizzas). They have salads, and a vegetarian mezza tasting menu. On my last visit, I order of a vegetarian platter, they put meat on there, ruin my lunch. This place is not really greek food, it's more middle Eastern food. The location is great, indoor and balcony sitting. They do take a while to sit even if the restaurant is not busy. Note pictures are taken over the years, they no longer have pizza, and the sandwich.

+1

Hani Alqaji

Nice sitting area, Service was not great but ok. Very expensive compared to food quality. Taste: some dishes were good and some were ok. My wife told the waiter her kabab was overly cooked the waiter wanted to prove her wrong and did not change the dish. My 15 months baby boy's grilled chicken was chared and waiter insisted that was ok but babies can not eat chared meat so I spent good amount of my time peeling the chicken to feed him the inside of it only!

Gabriel Radford

A really nice visit featuring an incredible rooftop patio and wonderful service - thank you Frankie. The SANTORINI MEZZE TASTING was top notch. really great. Here is the problem - I ordered steak frites medium rare and it arrived well done. not medium well. brown inside well. Also over seasoned which is hard to do for me. It was truly unacceptable for a fine restaurant. In good company so it would have been a scene to return but should have been.

We ordered the bransino, chopino, and risotto last night for my birthday dinner. Right off the bat, each dish was poorly presented and didn’t look sufficient for the price. The bransino had completely burnt skin and the fish was served on top of flavorless potatoes to make it seem thicker than it was. It was really disappointing as bransino is typically a dish I love to eat. When I mentioned the burnt skin on the bransino to a waiter, he left and never did anything about it. Instead, another waiter came to our table and asked if the risotto we ordered was good enough to be a Valentine’s Day special. Later on, our waiter came back and offered to give us a free tiramisu for the issues with the bransino. I expected them to apologize for the mistake and ask me if I wanted something else to make up for it, but instead we got a desert we didn’t want. Additionally, we got the check without asking for it as if they were trying to push us out of the restaurant and make room. That was in such poor taste and we were incredibly disappointed yet again.