Mediterranean Exploration Company

Excellent evening, drinks were wonderful. Menu thought out and delivered great flavors. Ordered 5 dishes for the three of us. Each one was distinctive and great. Service, fast, smiles and everything came out quick. We will be back soon.

The food is excellent, but the restaurant is a little stingy with their pita, which is surprising for a Mediterranean restuarant. My only real complaint is that the noise level is deafening.

The service was standard nothing extraordinary. The food definitely has changed, for the worse unfortunately. The lamb chops were my absolute favorite, the recipes have definitely changed (potatoes) and other items and you can see and taste the difference. The potatoes are now just jojos, total utter disappointment. Was the ownership changed in which can see the difference.

So welcoming! We celebrated our anniversary and felt like special guests. The food was incredible as well!

Great selection. Good number of veg forward dishes. Made it hard to choose which ones to order: braised leeks and green hummus and the chicken meatballs were our favorites. The kebab was good but we felt it was overpriced for the amount you got. The dishes were so full of flavor. Highly recommend.

This was our first time dining at the Mediterranean Exploration Company, and we went with the tasting menu. The food came out fast and just kept coming. It was a lot of food, and everything we tried was delicious. One standout was the Arak & A Hard Place cocktail. It's very similar to an old fashioned and definitely worth ordering. A couple of small drawbacks: no one asked if we wanted another round of drinks, and the tables are placed quite close together, which made the space feel a little tight. Since we were too full to finish with dessert, they packed a small anniversary treat for us to go. Overall, a great meal and a place we'd be happy to return to.

The food and service was outstanding. I have celiac disease and they were very accommodating!

Delightful foodand service! Restaurant noise level very high, which made it difficult to have a conversation with the four people at our table.

Super good food! Got the tasting menu for the table with a tweak to make it pescatarian. Also, there was a ton of food for 4 people, so good value overall. It was a great evening!

we sat outside even though we had a reservation. the reason is that the music was so loud that we could not hear each other. if the music continues to be so loud i will not eat there again

The food is exceptional! I cant wait to go back. I didn't love where we were seated. It was my partner and I and we weren't seated across from one another, but rather along a long bar-like table at the window and it made it very difficult to converse. It was very crowded the evening we dined in, so it was a little noisy but that's to be expected. I felt like the table along the window, where we were seated was more difficult for our servers to get to, and felt like we were waiting quite a while to order beverages, dessert, etc.. 

Highly recommend the Greek potatoes, gem salad, and chicken. The beef and lamb kebab was not our favorite. Good to try it but would not order again.

We've been here at least six times and relish the beautiful creatively composed food. We particularly love their creamy hummus with crispy lamb, fresh tender pita, grilled seasonal vegetable (this time asparagus), the piled-so-high raddicio salad showered with fresh grated parmesan. We add protein, this time chicken under a brick, but in the past it has been shrimp, lamb, or chicken meatballs. Four dishes is a satisfying meal for two with perhaps a few leftovers for home. We were able to snag a spot at the chef's counter this time but on a warm summer day the north counter along Flanders opens to the street. Inside we find the noise level very loud which does create a high-energy buzz but in our case, we “try” to locate where we can hear one another. Servers get busy but seem to have a systerm for happily helping one another when they see something needing to be done. The kitchen staff is fun to watch as they are such pro's in their specific roles. People complain of the parking but this is the city! There is public parking quite close by and decent street parking. Very walkable from anywhere in the Pearl or a downtown hotel.

Amazing food! Noisy, energetic and fun, this is the place you come when you want to celebrate with friends and family. It's not cheap but they have an extensive wine list of natural and European wines. Great, great food - all served family style. 5 stars!

Our group wasn't totally prepared to order multiple small plates to share family style, but the waitstaff was very patient with us and we ended up with an absolutely amazing meal. Will visit again when in Portland next. The food had fantastic, unique flavors and every dish was a hit with our table.