Florina's Greek Tavern — Restaurant in Melbourne

FLORINA’S GREEK TAVERN – 582 Glen Huntly Road Elsternwick

Greek Goodness

It is always a bonus to find another local restaurant that is worth more than one visit. They come in very handy on those evenings you don’t feel like cooking and they are only a few minutes away. Last night we discovered Florina’s Greek Tavern in Elsternwick on the way home from the footy in Geelong.

Greek is one of our favourite cuisines and I have to say it has been a bit of a struggle in recent years to find a taverna that we are happy to go back to time and again. After all, we had the privilege of visiting Stavros Tavern in Albert Park for many many years. Florina’s may just be our new hang out.

The bright blue door makes this place easy to find, and a warm and friendly welcome into a beautiful setting is a good start.

So then let’s begin (as one would) with the Mixed Greek Dips. Taramosalata (red caviar), Melitzanosalata (eggplant) and Tzatziki (yogurt & cucumber) are served with warm bread and each dip is beautifully flavoured. The caviar dip in particular was one I really liked and that is normally my least favoured.

I cannot resist saganaki, and they delivered their traditional version, which was cooked to perfection. We were tempted to try the Florina saganaki of grilled feta cheese with tomato, capsicum, eggplant, zucchini and olives wrapped in a foil bowl, but that may be next time. You have to test out the classics first and I am a great believer that the right cheese for saganaki is kefalograviera.

We kept things simple this evening with a large serving of the barbecued calamari, grilled on charcoal, seasoned with salt and pepper with Greek Olive Oil and lemon. Very tasty. A traditional Greek salad of green leaves, cucumber, tomato, olives, onion and feta was the ideal side to enjoy with the calamari.

No desserts tonight, perhaps next time, but we did finish with coffees and the Greek coffee I had passed the all-important test. I loved it.

Plenty more to try next time around. The only improvement we might suggest is the absence of Spanakopita on the menu. I realise that is almost cliched, but we do both enjoy it very much.

Good food, good service, nice setting and reasonably priced. Clearly the locals like it because by the time we left the house was full. Another local joint added, and very glad to...

I was really excited to dine here after I received a voucher for a present however overall I was left very disappointed with it. The first warning signs should have been at how quickly they brought out our starters.. From the time we sat down to the time the food had started arriving was about 3 minutes... this concerned me because right away I knew they had pre cooked the Whitebait & Saganaki. The white bait was barely warn and was very fishy, definitely not fresh! The saganaki was tough and rubbery, clearly fried then microwaved to warm up again. The dips and bread were nice but clearly they didnt make those in house.

The main course consisted of Fish, Prawns, Calamari, Salad and a tagine like dish. The salad and Tagine were nice however all of the seafood was terrible.

Prawns: So overcooked its not even funny, they had a horrible burnt gas taste to them and even though they were so over cooked they still tasted really fishy.. clearly not fresh at all! We managed to have 3 of them between us and left the last 6 Fish (maybe barramundi?): Clearly old, horrible off fishy taste to it.. also looks like it was cooked ahead of time and reheated.. Calarmari: Not fresh, fishy taste and rubbery.

Desert was pretty average too - its not hard to get good cheap baklava (even if you dont want to make it in house!!) but somehow you managed to mess that up too.

We were so confused by the whole dinning experience - rather than providing way too much food of very old bad quality why not provide smaller portions of higher quality?

I felt so sorry for the wait staff - they were so rushed all evening that they couldn't deliver good service, the poor guy serving us spent the whol evening looking like he was going to pass out.

My advice to the management:

1. NEVER serve old seafood... not even to your voucher customers
2. Smaller portions of better quality food.
3. Support your staff - they were clearly overworked and under staffed.
4. Stop posting fake reviews... clearly you are because if anyone else had tasted what we did you would have so many 1...

Ordered the $55 Banquet for three, not even enough chicken for one on the plate. (They had ran out of lamb) The worst Greek salad I've had, I can make better, also no flatbread with the dips, why? Don't waste your time, go somewhere else. Very underwhelmed, first and last time we will be going here. Can't really mention anything to be pleased about, Just a really very average meal. I don't understand why people on here have given 5 stars, they must have never been anywhere else. I don't mind paying for good food but come on! $173 for three(one 12 year old), I had one beer and the others drank water.

Response to owners comment - For the record we were told there was no lamb left but we were convinced by the waitress that the chef would make sure it was a great meal anyway(we did not insist on the Banquet) That's why I didn't say anything on the night, because what's the point, take some constructive criticism. I will vote with my feet and eat somewhere else. By the way the plates were empty because we were all still hungry and went and got some lamb kebab in Oakleigh afterwards. Greek salad 4/10, in my opinion. Just a heads up! if you take a booking phone call at 7.22pm(which is not really that late) and you have no food left...