Europa

Honestly one of the best places in Greensboro, hands down.  Mussel special on Tuesday.  Half price wine on Wednesday and it seems like half the town comes out.  And the wine is reasonably priced to start with - suffice it to say on half price wine night you wind up paying about what you'd pay if you bought it at the market.

I've never had anything I didn't like.  The pizza is great.  I've had every steak.  The steak au pouvre is awesome.  The one they slice and coat with wine sauce - skip that one.  Not bad, just there's better steaks.  Steak salad - on point. Mussels - tried them all.  All good.  Turkey and havarti sandwich, good stuff.  Crab dip is utterly amazing.  The shrimp app is also good.  

Unlike many places that try to price their mediocre food out of their own market, Europa is spot on with pricing.  I think the most expensive thing on the menu is $16.00.  You can go in and have a steak and a glass of wine with a salad and walk out under $20, after leaving a 20% tip.  The owner, John/Rudy is a great guy, you'll see him behind the bar most nights - he's been around the Greensboro bar scene, from what I understand, for some 30 years.  

John has put together most of the menu, and after I had tried several things, I thought he had a chef back there.  I was truly surprised to find he'd done it himself.  The menu is eclectic, and has a french flair, but a few other European dishes are scattered in as well.  

The service is overall pretty good.  I've had some very slow servers, but it's typically on a busy night.  Wednesday night, you'll wait a looong time for an outside table and they don't take call-aheads.  I've waited upwards of an hour before.  Fortunately, you can go inside and grab a bottle of wine and sit around outside until your table comes up, so it's not too bad.  Most servers are friendly and nice, a couple are less so - but that's just personality.  

I like a restaurant that is consistently good, reasonably priced, has good specials, decent service and doesn't over-rate themselves.  Europa meets all those expectations, and therefore gets five stars from me.

*I was on a long term project in Greensboro and spent several months at the Marriott two blocks from Europa - hence how I became so familiar with it.

Great people-watching location, across from Center City Park. We used to visit Europa on Wednesdays, but as mentioned it is crazy on that night. (way too busy).

The food is usually ok, but nothing to write home about. The staff is friendly, but service can tend to be slow. The drinks are made well, but they come so slow that I would recommend a larger type of cocktail to keep you busy while you wait.

Overall, the patio is excellent, the inside bar is congested and often awkward, but I would definitely recommend for the outdoor scenery.

I've gotten attitude from the staff here every time that I have tried this place, which is 3 times. It's a pretty cool little place with good drink selection, a great patio, and great social gathers...but the attitude is just too much.