I got a carry out. The lamb chops were cooked to perfection!, vegetables were cooked well and salad was fresh. All in all good meal

Costas is located at 3443 Lorna Road Hoover, AL Alex, took my order and gave me service with a smile. He explained the menu and answered all of my questions. I ordered the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo and Cesar Salad for lunch and it was delicious. The ambiance was quiet with customers dining in for lunch. I use to eat here years ago and I was never disappointed. If you're looking for Italian and Mediterranean cuisine, give COSTAS in Hoover a try. The food is cooked when ordered. They also take to go orders It was the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo for me. Enjoy because I definitely did. read more

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Ordered the chicken Alfredo for two it was enough for at the least 3 people. Trust me chicken is optional the noodles by themselves are well worth it! read more

Costa's Mediterranean Cafe - Chicken Alfredo - Mediterranean Near Me - Birmingham, Alabama

We love Costas!! The food is always great and perfect when feeding a crowd. They have a large dining room where you can eat there or order to go. I called the day before to order for a party. They helped me figure how much I needed to order. They offer great prices for their items and large portions. Much better than Olive Garden or other restaurants. We ordered baked ziti for 40 that comes with salad, bread and dressings. Their house dressing is the best!! It's perfect for salad and dipping your bread. Our total was just over $330. I needed to pick it up at 4:30pm and it was ready on time. The staff are so helpful and everything was perfect! Thank you for great food and great service! read more

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Yelp! We have come back to you! You have made some major decor upgrades. NICE! We were greeted by our wonderful, professional waitress who gave us excellent service, Claire. Girl you deserves a raise. She is making y'all look good!! Keep her! Thanks Claire. Now, on to this food, if you have never had Costas, pinch yourself because you are definitely missing a treat. Bae and I are having our Friday date night. He got lasagna and house salad with blue island dressing. Looks Amazing. For my start, I tried the chicken lemon soup. YUM. I'm not a big lemon person, but this stuff here tasted like some delicious grandma made chicken and rice. So good. My entree was the chicken kabobs with rice pilaf and steamed veggies! Y'all, they better be glad I'm not violent, cause this stuff so good, I needed to slap whoever on kabobs! One word, TENDER! They so good. People be sleeping on Costas, but I'm woke. I'll be back. read more

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We were seated right after walking in, and served with fresh bread and drinks pretty quickly. Our food took about 30 minutes to come, but it was well worth it! Definitely go for dessert (if you've got room, the portions are BIG here). I got the tiramisu and it was phenomenal!! read more

Costa's Mediterranean Cafe - Chicken Souvlaki - Mediterranean Near Me - Birmingham, Alabama

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Costas on Lorna Road has always been like an old friend. The food was always delicious. The service excellent. And the prices reasonable. We moved to Atlanta during Covid, and during the intervening period, the place looks as if it has changed hands. They no longer serve the wonderful crusty garlic bread. Instead they serve the kind of bread sticks they serve at the Olive Garden. The food is still good, but the service has slipped. The waitresses are nice, but they haven't been trained and they come off as indifferent. After we finished our meal, we decided to have dessert. The waitress left our check and walked away. We had to call her back to order dessert. The place is just missing that little effort that used to separate it from the competition. read more

The food is good and easy to share with the family take out. Someone brought us some because my wife recently had surgery. However, horrific decision by Costas to change their bread to basically unsliced hot dog buns. And not very soft ones either. Please go back to the old bread or pick one different than this one. When we get Costas we always would get a triple order of bread. Won't make that mistake now knowing about this switch. read more

Salad was brown. Lasagna was greasy. Understaffed service. Really old clientele from the days when it used to be good. First and last time.

The food here is amazing!!! This baguette that I dipped in seasoned olive oil was the most DELICIOUS and CRUNCHY thing I have ever eaten, and I savoured every second of it. I felt like a king eating at this restaurant. The service was fairly quick, and I enjoyed my time eating here very much! I ordered a baked spaghetti and it was literally the BEST SPAGHETTI I HAVE EVER EATEN. It was crunchy and cheesy and SO TASTY. My one problem with the restaurant was the bathroom. When I went to the bathroom, the floor and counter was very wet and kind of dirty. However, the tiramisu that I had ordered completely made up for it; it was very sweet and tasted like coffee. It was very tasty. This restaurant is great! Would definitely come back here! read more

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Another wonderful meal at Costas. Everything was so fresh and delicious!! The cannelloni and lasagna were terrific. Great bread sticks. Friendly staff and attentive. read more

We have been going to Costas for years. My favorite entree is the pesto chicken, the combination of spices with cherry tomatoes and walnuts is delicious. The portions are generous, so either share an entree or be prepared to take some home for lunch tomorrow. I also recommend the Greek chicken or the moussaka, they are both delicious. One of my favorite things that I always look forward to is the amazing bread. Unfortunately the management has recently changed the bread and it is decidedly inferior in proportion and flavor. I am not sure why they have made this change, but I am suggesting that they go back to the bread that the customers have enjoyed for years. Don't mess with a good thing. read more

The food is always delicious and portion sizes are very generous. You'll definitely have enough to take home. The service is friendly and attentive. It has a cozy Italian vibe to it. read more

Love their Chicken Souvlaki and Greek Pasta. However, we got it to-go about 2 weeks ago and the bread looked like an Olive Garden bread stick. The bread was one of the reasons we ate here. Please bring back the original bread!!! read more

Great food! They definitely give generous portions. The baked spaghetti was top notch! And the pistachio was AMAZING! I didn't take a picture but I'm pretty sure they have the best ranch ever made to! If you want Italian or Greek this is the place to go! read more

Costa's Mediterranean Cafe - Pastichio - Mediterranean Near Me - Birmingham, Alabama

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outstanding We went to Costa for the first time tonight. Saturday, Nov 5, 2022. It will not be our last. Started with bottle of wine ($18.00 Mirassou), salads w/home made dressing, homemade bread rolls, Hubby/Veal Marsala, Me/Veal Picatta. Ended with Tiramisu. Entire meal & service. 10 Stars. Outstanding. $72.00 plus tip. read more

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I'm working on a list of restaurants to try in Birmingham and have been driving by Costa's for years and decided to finally try it tonight. It's a big restaurant with lots of seating. We were immediately given bread upon being seated. We ordered and I ordered the pastisio. We finished our salads and the food came out pretty quickly. The waitress brought me the wrong entree and I stared at it for a second debating on whether to just take the chicken Alfredo or ask for what I'd ordered. I guess she realized it the way I was looking at it and asked me what I had ordered. She took the plate back and said she would be back in a few minutes. 2 minutes later she came out with a plate. It was burning hot on the outside and cold in the middle. It had obviously been reheated and cooked earlier. I think if it was fresher it would have been better, but the combo of it being so hot on the outer ends and so cold in the middle turned me off. I did try a bite of my wife's and her chicken pesto pasta was good. While we were eating the salads, 2 waitresses walked by our table and were commenting out loud and discussion how bad of a job someone had done repairing their tables and painting parts of the room we were in. Probably not the best thing to hear at a restaurant while you are waiting on your food. I want to like this place, but my experience wasn't good. I would consider trying this place again at some point in the future, but it will be far from the top of my list. I wouldn't go out of my way to eat here. read more

Costa's Mediterranean Cafe - Pastichio - Mediterranean Near Me - Birmingham, Alabama

Overpriced Olive Garden. Nothing remarkable here. Food was mediocre at best. Calamari was overcooked, rubbery and so salty. Dollar store cutlery and serving ware. Although bread and fried mozzarella was good. read more

Server was great. Food was good. Out of cucumbers for salad. However management changed the bread from the long, thick breadsticks that were so good for dipping in the seasoned olive oil to a rinkydink breadstick about half the size of an Olive Garden breadstick and unseasoned. Very disappointing and poor decision by management! Will definitely reduce my trips to Costas Med. normally 5 stars but now a 3. read more

First let me begin by saying this has been our favorite restaurant for Authentic Italian food for several years. However, today we were very disappointed with the prices and the change of bread. When we asked for extra bread to go along with the entrees. We were told that each extra piece of bread would be $1.00 a piece. We actually thought it was a joke, however it was not. Well, thanks for the memories. We won't be back. read more

How awful can a restaurant be? Robert Irvine, you are needed, stat!!! I understand from my hubby that this place used to be good, 30 years ago or so. He's a neighborhood native, so he remembers the good days. Food: outdated Service: odd Ambience: outdated and odd The food is abundant. At almost $20 for lunch with salad, lasagna, and iced tea, it should be. You are expected to take home the double portions, but no one wants this meal twice. Service is fast, but intrusive. Maybe you want the waiter to be your new best friend while an elderly lady waits for a chair to sit down, but I don't. If dried and plastic close, fake Greek sculptures, and stained glass is appealing to you, please go. For me, I felt a bad 1970s' inspired setting of what a tourist would think if they had never been to Greece. I love old, family owned restaurants, particularly those with an ethnic influence, so this place was particularly disappointing. read more

Excellent Italian food for decades and we love going there. The service was not very good the night we were there but it wasn't for a lack of effort on the part of our waitress. They seemed to be way under staffed that night and she apologized many times for the slow service. We'll be back and give them another chance. read more

Family style Greek/Italian fare big portions good people. Not cutting edge Italian but very satisfying! Claire always takes great care of us ! read more

I really want to give them a good review since the food has been fairly good every time we have been in. But the last time we were in for dinner there was no AC. In Alabama in July there should be AC in a restaurant that is open and serving dinner. Also, the greeting and seating service is slow even when they aren't very busy. They seem to know a lot of regulars but everyone else was just shuffled to the side. We'll be back, hopefully the next time we are in they will have air. read more

Waitress was superb! Food was mediocre at best. Had a dingy feel and needs freshening up.

So I love getting their beef kabobs! And their bread is amazing. But the service is usually lacking. Despite the service, I do continue to order the beef kabobs so that tells you how much I love the kabobs. Typically order pick-up rather than eating there. Only have eaten inside once and the atmosephere is meh. Whenever I do call to order, a woman use to answer and always sounded very mad and would be very short. I have noticed she hasn't been answering the phones lately. I haven't ordered much other food here than the kabobs so I can't really speak on that. A few times I've tried to call and the phone would signal busy and stay that way. I read on a different review that apparently they do that when they get backed up and decide not to take anymore orders. Oh and i'd like to add, it says on yelp they close at 9:30 on saturday but they just called me a 9pm asking if i'm almost there for my pick up order because they're about to close. So yeah, the beef kabobs are awesome. It comes with salad, pilaf and bread. But the service and customer experience could definitely use some big improvement. read more

We have been faithful patrons of Costas for many years. I don't know if they are hitting a particularly rough patch, but I needed to update my review. The portions are still large and the service is still usually good, although, as always, occasionally, hit and miss. We always order spaghetti marinara, because we want to eat primarily vegetarian. Three out of the past five times we ordered we specified as usual that we wanted marinara only - no meat, but we found bits of meat in the pasta sauce anyway. On one of those visits their usually fresh salad was very wilted, and their customary black olives had been replaced by bits of mushed up green sliced olives instead. It looked as if they had run out of salad and were just trying to piece something together. Aside from the meat issue, out of the last five times we ordered (both takeout and dine in), three times our order was incorrect. (The first time we ordered takeout and received a completely incorrect order so we drove back to the restaurant to have it replaced. When we got home we found out the entire order was wrong a second time so we simply gave up.) We always order angel hair pasta. The first two times we received regular spaghetti in error-- once the angel hair marinara order was replaced with baked spaghetti with meat sauce. The next time we ordered we specifically asked them to make sure it was angel hair. We did receive angel hair that night, but the pasta pieces looked to be only half inch to 1 inch long -- like they had boiled leftover broken bits of angel hair pasta and serve them to us. Both meals were like that - they were basically pasta mush. It was so bad, we threw it all in the trash. During a recent dine in, I attempted to use the restroom and the entire floor in front of the toilet was covered in what appeared to be sewage. It was disgusting. The bathroom was not marked out of order. Then on the next visit we found a very long hair one of the salads. I am aware that can happen anywhere, but it was sort of the last straw for us. At least the hair was lovely - it was a beautiful bright shade of hot pink. Costas and Hoover has always been a happy place for our family to dine together, but lately the freshness/quality of the food and the cleanliness of the restaurant seems lacking. read more

We were served by Carrie and she was awesome! Great food and huge portions. Something for everyone.

This place makes me think of the first few minutes of an episode of Kitchen Nightmares. The decor is tattered and dated, the menu has too many items for all of them to be good, and the execution is lackluster at best. Don't get me wrong. If you just want to sit down and have a meal, you can do that here. It's cheap, there's never a wait, the food will serve the purpose of preventing starvation, and with the right expectations you may even think that it's good. I imagine that there are a lot of things frozen in the kitchen, and that there's a microwave back there with a lot of miles on it. All that being said, I would love to see this place revamped, revitalized and brought up to its potential. Until then, for me...its a hard pass. read more

Costa's Mediterranean Cafe - Mediterranean Near Me - Birmingham, Alabama

I had been wanting pastitchio (Greek lasagna) for sometime. I had noticed in a YELP review a local restaurant, Costas, having it on the menu as Pasticho??? The inside was somewhat dated but appropriate for the fare. Started out with their bread which made the trip worthwhile. It was a small loaf with butter and garlic served piping hot. Very good!!! Took a pass on the sald and choose soup. Todays selection was lemon chicken and rice. Perfect for a cold wintery day. Being from south Al we needed warming up!!! Best described as heavenly. Wifey settled in on a pasta dish while I went my ol time favorite pastitchio. After enjoying the bread and soup we decided to split the pastitchio and take the pasta home. The pastitchio reminded of the Greek restaurant I worked at some 45 years ago. Extremely good!!! Texture, flavor, and serving size. We look forward to returning!!! read more

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I've been going to Costas for years. Really, in the past 5 years or so, things have gone down hill. I used to actually love their chicken Marsala but when I ordered it the other day, you would have thought the pasta was cooked in oil. Beside what seemed like greasy pasta, the chicken was poorly prepared and I found myself adding garlic salt to actually give it an inkling of flavor. It was hospital-food bland otherwise. Zero detection of a Marsala sauce. My gf got the baked spaghetti and it too was rather bland and seemed to have a lot of water from the noodles and oil from the meat sauce (which didn't have much ground beef if any at all). I can even tell they are adding more olive oil than balsamic vinaigrette in their salad dressing. Your best bet at this point is probably the lasagna. Sure the portions are "big" but getting the baked spaghetti for two costs $13 a person for a bland spaghetti you can make better at home for $5 a person. I used to love this place but I've tried sporadically for the last 5 years and have only been disappointed. read more

NO STARS‼Absolutely the rudest staff ever we were told just a moment by two different non smiling women who acted upset that we came in we left after neither came back for 15 minutes They definitely not going to get another opportunity to mistreat me and as many people as I can inform. read more

This was the first time I've ever experienced something akin to Kitchen Nightmares. I'm not sure if this was an off night because of the crazy thunderstorm (considering the previous favorable reviews), but I wouldn't recommend eating here. The restaurant had been closed for about a week for repairs and renovations. However, it thunderstormed while we were getting our drinks/orders in, and then the ceiling over the to-go (?) section was leaking for the rest of the time we were there. That aside, the food was not very good. The portions are pretty large, particularly for the Italian dishes. However, our gyro did not seem like the characteristic gyro (i.e., shaved slices of meat) and initially there was only a dab of tzatziki sauce. The server was very nice and gave us a generous amount when we asked for more. Overall, I would not recommend eating here given that the ceiling is leaking (no idea what is going on in the places we can't see, but I feel any leaks are health hazards) and the food is just not delicious. There are better, more affordable Italian and Mediterranean restaurants in Birmingham. One star given for the good service and bread. read more

If I could give a negative star I would. Recently been reading how the service has become horrible. They only car about their drive thru. We arrived today @3:44pm to beat the friday crowd. After great seating and waitress attention We ordered our meal within 7 minutes. The hot salads arrived after 10 minutes. They now charge $1.75 for a bread stick after the first one. After 88 more minutes and no food, watching numerous people come in, get seated, eat, pay and leave, our waitress was even upset. We decided just to walk out. I asked the owner where I should send my bill for my time and walked out. last time we order thru door dash and they left half the order out. Thanks Costas for destroying the one Friday night out my wife and I have had in 2 years. We ended up eating in a hot car from a McDonalds drive thru fish sandwich. Will never eat there again after 20 years of patronage. read more

Costa's Mediterranean Cafe - Costas bread and water after 88 minutes - Mediterranean Near Me - Birmingham, Alabama

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Terrible customer service and rude staff. My carry out order was incorrect and they were unwilling to do anything about it unless I drove all the way back to Hoover to bring the food back even after acknowledging that they knew it was incorrect. Even if I had brought it back, they could not have reserved it to anyone since it had left the facility and was cold to boot. It's a shame because this place used to be really good, but I will not be back. Additionally, the carry out portion sizes have gotten smaller, and when I inquired about the change I was told the sizes had been the same for the last 20 years which I know is untrue. Sadly, I've heard others say they've had terrible experiences here too. read more

Their meals for two are great! Plentiful and makes a lovely meal. Especially great if you need to take someone a hot meat!

We were impressed by the food we had here earlier this year. We ordered the calamari and the shrimp scampi again but the calamari was salty and different than before and the shrimp scampi was lacking any flavor. Luckily, they were understanding and replaced the entree. While considering the current situation with restaurants this place could surely use some help. Service was slow. There weren't many customers but only one waitress. She forgot to bring our water and I had to grab ketchup off another table. Other tables were not cleared off for the entire time we were there. There's also flies all around. read more

"We give you enough for left overs." Could not be truer. I cannot believe how much food this restaurant serves. I had the baked ziti which was over all pleasant. The sauce was a bit watery and the noodles were a tad overcooked, but reheating the food was great for leftovers and I was super happy. I'm a food critique, and was genuinely impressed with the broad range of flavors we experienced. They also serve some bread, which I'm pretty sure comes from the Lord Himself. This bread was exceptional--hot, flavorful, and plentiful. They also serve a salad as well that is fairly large prior to the meal. So on top of a salad and bread, the meal is basically to take home! I also like the interior of the restaurant. Seems clean, everyone seemed very nice as well. Always picked up our table, and kept the refills coming. read more

They know how to cook lamb, which keeps my dad happy! Everything we have ordered from here has been good. I think this is a great restaurant for a family meal, as the servings are generous and the food will keep everyone happy. read more

I picked up x2 family dinners to go. Everything is bagged up so there's not a way to check it. But I had to repeat my order at the window when I picked it up, so he knew what to get. When I got home, roughly 45 minutes away, I opened it to see that I had the wrong food. I had people over for dinner who were expecting to eat. So I had to work with what I had. When I called the restaurant to tell them they told me I could bring the food back (uneaten) and they would replace it. I explained the situation and that I had a group of people over for dinner and lived a distance away. He told me it didn't matter that when they mess orders up people usually bring the wrong thing back and exchange it. Which makes sense, for people who live locally. Other than that, there was zero effort to make it right. The appropriate thing should've been to either replace with what I actually ordered or offer some type of refund. It's unrealistic to drive 45 minutes out of the way for their mistake. There was a generic apology and nothing else. The family dinners also come with bread. The bread that I received was only enough for one of the family dinners. Didn't even take time to mention that since my issue was so easily disregarded by him. read more