Two words...lunch buffet! Â It is a tad pricey at $11 but it is well worth it. Â They have all the greek classics. Â Great hummus, greek salad and white bean salad meets you at the start of the buffet. Â The gyro meat and kebabs they serve are fantastic. Â Pretty good but not the best falafel. Â Hot warm pita bread is always fresh and rarely empty. Â They have some stew dishes that are closer to indian food as well. Â I think I heard the manager say these were closer to Turkish style. Â All and all anytime I am on the northside for lunch, I am going to try and hit this place. Â Very enjoyable. Â Never disappoints.
Review Source:I feel as if the majority of reviews are misleading about Mediteranno. The lunch buffet was overpriced ($13) for the quality of the food and the venue itself. The meat tasted as if it had been out on the buffet for too long and had a rubbery texture. The pita bread was cold and tough. And you would think that at least baklava would be included but instead the buffet price only covers the bland coconut bread and rice pudding. Now onto the store itself...outdated and with a grimy appearance, not somewhere you'd be 100% sure of grabbing food and not getting sick later. Â With all the other options out in Indianapolis I will most definitely not be returning to this Cafe.
Review Source:I would definitely recommend the place, just don't order the shrimp Mediterrano. Maybe I'm too picky, having grown up on the Florida Gulf Coast, but serving shrimp not deveined is unacceptable. Would you serve chicken with feathers?
I know, seafood in Indiana, what should I expect? The plate arrived with too many shrimp, too small and too briny. Plus the occasional gritty bite from not being properly cleaned. Give me fewer, slightly larger shrimp properly deveined and the dish would have been perfect. (maybe a lighter hand on the salt as well).
But, here's the good:
The hummus appetizer was delicious: perfectly creamy, not too garlicky, and with  the right touch of olive oil and spice.
Served with warm, pillowy pita, we didn't leave a trace.
Husband ordered the lamb Mediterrano: cubed bites of lamb sautéed with green and red bell peppers, tomato and mushroom in a spicy, slightly saucy and rich combination. It was paired with a small, fresh and crisp, lightly dressed salad and rice.
When I heard the distinctive "ding" of a microwave come from the kitchen, my heart sank slightly.
I'm not certain what emerged from the micro but it could have been used to thaw the chicken for my son's kebab. Though nicely seasoned, the texture of the breast meat was slightly rubbery but the good flavor outweighed the flaw in texture. And the accompanying onion salad was a zippy addition with liberal sumac and other spice rounding out the slight heat of the red onion.
We were there for dinner but as mostly a vegetarian I'd be willing to return to try the veggie dishes on the lunch buffet.
Service was friendly and perfectly attentive.
My husband and I went for the lunch buffet today and I would have to say it varied from very good to excellent. The new owners are very friendly and appreciative of feedback and I would definitely return. The price for the Saturday buffet was $13 each and it was well worth the price. The salad was fresh and delicious, the babba ganoush, hummus and various hot and cold vegetables were delicious. The gyro meat, schwarma, and the other 2 chicken dishes were lovely. The pita was also good and I did take advantage of the Sirachia sauce to spice things up a bit. My only complaints were the veggie rice (it was terrible minute rice w/underdone frozen veggies) and the fact that the tzaziki sauce could have used more cucumber for my taste. Overall a wonderful experience.
Review Source:This place changed hands in January 2012. Â The new owner is a guy somewhat younger than the previous owner.
I had a meal there a few days ago, after not having dropped by since 2011.
The previous place/ownership ran a very good place with tasty and decent food, as others here have said. Â The new place is a definite degrade from its previous quality, IMHO. Â The soups now are thin and with little taste, the salad is pretty bad, the curries diluted and tasteless yet somehow very salty, the kebabs etc lacking in quality & quantity, the other dishes/side dishes "Westernized" and not enticing at all.
Sad.
I have been going to this place for about 10 years now. I used to go once a month when I lived in Indy, now I go every time I visit. In all my years, in no way has the food taste or quality suffered. Â This place is always good, and one of the best buffets in Indy.
There is something for everyone, except maybe a vegan, and they should stay home anyway. Well hell, there may even be something for a vegan, I don't know.
I don't recall the price, maybe $11 bucks, but it would cost you more than half of that to eat at Burger King, and that price is out the door. I enjoy paying before I eat, then I don't have to wait for a check. The owners are always present in the dining room, and polite. If you had a problem or request I'm confident that they would accommodate you on anything.
If you like this kind of food, don't be put off because it's a buffet, it is DAMN GOOD!
Go here a lot for the lunch buffet on the weekend. Â Probably my favorite place of any kind in indy. Â If I were given a choice for a "last meal" I would choose their lamb stew. Â it's like an appetizer, entree and desert all in one bite. Â It's that good. Â Friendly owners and a great place to eat. Â Love it!
Review Source:The short (so you don't have to read this) Â 1. Lunch. Â 2. Feast.
If I could have Aladdin's genie grant me 3 wishes one would certainly be a bottomless stomach and Michael Phelps' metabolism so I could indulge in Fogo, Papa Roux, Passage to India et al on a regular basis.
And Mediteranos.
It's lunch buffet only-- so advance menu scrutiny is completely unnecessary. Â Apricot chicken, adana/donor/iskandar kebabs, chicken and traditional gyros, lamb stew, rotating meat pastas, and..... have you ever been to Anatolia restaurant in Bloomington? Â Al Basha? Bosphorus? Istanbul Cafe? Santorini? Â it's like that-- combo all their menus (minus the seafood and the flaming cheese) and put it on a buffet for sampling! everyday! yes!
Very veggie friendly too---- an abundance of options: falafel, creamy hummus & fresh tabouli, eggplant/tomato casserole, greek salad, lentil soup, squash & cabbage....
End with honeyed coconut cake and rice pudding.
Self-serve fountain drinks or tea.
Clean simple decor. Obviously not as fancy or elegant as Istanbul Cafe or as rich as The Bosphorus but nonetheless a delicious home-cooked flavor where you can actually taste all the ingredients that go into it. hot, fresh and packed with authentic flavors. All dishes are consistently refilled. Â Very polite owner, everything is 'My pleasure. Enjoy." Â Completely un-intrusive staff.
Excellent value. See for yourself.
This place is great! It's a very unique buffet style restaurant that serves Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food. I normally steer clear of buffets, but this one is different. It is the perfect place to go if you've never had this type of food before and you want to try a little bit of everything. I liked almost everything I tried.
There were several vegetarian and vegan dishes, and overall, it seemed like you could pick healthier options (if you're into that kind of thing). As for me, I liked the Greek salad and building my own gyros. The pita bread was delicious!
A few other Yelpers mentioned the no-frills atmosphere and the non-existent service. I found both of these things to be true, but neither of them bothered me. The inside of the restaurant was very simple, but not an eye-sore or anything. And we did have an employee come over twice during our meal to clear some plates and apologize for the lack of servers. Honestly, I prefer not to be bothered during meals, especially when it's self-serve. Considering how affordable and delicious it is, I'd definitely go back!
I have been coming to this place since I was a kid and I adore it! I am now pregnant and Mediterranean food is one of the few things I can even eat anymore! It is a lunch buffet but they offer a lot of vegan options as well as vegetarian options. For $11 you sure get a mouthful of yummy food! I have never been disappointed with the quality in their food! The humus is to die for, and also try the eggplant stew (I think that is what it is called) with rice! OOOh orgasm in your mouth! I want to go there now :D
Review Source:As one of the other reviewers said, I have been frequenting the Castleton Mall area 15+ years and somehow never noticed this inauspicious little place. I asked the owner how long he'd been there and he said 17 years. I was dumbfounded. They need to advertise. Or perhaps not, since the place was packed at 1pm on a Wednesday. At any rate, the place is very minimalistic decor, a hole in the wall, really. Based on the ambiance (or lack thereof) of the joint, I had low hopes about the food as I walked in. I was wrong. Food is all top notch. I love hummus and theirs is divine. I probably ate too much of everything. I give it four stars instead of five because of the lack of ambiance (which is somewhat important to me), but the food is great. I highly recommend them.
Review Source:Confession: I've got a BIG thing with lunch buffets, and Mediterrano did not let me down. Â The hummus is like silk and the falafel had some amazing secret ingredient that just put it over the top (in a good way)! Â Great as a vegetarian option, and they also have other very meaty dishes, so it's good if you are looking for quick, easy, filling, compromise lunch with some carnivore friends.
With ample seating, it would be easy enough for a big group, but I wish that they had a couple of 2-tops since as a one person party (which I usually am during lunch), I felt guilty taking up a 4-top.
Overall, an awesome lunch that didn't make me feel like a bizarre weirdo for being a vegetarian and eating til I burst!
**AMENDING MY REVIEW DUE TO NEW OWNERSHIP 10/30/12**
Formerly my favorite restaurant in Indianapolis, the old owners are gone and the new cooks--whether they are using the prior owners' recipes or not--are not up to par.
Food that was once juicy, tantalizing, flavorful are now watered down, recycled too often/long in the buffet slots and lacks the flavors that once lured me there and had me sending tons of people their way. They used to have the best, creamiest hummus in town--no longer. Â They used to have an eggplant dish that would convert non-eggplant eaters into advocates--that's gone, too.
They even replaced the awesome exotic iced tea with one of those crap Lipton machines.
The only reason they get to even keep 2 stars (down from 5) is that the at least have yet to screw up the rice pudding and coconut  cake.
Go downtown to somewhere like Bosphorous instead. This place lost all its special with the old owners.
So sad, since I am passionate about quality international food. Boo. :(
Big ups to Betsy for recommding this place to me. Â This place is a solid 4, which is all attributed to the food.
AMBIENCE- very minimalistic decor, the tables are nothing fancy, and the walls have a few pieces of art on the wall (most of which look like hyroglyphics, yeah, I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong). Â The place is clean, and does have a "cafe" feel to it.
SERVICE- basically there is none. Â This place only does a lunch buffet, though they do have a carryout menu. Â When we walked in, we weren't quite sure what to do. Â A man at the register asked us "TWO?" Â We replied with a yes, and then he replied "$26.00" which was the price for 2 buffets. Â Past that, we encountered no other employees. Â The person bussing dishes did not come out until people left, so you're basically left with a stack of plates at your table. Â If you go in a large group, this could be a problem.
MENU- great selection of both vegetarian, and non- vegetarian dishes. Â The buffet included- hummus, baba ghanouj, falafel, salad, soup, rice, pita bread, gyro meat, chicken kabob, kafta, a chicken curry of some sort, lamb stew, etc... Â A pretty good medley of Mediterranean dishes. Â They also had rice pudding and coconut cake for dessert. Â Drinks are included in the price of the buffet (which are self serve).
FOOD- DELICOUS- the meats were tender and juicy. Â I would have been happy with just gyro meat, but they were all wonderful. Â The chicken curry dish had an Indian taste to it, and the lamb stew was sweet, which I was not expecting at all. Â Generally speaking, I try to hold back a little bit when I go to buffets, now that I'm a bit older, but this place made me forget about that rule.
OVERALL- $13 for a Mediterranean buffet is not bad by any means. Â Sure service is non-existent, but at a buffet, you don't really need much help. Â A great place to take someone who has never had this type of food, that would like to get a good sampling.
Celebrity Rating- Mena Suvari
What the hell??? How can this restaurant have been here for over a decade and we literally just stumbled on it last Saturday on our way to another joint?!?
Well, let me just say Indyelpers, if you haven't discovered Mediterrano, you don't know what you're missing! This place has what I think is THE best mediterranean food in town. I know there are several good Greek spots - Santorini, Athens on 86th and such. What sets MC apart, though is that it offers Turkish and Persian morsels as well. We encountered a dinner buffet that *sadly* will no longer be offered beyond this next week. The cafe, like most of us poor souls, is experiencing a decline in business and will only be open for lunch going forward. Hopefully, when the economy turns around - notice I say "when" ...ever the optimist! - the owner will re-open for dinner. It would be such a shame to lose Mediterrano's from the evening grazing landscape forever. From gyros and Greek salad to spicy chicken stew, lentils, various kabobs and braised lamb shanks, MC is a true diner's delight. If you're into veggie, you'e in luck as there's plenty of non-meat options.
Dishes to try: Eggplant Bademjan, baba ghannouj, cauliflower and pea stew (though not like a stew, more like a saute), spicy chicken stew, the lentils, falafel and what must be the most amazing coconut cake in three states! One of our party kept saying "I really can't even stand coconut." as she plowed through a bowl of this part-cake/part-pudding delicacy.
Decor is streamlined and neutral - nothing fancy - but it's the food the makes the real impression here. The owner was also on hand and we loved how he kept circling the dining room to serve, greet and chat with his customers.
I'm on a personal mission to bring nighttime dining back to this place :-) Â I could use some *yelp* here guys.....
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