Say cheese

If you’ve been in Reno for a while, you might recognize the Greek and Italian food at Opa Gourmet Pizza. The business is run by the same family that was behind Opa Subs and Oregano’s Pizza.

For an appetizer, my large group ordered a Greek meze plate ($22.75), a big pile of steak and lamb gyro meat, a couple of triangles of spanakopita (spinach pie) and tyropita (cheese pie), a pair of dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) and garnish of cucumber, tomato, feta cheese and kalamata olives. We also ordered an entree plate, a salad, a gyro and three pizzas.

The salad arrived quickly—along with a complimentary serving of warm points of pita bread with cool tzatziki sauce—but our appetizer didn’t arrive until 40 minutes later, with the entree and gyro. Pizza was another 40 minutes, but I realized they probably needed time to cook through. They were easily among the heaviest pizzas I’ve ever seen.

Everything on the meze plate was really good. The stuffed grape leaves were smooth and herbaceous. The filo and feta pie was crispy and cheesy, and the spinach pie was exceptional, with its blend of feta and cooked spinach between layers of crispy, thin pastry. The veggie garnish provided a nice contrast, and the gyro meat was tender and delicious. The gyro sandwich ($10.95) was huge and warm—a grilled pita stuffed full of meat, tomato, onion and plenty of tzatziki. Even the salad ($7.95)—a simple plate of iceberg lettuce, red onion, bell pepper, roma tomato, cucumber, kalamata olives and crumbled feta, dressed with a lemony vinaigrette—was a hit.

The entree, Greek kota ($17.95), featured a whole chicken breast cooked in butter, lemon and wine and served over fettuccine with fresh garlic, mushrooms, zucchini and a ton of mozzarella and feta. The assembled dish is then browned a bit in the oven. The chicken wasn’t overcooked. The pasta was fine, and the flavors generally worked together, though you do have to really, really like cheese.

Speaking of cheese, no matter which pizza you choose, there’s going to be a lot of it. Our large “Meat-a-balls” pie ($25.95) was essentially a thick, bready crust topped with what had to be a couple of pounds of mozzarella, and a ring of meatballs around the center. The meat was tasty—though I would have liked more distribution across the pie—but the sauce seemed to be lost in the mix. I dug around a bit to get a taste and found it to be full of herbs and garlic, but I wish there was more of that to counter the bread and cheese.

Similarly, a medium “Smiley” seven-cheese pizza ($21.95) could have used more sauce against the onslaught of mozzarella, parmesan, provolone, sharp cheddar, colby-jack, ricotta and feta cheeses. This medium pie weighed at least as much as the large meatball pizza and was an impressive sight to behold. But we hadn’t seen anything yet.

If you’re going to order one thing, you absolutely have to try the Greek pizza ($28.95, large). That stout crust is necessary to contain the enormous pile of mozzarella, feta, gyro meat, kalamata, red onion, bell pepper, zucchini, cucumber, roma tomato and tzatziki sauce. They toss a few dolmades on as a finishing move. This is knife and fork pizza, and if you can eat more than two pieces in one sitting, you’ve either been starving yourself or you’re a competitive eater. It was delicious and well worth the wait.