As I stepped into The Olympic Flame, it felt like I left Iowa and entered Greece. Simplistic decor, all with a very authentic Greek and Mediterranean flair to it. I started with the hummus and a Greek lager, Aris. The beer was very simple, more on the hoppy and bitter side with notes of cereal. Now, for the hummus. Roasted red peppers added a sweet note, which balanced the chickpeas. A bit oily, yet delightful. The pita bread was lovely, warm and soft to perfection. Now it was time for the main course, "souvlaki". Marinated pork cuts in pita bread with tomato, onion, and tzatziki. I don't enjoy onions or tomatoes, but I couldn't put this down. Between the perfectly marinated and seasoned pork, the cool tzatziki and flavorful vegetables, it was the perfect combination of flavors to fill me up. The only downside was the wait staff. I was the only person there that was eating, and the server never checked on me, and I eventually had to ask for my check after waiting 10+ minutes post meal. However, sometimes wait staff has off days. Overall, a very pleasant experience with a wonderful menu. I will definitely come back. read more

Well first off I've never had much experience with Greek cuisine. With that being said the food I had was amazing and the service was awesome. The owner, his wife and the rest of the staff made my wife and I feel welcome. It was quiet when we got there and it felt like walking into a friends house for dinner and drinks. We swapped stories about the old Greek Des Moines steak houses that unfortunately are no more. So I'll give a rundown of our food. Appetizer: Combo plate: Gyro meat and fried Zucchinni with tzatziki sauce. It was awesome the meat was moist and flavorful, the zucchinni was hot and crisp. And the tzatziki sauce tasted fresh and heavenly, it had pieces of cucumber and the dill was not overpowering. Dinner: Soup: it had chicken, celery, carrots and pasta in a smooth and velvety broth Salad: fresh ingredients, refreshing flavors but alas neither my wife and I cared for the dressing. Entrees: Gyro dinner: My wife ordered it she raved about how tasty it was. she ended up taking most of it home and it didn't last but a couple more hours at the house before it got eaten. Combo plate: This came with an order of Pasticcio and an order of Moussaka. So I'll break these down since I ate it that's easy to do. Pasticcio it was a mix of flavorful and bright tastes. The pasta was cooked perfect, the cream sauce had hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. Don't let the cinnamon and nutmeg turn you off it was an amazing flavor that added a depth I can barely describe. Now the Moussaka, oh the Moussaka....breaded eggplant, sliced potatoes, ground beef with red sauce, all topped with that amazing cream sauce. I was apprehensive but I was blown away. You have to eat a bit of all the layers to get the full effect of the dish. And when I did I was at a loss for words. All in all we will be back. My wife want to try the Steak De' Burgo and I'm gonna try the Lambchops. I'd like to thank the people at the Olympic Flame for the start to a wonderful evening out for my wife and I. read more

The food was really good. The server did not seem very disinterested. There was only one server on for lunch but she only came over a total of three times. read more

Quiet and cozy interior, courteous and knowledgeable staff are serving amazingly fresh and authentic food.

I LOVE ME SOME GYROs. This is actually the place I went to when I first visited Des Moines 5 years ago, and I've never revisted it until yesterday! Price: Look to spend about $6.50 for gyro sandwich but you can upgrade it to come w a side salad & fries for $9. Parking: Metered Street Food: I would order the Gyro sandwiches because they're so filling and fresh tasting with their tatziki sauce. They do not skimp on the meat either. I would NOT upgrade it to come w the side salad because that is drenched in dressing and was not enjoyable, and the fries were very few and were not tasty. Service: Good Overall, this place is awesome for gyro sandwiches. read more

I was really disappointed with my experience here. The restaurant was full and the one waiter was very inattentive. We sat for 5 minutes before he even brought the water, and he didn't look at us or acknowledge us at all. The food was ok, but it was all somewhat cold. I had the soups and it was delicious, but again, cold. The feta on the salad was homemade and delish but that was the highlight of the whole meal. We got ready to leave but, again, were ignored and we needed to go because our parking meter was running out. So we went up to the counter to pay since the waiter obviously wasn't seeing us. He was in the kitchen, he looked at my friend, shook his head, and then we waited another minute before he came out to take our payment. It was really frustrating, and I certainly will never go back! read more

The good: -cute environment, you can tell it's family owned and feels "authentic" -large portion sizes! -everything is very fresh, the ingredients seem to be really good quality The not-so-good: -the avgolemono soup is just so-so. -they dont have tabbouleh. I LOVE tabbouleh, so this was quite a disappointment. read more

Finally got to come here for lunch on the weekend. It is smaller, but cozy and clean. The owner lady was friendly and the place filled up quickly! My husband and I ordered a regular and chicken gyro, and both were delicious! We also got the flaming cheese, which was quite delightful and delicious. I also couldn't leave without trying the baklava....which was well worth it! The only thing I might suggest is some sort of greek drink? All of the food was tasty, and prepared very quickly and accurately! The options were pretty healthy (as Mediterranean food usually is). I was unable to find any gyro option that was gluten-free, which would have been helpful, but definitely not a deal-breaker! read more

One visit last weekend with a date. Place is kind of small.Clean.We were there about 2PM. She ordered a gyros and fris...I had basically the same thing-Sloviaki- (I hope I spelled that right)..both were GREAT!Even the fries were good cold.Flatbread with meat,onion,tomato and Tadzhiki sauce...god I loved it! read more

The food is fantastic, no doubt about it, which would earn a place 5 stars but the service has much to be desired, so I give it a 3. My previous trip was a nightmare, to say the least. We got a table for 8 and sat there for 60 minutes with menus. No one came to give us water or take our drink order, even. When I tried to get the attention of a server, he snapped at me, "You're either going to have to wait now or wait later!" and walked away. Needless to say, half our party got up and left. A few of us stayed because we had a small child who needed to eat soon. By the time we got our food, it was fantastic and we did not leave hungry. The store owner did apologize for the long wait, but it left a bad taste. I returned tonight with refreshed perspective. We had prompt service in the beginning: getting our drinks and our food orders right away (though they forgot to bring my beer I ordered until I got my entree). When you order a dinner, it comes with soup, salad, and bread - that was all perfectly timed, followed by our entrees. Once we were finished with our meals and looking for boxes and a dessert menu, no one was around. We waited at least 45 minutes to get a chance to get refills on water, box up our meals, and order dessert. Long story short, if you're looking for wonderful Greek food, you've found the right spot. Just plan on spending at least 2 hours or longer for dinner to get the full experience. read more

Fabulous food, ambience with belly dancer walking around. Very small and very busy place! Service needs some work or just more servers.

Staff was friendly and so kind to my two 4yrs olds. My gyro was delicious and the space made me feel like I was in Greece again. Price is fair and we will be back! read more

The food is incredible: we got the Greek potatoes, I got a large Greek salad with gyro meat and my husband a gyro with baked potato. The meal was so great but it took FOREVER to get. We waited over an hour for our food. Probably 45 minutes for our appetizer. Overall, great place but takes forever to get your food. read more

A longtime Des Moines restaurant that is definitely worth visiting. Olympic Flame is great! Since my husband and I live nearby, we're here frequently during the week, generally for an early dinner. It's hard to come here and not go for the saganaki and gyro dinner, but I've had the moussaka and calamari and really enjoyed both. You get a LOT of food with the dinner options--soup, great sides, salad, etc. Service and kitchen are often manned (well) by one or two people, often the owner. Service is always great since it's friendly, casual, and never overbearing. read more

Stumbled upon while walking around. As a West Coaster in the area, this was very pleasing. Had the gyro platter. The salad was great, the fries...well...not so much, but it was the gyro I was after and it was fabulous! I also splurged and had the baklava. Yum read more

Olympic Flame Restaurant - Mediterranean Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

Reasonably priced Greek food. The service was prompt and courteous, and the food was good. I would easily recommend this restaurant. read more

Olympic Flame Restaurant - Great Greek food in the heartland! - Mediterranean Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

Literally , quite likely the best Falafel & Gyro in the city! Age proves that! Great family owned small business who keep it consistent for years and years, and make it taste amazing. Best eatery in the East Village for old school enthusiasts! read more

I felt really awkward trying to eat while a belly dancer shimmied around our table. I wasn't to thrilled with the seating, let alone the food. I really love Greek food, but was expecting more from this place. It would be nice if there was a buffet option. Maybe there is and I just haven't taken a second gander, but I would love to try samples of the different types of Greek food before I get too judgmental about this place. But, after visiting 2× I'm just not sold on it. read more

I've been told this place has been open for 30 years. I had the gyro with Greek fries and deep fried mushrooms. The gyro was ok, nothing extraordinary. The meat was a bit dry, plain and tasted like your basic gyro. The Greek fries were sliced russet potatoes season with feta cheese and spices. Could be a little more crispy. The restaurant is cute, little Greece themed spot. read more

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Amazing food and amazing people. One of our favorite spots in Des Moines. I'm only continuing to write so I can post this review.

Excellent food and service. Got order to go with Covid but they are open for indoor dining. Everything was hot and delicious. Soup was incredible. Pricing was very reasonable. read more

I can't believe I never went to this place... I've been missing out for the last 2 years. I went here last weekend with my boyfriend and we were both very pleased with the service and food. We ordered a combination entree that had samplers of different popular dishes in the restaurant. We also ordered a gyro and it was sooooo goood. The meal was pretty cheap for the amount of food and quality we got at the restaurant. The waitress was super nice as well, which is always a plus. Will definitely return again someday... read more

We love this place! We get take out due to COVID. The owner is really nice. The food is superb! The gyro meat is so flavorful. Love the Greek salad. The fried squid batter has a nice spice to it. The souvlaki, dolmanthes, tiropita, and spanakopeta are all great! And, they have very good tzatziki sauce. It's a little pricey but worth the money! We have become regulars here. read more

Went for a quick business lunch, really good Greek food which is not quite common in the Midwest. Only down side was it took a while to get the food but otherwise a great experience. The owner was really nice and caring, she also gave us a whirlwind speech on the history and nature of the dishes in menu. Definitely recommend if you're into trying ethnic cusines. read more

Great good and super friendly staff. This is a great place to take your family for authentic Greek food at a great price.

First of all, I really like the fact that there are only two people ever running this place. The dad who's in the back cooking his a** off and his son who looks like he's a teenager working the front. Both doing a good job service-wise and cooking, for the most part. I've been here twice with friends over the span of about 8 months. The first time I went I ordered the sampler that included some little sausage wrapped in grape leaves, musakah and a couple of other very forgettable tastes. My friend ordered the same thing and didn't like it either. We both figured it was just the nature of the dishes/spices and if I went back I'd order something else. Another friend's fish he ordered was seriously burnt on the bottom so they should watch that better. A bunch of us went to see the belly dancer, which was kinda cool but akward at times to be honest. She was taking dollar bills in her waistband like it was a freakin strip club. I thought it was a tad inappropriate, there were children there lol. So, this weekend I went with a friend and really enjoyed what I ordered. We chose the flaming cheese, which I highly recommend! It comes to you on a plate and the waiter lights it on fire in the air before he serves it. Really fun! I then ordered the chicken gyro, since I don't really like lamb, and it was delicious. Another appetizer we ordered was the pita and hummus. Very very good. Authentic. I should know I spent a fair amount of time in the Middle East. We ordered the baklavah at the end. I've had better. The piece was small and spiced differently than what I'm used to. My friend loved it though. I'll be back for sure! read more

This is a fun restaurant to go to for sure. On Friday's, and possibly other days I am not sure, they have a belly dancer dancing around. It is a bit awkward at times, especially when she is close to your table but it is a good conversation starter for a first date haha. The food is really good. Their dinners come with soup, salad, your main dish, and bread. The soup was really good when I had it. The last time I was there I ordered the chicken gyro....it was reallly good! By far the best gyro I have had. We also had the hummus and pita bread appetizer....it is delicious and comes with a lot of hummus and they will bring you more pita bread as you eat it at no charge. We had the baklava for dessert...I have only had it a few times and this one I loved. I also like that it is always the same people cooking every time you go there, the owners. So you know every time you go the food is going to be good. read more

We stopped by here for the first time and found the homemade lemon chicken soup to be very tasty. The Greek salad dressing was desirable. My wife had the gyro and loved it, I had the pork kabob's and thought the Greek herbs and spices were just right. The staff was pleasant. We were there on a Friday night and they had a belly dancer that performed and the kids at the next table sat quietly watching the belly dancer. read more

My lady friend (88_88) and I shared the spanakopita appetizer, saganaki, and gyro platter. Did you catch that? SAGANAKI! The Greek flaming cheese! So few places have this, yet it is A++ delicious would eat again (and again and again). Spanakopita was also nom and had the optimal (according to my preferences) ratio of filling to phyllo. Good gyro and salad. There were fries but I'm not sure why they existed. read more

I was in Des Moines for business; it'd been a long week and a colleague pulled up a few restaurants on her phone for lunch on our last day in town. We all love Greek food so we jumped at the chance to go to the Olympic Flame Restaurant in the East Village. We were all delighted! The staff were very friendly, and since it was peak lunch-hour, the place was pretty busy. The gentleman was apologetic when he realized he hadn't yet brought us our drinks, but none of us complained, not a word was said about it at the table - my point is that we didn't mind. The food was delicious! The menu offered traditional Greek lunch options, and I chose the large Greek salad with chicken. My colleague chose the same and another ordered the gyro sandwich. I thought the dressing was perfectly flavored, and they served it with heaps of feta cheese (a delight!); the chicken was wonderfully seasoned. Delicious warm pita bread was served and was devoured in minutes. My colleagues went home that night and I stayed; I loved the restaurant so much, and when I saw some of the dinner options online, I decided to go back. The staff were very friendly and spoke enthusiastically when I asked about some of the things that came with my dinner. I ordered the Lamb Chops which was served with dolmatha, spanikopita, and tiropita ( new to me!). I loved all of it, and went home with a piece of baklava - it didn't last too long before I tasted it, and also loved it. I highly recommend the Olympic Flame Restaurant if you ever find yourself in Des Moines - the staff are wonderful people and the food is really delicious. Also, the prices are so reasonable! The restaurant is very family-friendly, and yet intimate at the same time. I cannot say enough good things about this restaurant. read more

We are from Minneapolis and were looking for something tasty for dinner while in town. The wait for zombie burgers was too long so we ended up here. Boy were we happy. This is some of the best Greek food I've ever had (and we have Greek neighbors and good options in Minneapolis). The dinner platters are an amazing assortment of Greek treats like spanikopita and dhalmades. It was well worth the price and we left satisfied with full stomachs. I'm glad we stumbled across this place. read more

The service can be slow. We waited over half an hour for our orders to be taken then the waiter promised our appetizers within three minutes but it took him over ten minutes to even come back with the drinks. The Greek fries are excellent as is the hummus and pita. Don't order the salad. It is drenched in vinegar and nearly made me choke. (I love vinegar on a salad but this was simply far too much.) The fried squid, the gyro dinners and the dolmathes are good as are the sides. The tiropita was especially noteworthy. For desert they have baklava and kadaife, both excellent, particularly the kadaife. The atmosphere is generally convivial, however there is a belly dancer on Friday nights. I did not find this to be awkward, however it seemed to make several of the other guests uncomfortable. Generally this is a good Greek restaurant. I was going to give three stars for service but bumped it up one for the quality of the food. read more

Wonderful restaurant with great, authentic (as far as I know) food, with excellent service. It appears family owned and operated, with a cute atmosphere of painted columns and decorative Greek items. The gyro here is huge and always good, and I know I need to try the other menu items. We did order the saganaki, or "fire cheese" which is fun and delicious, and the baklava, which has a generous portion for the price. The only reason I rated less than 5 stars is due to the belly dancer that is there on Friday nights...the restaurant is so small that her shimmying around right by your table and constant eye contact is kind of uncomfortable while you are eating, and especially while you are on a date. I kind of wish they would discontinue the belly dancer because Friday night is my favorite to eat out, and we occasionally pass on Olympic Flame to avoid the show. read more

This is one of Des Moines hidden treasures, it has in the east village for 26 years. The staff is always amazing, I love when staff at restaurants recognize you and like to catch up. The Olympic Flame is owned by Angelo a Greek immigrant. I find a dinner at the Olympic Flame to be one of the best valued meals in the metro. For about $16, before tip, you get your entree, orzo, some finger appetizers (dolma and two filo dough pastries), salad, soup, and bread. Of course they have amazing gyros, but my other favorite is the combination plate, I usually alternate between the two. The combination plate consists of pasticcio which is like a Greek lasagna with elbow pasta, and moussaka which is like an eggplant and ground beef lasagna. On Friday nights they have live entertainment in the form of a belly dancer. If you want a quiet dinner avoid Friday. They do have different lunch and dinner menus here. If you are here for the first time you must try the saganaki, a Greek cheese stick, when they bring it to your table they light it on fire, great for the kids or if the restaurant is a bit cold. Other menu highlights, lamb chops, calamari, beef liver, a great selection of steaks, and don't forget the baklava for dessert! The Olympic Flame has something for everyone and is a great local establishment, I would recommend it to everyone to enjoy Opa! read more

Olympic Flame Restaurant - The combination plate! - Mediterranean Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

This is my favorite local restaurant in the city. If you want to get away from chain stores and fast food, come enjoy REAL Greek food. Angelo has the Greek newspaper flown in everyday. When it's slow between lunch and dinner crowd, you can often see him sitting there reading the Greek print. Since my kids and I can't read the Greek alphabet, we take turns looking at the pictures and making up a story about what the article is about. The Gyros are amazing. Olympic Flame is the real deal. read more

Came here for the first time and I was astonished by the quick service, friendly waitress, and FABULOUS food! All of our food was cooked perfectly and I had absolutely no complains. Will be coming back again for sure! read more

Nice little mom/pop joint in the East Village. Dined-in and ordered two Gyro's off dinner menu. Meal included bread, soup, salad and Gyro plate which also had a few other items. Not the best I've ever had but definitely a solid meal. Overall we both were very satisfied and felt like it was good bang for our buck. read more

I really enjoyed my time at this restaurant. All of the staff was very friendly and my food was tasty. I definitely recommend visiting.

I can see how this place could get some stars here in Des Moines simply because it has no real competition. The fact is that this restaurant unfortunately is just average. The gyros is not even real, as they use pre-made formed meat that is placed on the spit. Real Greek places layer the meat. The pita bread is not homemade and I question if the tzatziki sauce is homemade as well. This is a fast food Greek restaurant dressed up like a family style restaurant. On a positive note, the servers were great and real nice. read more

Great restaurant with great gyros!!! The owner and staff are so nice! I love spending my lunch hour here! After only a few visits the waitress knew my name and order. If you are looking for great Greek food with the home-town feel, this place is for you! read more