There is a particular kind of homesickness that only food can cure. For Theo Xidis, raised by Greek parents on the cooking of his family’s village, it set in after he moved to Miami and could not find a Greek restaurant that tasted the way home did. His answer, built with his wife, Grace, is Theos Estiatorio on East Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, a dining room that brings the Greek islands to the edge of the Intracoastal.
A summer habit becomes a restaurant
The couple’s path to opening a restaurant ran through Greece. Theo returned to his family’s hometown at least once a year, and later brought Grace along every summer so she could experience it for herself. Each time they came back to Florida, they missed the food they had left behind. Eventually they stopped waiting for someone else to cook it.
To shape the room, they worked with architect Hugo Mijares on a design meant to evoke the islands: the kind of space that feels polished enough for an occasion and warm enough to linger in. The restaurant’s own promise is plain and generous: to make guests feel at home and to treat them like family.
The olive oil at the heart of it
The single most telling detail at Theos may be the bottle on the table. The olive oil used in the kitchen comes from Theo’s family village in Arcadia, in the Peloponnese, harvested once a year and, in the restaurant’s words, “a reflection of the land, the season, and the people behind it.” “It’s not just an ingredient; it’s a connection to our roots,” Theo told Fort Lauderdale Magazine. Guests who fall for it can take some home: the restaurant offers a limited seasonal release, including a bright, green early harvest and a smoother, more peppery September harvest meant for finishing.
In the kitchen
The menu is led by executive chef and partner Peter Spyropoulos, a Culinary Institute of America graduate who cooked in some of New York’s most storied kitchens, including Le Cirque and Milos. His approach balances tradition and invention, with an emphasis on wild-caught fish, organic produce and carefully sourced meats.
Begin with the spreads, taken individually or as a selection of four: tzatziki, smoky melitzanosalata, taramosalata, garlicky skordalia, spicy ktipiti and a Santorini-style fava. Then turn to the meze, where the house signature, Theo’s Chips, arrives as paper-thin zucchini and eggplant crisps with tzatziki. The keftedakia, lamb and beef meatballs with a feta mousse and lemon, are another regulars’ favorite, and the chargrilled Spanish octopus, with red onion, sweet peppers and red wine vinaigrette, shows how much restraint good seafood needs.
There is a raw bar with East Coast oysters and a Mediterranean sashimi of branzino, capers and serrano; a run of pastas that includes a lobster linguini and a seafood yiouvetsi, the Greek answer to paella, made with orzo, shellfish and feta; and simple, persuasive sides like lemon potatoes and crispy Brussels sprouts finished with Greek honey and mint.
The verdict
Theos is a restaurant built on memory, but it never feels like a museum. It is the cooking of a family village, carried across an ocean, refined by a chef with serious credentials and served in a room designed to make an ordinary Tuesday feel like a summer night on the islands. Come for the olive oil. Stay for everything it touches.
Theos Estiatorio · 1826 E. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale · Dinner Tuesday through Sunday, closed Monday · theosestiatorio.com
