Kostas Lazanas describes himself as half Greek and half redneck, and that combination turns out to be exactly what Rowlett needed. He grew up training under Charlie Venetis at Opa Grille as a kid, spent years working the floor and the kitchen at other Greek restaurants around Dallas, and in 2013 finally opened a place of his own on Lakeview Parkway, a space that used to be a Chinese restaurant. He picked the name for what it means, not for any connection to the place he trained, and thirteen years later it’s still one of the most reliably good Greek kitchens in the eastern suburbs.
The menu leans into shareable, communal eating in the way a real taverna should. Dolmades, grape leaves stuffed with beef and rice, arrive draped in avgolemono, a silky sauce built from egg, lemon, and rice broth that manages to be both rich and bright at the same time. Saganaki, flaming cheese doused tableside with lemon juice, is the appetizer that turns a quiet dinner loud, and the shout of “Opa!” that follows it across the room is not staged, it’s just what happens.
For anyone who can’t decide, the Mount Olympus platter solves the problem by refusing to make anyone choose: gyro, broiled sausage, pastitsio, chicken souvlaki, oven-roasted potatoes, pita, and tzatziki, all on one plate built for a real appetite. Go bigger with the Tour of Greece, which piles on lamb chops, brisket pastitsio, gyro, loukaniko, chicken souvlaki, potatoes, and fire feta, essentially the entire menu compressed onto a single platter and treated by regulars as a genuine challenge rather than a normal order. Moussaka, layered eggplant, spiced ground beef, and béchamel, and pastitsio, baked penne under a Graviera cheese sauce and a blanket of creamy béchamel and tomato, cover the comfort-food end of things for anyone who’d rather not share.
Before any of that arrives, start with Yia Yia’s Lentil Soup, named for the Greek word for grandmother and treated by regulars as close to sacred, and the sampler platter, which stacks hummus, dolmathakia, tzatziki, spanakopita, falafel, and green beans around a mountain of warm pita for a table that wants to taste everything before committing to an entree. The kitchen doesn’t stop at the traditional taverna dishes either.
A filet mignon comes two ways, one finished simply with herbed lemon butter, capers, rice pilaf, and roasted potatoes, the other loaded with baby spinach, gorgonzola, bacon, and a roasted pepper sauce over orzo, proof that Lazanas is willing to let a steak share the menu with the gyros. Kotopoulo kokkinisto, chicken baked in Greek red wine with rosemary, tomatoes, and orzo, is the closest thing on the menu to a Greek Sunday dinner, and it disappears fast on cooler nights.
Dessert is where Opa! earns its cult following. The Baklava Cheesecake, two layers of cheesecake and baklava drizzled in honey and topped with crushed walnuts, shows up in reviews with a kind of devotion usually reserved for restaurants twice the price, one Tripadvisor review going so far as to declare it a dish that belongs in heaven. Wash any of it down with a cold Mythos, the Greek lager that shows up on tables almost as often as water, and if the timing is right, catch one of the weekend nights when a belly dancer works the floor between tables while Greek music plays over the sound system, which is as close as Rowlett gets to an actual taverna night in Athens.
What’s changed since the last time Opa! got real attention here is the second location. Lazanas opened Onassis Greek Taphouse and Kitchen in Rockwall in 2021, and it’s grown into its own destination east of Lake Ray Hubbard rather than functioning as a simple copy-paste of the original. The two restaurants share an owner and a point of view, but Onassis leans a little further into the taphouse side of things, wings tossed in Greek oregano with a garlic-feta sauce among them, while Opa! stays the family taverna it always was.
Opa! Greek Taverna is at 3801 Lakeview Pkwy., Suite 600, in Rowlett, open seven days a week with a full bar, generally 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and later on Friday and Saturday nights. Reach the restaurant at (469) 443-0508.
