Estia Restaurant — Restaurant in Adelaide

For a city that boasts a lot of Greeks and is known by some as the ‘Athens of the South’ Adelaide is not as well endowed with authentic Greek restaurants as it was in perhaps the city’s heydays of the 70s and 80s. Estia holding a prime position on Henley Square has been carrying the Greek flag for quite a number of years and still manages to uphold the high standards of Hellenic cuisine voted by some in the Internet industry as the ‘best in the world’.

Estia is a busy place at most times of the week, but on weekends it buzzes. Yes, location helps but so does the food and in Estia’s case the impeccable and attentive service something sadly missing in a lot of restaurants in Adelaide’s extensive foody scene.

Estia focuses on ‘mezédhes’ – similar to Spanish tapas but larger and expandable to mains - if that is your preference. There is a wide selection of mezédhes on offer and choosing can be daunting when so many flavours and options are involved. Mezédhes dining involves sharing so when ordering make sure you select items that everyone enjoys. There are meat, seafood and vegetarian options and all reflect the high quality and tastes expected of a mezés tavern in Greece.

This reviewer and old Greece hand celebrated a wedding anniversary in the summery outdoor area of the restaurant. Preferable if you wish to avoid the noise within. We took ouzos on ice for starters plus a chilli dip called ‘htipití’ with pita and opted for a mezés combo of whitebait and grilled octopus. Beetroot salad filled in the ‘veggie’ side of our meal.

Just eat the whitebait as it is – whole and straight into your mouth. Scrumptious! Octopus (expensive!) and not quite as Greek-grilled as you might expect but unquestionably succulent. The beetroot salad was a highlight. It all comes on a couscous based platter plus an accompanying dip of a potato-garlic-based skordhaliá.

All ordered items came promptly and with no delay – a pleasant surprise on what by all accounts was a very busy Friday evening. We ordered Greek wine, but our request was misheard and our ‘Malagouziá’ ($48.00) preference was misinterpreted for a Santorini-produced Sigálas white ($60.00) adding a further $12.00 to the bill. There are shelves full of fine Australian options if you prefer. A tip: order the Malamatína retsina (A taste to get used to!) and soften it up with dashes of soda water (my usual preference and a lot cheaper).

In short perhaps one of Adelaide’s finer Greek restaurants and the locale certainly helps. It’s not cheap though ($182.00 for two persons) so perhaps come on those special occasions – like wedding anniversaries or birthdays. Estia – meaning ‘hearth’ in Greek is certainly cosy is certainly as cosy as one and ticks almost all the boxes. Kalí órexi!

Former author and reviewer for Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Santorini Dave,...

Very rude and disrespectful. We had a reservation for 6pm and upon opening on a Sunday evening, tables and chairs were already set up outside at 530pm, the venue was completely vacant. My wife and I decided to take a seat and wait till opening at 6pm (as she was feeling a little tired as she is pregnant and we were also with my 80 year old grandmother in a hot summers day) then an Asian waiter comes out saying that we had to find another place to sit as to not attract others to utilise the seats. His tone was rude and disrespectful. We were not randoms , we were awaiting our reservation. We have had dinner there before and the food was good, but due to the service and treatment we will never eat there again and those of you who would like to spend there hard earned money, I suggest that you spend it elsewhere in support of such poor treatment of customers. They must feel they have a right to be so disrespectful as they have many customers coming through. Maybe if they weren’t so busy, they would learn to have more respect for customers. We then decided to eat at the Taverna In Hindmarsh, we left extremely satisfied and recommend the Taverna for anyone wanting to enjoy a nice Greek meal.

In response to your continued inconsiderate response, there was no seating around the square as it was extremely busy and I don’t know about you, but having a 34week pregnant wife walk around on a hot summers day on top of that enter a disgusting smoke filled pub is a poor recommendation. Your staff could still have their breaks we weren’t requiring services. Despite our personal set of circumstances, your staff was extremely rude in their delivery of directing us to leave. Your blanket rule creates a very fixed mindset for your staff and as a result show no empathy no matter what the situation is. Other options could have been explored like allowing us to sit inside the restaurant out of view of public to deter attracting others to come early. And to my earlier point it’s great that you had another 100 patrons to come, I wonder how different your attitude would be if that were...

Recently my family and myself were staying down at Westlakes. We thought we may try this restaurant based on a friend recommending it to us. Well, I am so glad he did. 5 Stars. From the phone call booking the table, to the time we left, the service was brilliant. We were shown to out table outside, which was lovely. I must say, the chairs may need replacing soon though, ours were a bit wobbly. That is all I could fault. The food was AMAZING!!! I have never been to a Greek Restaurant before, I am a Schnitzel guy!!!!. Well, Greek food is now a new favorite. We ordered 3 share plates, recommended by the waiter. Salt n Pepper Squid, Char Lamb and Char Chicken. Served with a side salad. YUMMY is all I can say. Now, not knowing that at Greek Restaurants, they do not have tartare sauce. So I found out. I always have tartare sauce with my calamari. The waiter that served us smiled to me and said that Greeks dont eat tartare sauce with their seafood. Anyway, about 5 minutes later, the waiter returned and placed a bowl of tartare sauce in front of me, and said there you go Sir. I was amazed. The lovley man had gone next door to the fish n chip shop and got me a bowl of taratre sauce to eat with my calamari. This service blew me away. Well Done to this superhero. I wish I got his name to put in this review, he deserves a mention. Anyway, we will return here again and...