Nikos Tavern — Restaurant in Melbourne

First time we booked for a table of two was for a date night just before Christmas. Arrived to find place was booked out for some god botherer Christmas function where they were saying the Lord’s Prayer followed by the national anthem and were shown to our table of two right next to the p.a system. We weren’t informed at time of booking this was happening, but fair play, busy time of the year, things happen. We decided best option was to leave. We’d heard the food was fantastic and given they’ve been around for so long really wanted to give it another go. Booked in about a week and a half before valentines for a night out together. On arrival, no booking in the system but they found it in the book, just hadn’t been transferred so they had to find us a tiny little table with not enough room in a really bad spot with dirty glasses awaiting our arrival. We couldn’t figure out when we left at 8.30 why the place was maybe 35% full and empty tables made up for groups with seemingly no one coming and yet they had to “find” us a table. The staff are lovely and try really hard, but they’re young kids with no guidance, training or adequate systems in place to help them do their jobs. The whole operation is a shambles. Ambiance? If you like random flickering led light strings, plastic wrapped artwork on the walls and altogether shabby appearance this is the place for you. I have to say the dips and bread and the wine we chose were really good, but everything else was so bad it was entertaining. At least we got to have some good laughs on our date night at how bad it was. The meats were dry, the calamari was like it was taken pre cut and seasoned straight from a frozen bag and the grilled veg might have been cooked in 1980 and just heated up, then drowned in olive oil in the hope no one would notice that it was as dry as if it was dug up from the Parthenon. I don’t understand how this place has been around for so long. I imagine they must have been good at some point but are now just cashing in chips of the past? Oh that reminds me, how do you manage to make even chips taste like musty garbage. If I could give 0 out of 10 I would, I urge the poor young servers that work there to find a better...

Ordered appetiser platter for $35 - grilled octopus, calamari & prawns, chicken in a wrap & saganki. We were given pickled octopus instead with olives, caramelised onions etc, 3 burnt chicken skewers instead of wrap, saganki did not resemble any saganki we have eaten it was undercooked and a blob like mess and 3 calamari rings were soggy with an overcooked prawn inside the rings. The best part of the platter was a small amount of salad mix, the chips were not cooked in hot oil and were soaked with oil! MAINS: we ordered pasticchio and moussaka. The pasticchio was tasteless and unappetising with lots of soggy chips and the moussaka came with vegetables soaked in oil. The moussaka was frozen!!!! The centre of the square was very very cold to touch, part of the bechemel on top was burnt, the other half was undercooked with no colour at all. We had ordered a tarama dip with pita- the pita was soggy and very thin and could not hold the tarama. The young waitress asked us whether we wanted more pita- we told her we didn’t like the pita and did not want anymore, then 20 min later she came and asked us again if we wanted pita! The manager who took our order at the start got our order wrong even though she repeated our request for the 4 items allowed on the appetiser platter. She also allowed a group of 20 or more pp to stand around their table to talk for over 1.5 hrs- we had 2 very tall men with their backs to us and close to our table chatting making us uncomfortable hovering over us the whole time. The music finally started and it was pre- recorded very loud music. After half an hr or so one of the elderly men on stage began to sing - it was uninspiring. The worst experience ever in a Greek restaurant! The food below standard - the service was poor - the entertainment was disappointing! Overheard other customers questioning why they come to this venue - they were very disappointed too and were there before us and still hadn’t been served. The kitchen staff were fighting whilst we reluctantly paid for the platter, tarama & pasticchio. I refused to pay for a frozen piece of moussaka which I had only tasted a mouthful till I found the frozen centre! Never...

Terrible experience at this restaurant. DO NOT VISIT THIS RESTAURANT. It started out promising with nice looking menu options and friendly waitresses. Our order was taken promptly and the food started arriving but once we started eating the problems started. I had ordered specifically Garlic Pita Bread(Gluten free) on their menu as well as some dips, the grilled octopus(Gluten free), as well as several other items including 2 mains and a saganaki salad. I assumed that the pita bread that had been brought over which tasted slightly garlicky was correct. I was wrong and they had brought normal pita with gluten in it without saying anything. I only realised when I had eaten half of it when the waitress brought over the gluten free version. I ran to the toilet to try and throw up what I had just eaten to try and limit how sick I was about to feel. I came out 5mins later to no avail to find the rest of our food had arrived, all cold. Literally none of it was even warm. By this stage I was already starting to feel nauseous and unwell. I realised I wasn't going to be able to eat by now anyways and it was getting to the point where I needed to leave before I threw up. I asked my companion if he would mind going up to sort out payment while I went to the car, thinking that since a mistake made by the restaurant caused us to only be able to eat about $10 worth of food, we were happy to pay around that amount. When he spoke to the waitress at the counter she was apologetic and empathetic but said she would have to get her manager. When the manager came out my companion was met with "What's the problem here?" Followed by blaming me for eating the non gluten free bread, like I am supposed to know if it tastes gluten free or something?? Constantly asking why I ate it. Showing no care for the mistake they had made. After a while of back and forth, he was made to pay $70 of a $98 bill, just so he was allowed to leave and make sure I was okay. Lucky I don't press charges. The only thing that made this experience tolerable was that the waitress was very apologetic and looked like she was the only one concerned for my health. But I repeat, DO...