Twin Cities Restaurant Blog

Dino's The Greek Place - Coon Rapids, Edina, Lakeville, Roseville, Plymouth, West St Paul, & Woodbury MN

Cuisine: Greek, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern

Restaurant Features: Counter Service, On-Site Parking
Locations: Coon Rapids, Edina, Lakeville, Roseville (Falcon Heights), Plymouth, West St Paul, and Woodbury, MN
Addresses & Maps:

Coon Rapids- 3179 Northdale Blvd. Coon Rapids, MN 55433 (763) 422-2003
Edina- 6539 York Ave. S Edina, MN 55435 (612) 866-6363
Lakeville- 17701 Cedar Avenue (Cedar Avenue & Dodd Road) Farmington, MN 55024 952) 431-3466

Roseville- 1700 Snelling Ave. Falcon Heights, MN 55108 (651) 645-8800
Plymouth- 3355 Plymouth Blvd. Plymouth, MN 55447 (763) 553-2040
West St Paul- 1221 South Robert St. West St. Paul, MN 55118 (651) 450-6976

Woodbury- 10060 City Walk Drive  Woodbury, MN 55129 651-738-9757

Links: Dino's Website
Hours: Daily 10am-10pm

Atmosphere: Dino's offers counter-service and is about the same size as a typical fast-food restaurant.  The entire restaurant is furnished with your basic hard-top tables set close together, without a booth in sight.  There is a beverage station near the front counter with two large soda dispensers.  A couple of TVs hang from the ceilings and there are also some paintings adorning the walls.

Menu: Side Items include French Fries, Seasoned Fries, Pita Bread, Pita Chips, Hummus, Greek Olives, Pepperoncini Peppers, Falafel, Spanakopita, Onion Petals, Spinach Puffs and Greek Meatballs.

Dino's offers a Greek Salad ( lettuce, feta, Greek olives, cucumbers, peppers, onion, pepperoncini peppers, and Greek dressing) with choice of meat.

The Sandwiches at Dino's are served on fresh pita bread and include the Gyro (meat with raw onion, tomato and tzatzini sauce), Jr. Gyro, Spicy Gyro, Chicken Gyro, Jr. Chicken Gyro, Greek Chicken Breast, Greek Philly (sauteed peppers and onions and melted Swiss), Greek Meatball, Falafel (deep-fried patties made of a mixture of ground chick peas and seasonings), Steak Souvlaki, and Chicken Mushroom Swiss.  **Any sandwich can be mega-sized for an additional charge.  Any sandwich can be ordered as a Value Meal, which comes with soda and either fries or side salad.

There are also a couple of Wraps including Greek Chicken Caesar, Hummus, and the Gyro Bacon Cheddar Wrap.

Entree Plates offer meat choice with Fries, Greek Salad or Rice, and Grilled Pita.  Meat choices are the  Gyro, Chicken Gyro, Steak or Chicken Souvlaki (kabobs), or Spanakopita (spinach, onions, feta and ricotta cheese wrapped in filo dough and baked).  Combination Plate includes each of the meat choices.

There are also two Family Packs available.  The Family Pack comes with 1 lb gyro meat, sauce, toppings, and 5 pitas.  The Mega Family Pack is the Family Pack with an additional two orders of Fries and 1 large Greek Salad.

Desserts include Baklava, Cookies, or Ice Cream.

Price guide: Side Items $1-2 Sandwiches and Wraps $5-6  Value Meals $8-9 Salads $6-9  Plates $7-9
What I ordered: The Greek Chicken Breast Sandwich with Spicy Feta and side of Seasoned Fries.  Normally this sandwich comes with regular feta cheese, but I LOVE the spicy feta and have them substitute the regular feta for the spicy.  This particular sandwich came with both, which was a little too much.  The chicken breast was marinated and tender, cut into strips.  The sandwich was big and messy, so I opted to eat it most of it with a fork.  The onions were plentiful, sliced thin and the spicy feta had a nice kick to it and was full of flavor.  The Seasoned Fries were delicious!  Dino's adds their own Greek Seasoning which is pretty salty and garlic-y, but so so SO good!

One of my companions ordered the Spicy Gyro Sandwich.  It is similar to a regular gyro except the spicy comes with the spicy feta instead of tzatziki sauce and also has romaine lettuce.  My companion enjoyed it but prefers the traditional gyro.

Another companion ordered the Souvlaki Plate, with one chicken and one beef kabob, Pita Triangles and Onion Petals.  The meat was very good, but there were just five bites of meat on each skewer.  The Onion Petals were crispy brown and the portion was rather large.

Service: Ordering is done at the Counter and it usually takes less than ten minutes for the order to be ready, at which point they will either call your name or bring the food out to your table, depending on how busy they are.  There are often staff members who will walk around to bus tables or ask you if you'd like a drink refill or anything else.  Definitely a step above most other fast-food type restaurants.
Overall Impression: I really enjoy Dino's, it is fast and the food is good (especially anything with spicy feta!).  The seasoned fries are AWESOME.  Dino's is more expensive than other fast-food restaurants but less expensive than most sit-down restaurants.  I wish there was a Dino's in Hugo or Maplewood!

Ali Baba's King of Gyros- West St Paul, MN

Cuisine: Greek, Lebanese, Middle Eastern
Restaurant Features: Counter-Service, On-Site Parking

Location: West St Paul
Address: 1264 So. Robert Street, West St Paul MN 55118 (651) 552-9660
Links:  Google Map

Atmosphere: The building itself is very small, so besides the kitchen, there is just a very small dining room with a handful of standard fast-food-restaurant-style booths.  The walls are decorated with colorful travel posters.  You order your food at a counter, above which is the pictoral menu of food items. 

Menu: Appetizers include Baked Eggplant, Fried Vegetable, Spinach Pie, Hummus Bil-Tahini, 5-Feta Cheese, Falafel and Grape Leaves.

Sandwiches are served in fresh Pita Bread with cucumber sauce, lettuce, tomato and onion.  Specialties include the famous Gyro, Greek Chicken, BBQ Gyro, Chicken Gyro, Falafel Patty, Vegetarian Gyro, Philly Steak, and Philly Chicken.
Entrees include Chicken Gyro, Chicken Kabob, Beef/lamb Gyro, Lamb Kabob, Kufta Kabob, Greek Chicken Plate, and Sauteed Chicken with Vegetables.  There are also a couple fo vegetarian entrees, including the  Stuffed Grape Leaves, Spinach Pie, and Fried or Sauteed Vegetables.
Can't decide what to order? No fear! There are also several combination dinners including the Ali Baba Feast that lets you try a little bit of everything for $29.99
Ali Baba also has fresh Tabouleh Salad, Greek Salad and Greek Chicken Salad.

Price guide: Appetizers $ 4-6 Sandwiches $5-7 Entrees $8-12
What I ordered: I ordered what I thought was the Chicken Gyro, but I think I received the Ali Baba Chicken.  It was very good, but I had not been expecting chicken that had been marinated in curry spices (good thing I like curry!).  It was a really interesting combination of flavors, especially the curry chicken and the cucumber sauce.  The portion was huge (two meals for me!) and instead of making a giant mess, I ate most of it with a fork.

 

My companion ordered the Gyro Sandwich, which was loaded with tender slices of beef and lamb that had been marinating in spices.  The meat on this sandwich was delicious! Probably the best Gyro meat I have ever had.  The vegetables were also very fresh and the sauce was decent (although we both agreed we like Dino's sauce better).

Service: Compete counter-service, from order to pick-up.  After that, you're pretty much on your own. 
Overall Impression:  Excellent Gyros, cheap prices.