The Greek's Kitchen — Local services in Colchester

Lovely location and vibe, but seriously let down by service.

We booked a table for 9 on Friday morning for lunch the next day. On arrival, there was no one to greet us. We waited 20 minutes before approaching a member of staff. Her response was, “I’ll have to check as I wasn’t in yesterday and didn’t take your reservation, and I’m not working today.” The irony? She was the person who took our booking and had even told me about her own family event at the restaurant.

We were eventually moved to a different table despite having booked a front table, so I raised it with a manager. His opening line: “Hi, I’m not working today but happy to help.” At this point, I had to ask, is anyone working today? He cleared us a table at the front, but still no service.

In the end, I had to walk to the open kitchen to ask how things worked, only to discover, from two very friendly kitchen staff (and efficient) that drinks are ordered at the bar and food directly with them. No one had explained this.

Eventually, someone came over and apologised, saying our booking had been entered incorrectly. I appreciated the apology, but the damage was done. We’d just moved to Colchester from London, were excited to host family in our new home, and wanted to showcase this restaurant.

It’s a shame the location and vibe are great, but the front-of-house service was disorganised, unwelcoming, and frankly confusing. I walk past this restaurant every day, but after this experience, I won’t be returning. The three star rating is for kitchen staff, otherwise it would...

Waited nearly an hour and a half for our food (we we're told when we ordered the wait was a hour - which is still unacceptable). Both kitchen and bar seemed to be really understaffed.

When it did arrive it wasn't great. Not an authentic Greek Chicken Gyro. The meat wasn't marinated and lacked flavour, the pita was doughy, and the tzatziki too minty and not authentic. The whole thing was then packed out with red cabbage (again not authentic) which made the whole thing soggy and...

The Greek's Kitchen recently catered a 40th birthday for me that had around 80 guests and I have to say, they did a fantastic job. We sat down well in advance of the party to discuss the menu and budget, Loukas understood perfectly and come back to us within budget and with a menu that we loved. The day of the party they arrived when they said they would, set up and were ready as planned and the food was fantastic. I would highly recommend them to cater...