El Greko Greek Taverna — Restaurant in Queensland

Had a marvellous night out with my wife at El Greko Palm Cove recently. With customer service on the demise in many venues nowadays, we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted with open arms, and staff that showed a genuine desire to make our experience memorable. Our host Lisa ushered us to our table and on the way we were acknowledged by all the wonderful staff, each greeting us with great smiles and warmth. We knew from that point we were going to have a great night. What we didn't know however, was our expectations were going to be far greater than we anticipated. Firstly, the spritz drinks served to us within 5 minutes of sitting were incredible, refreshing, and like nothing we've had in a long time. My wife ordered the paithakia lamb cutlets, Greek vegetables, and tzatziki. I ordered the Greek style lamb shanks dressed with a tomato based sauce including olives and feta, and garlic mash. Chef Mateo exceeded our expectations, and we both commented on how the food looked and tasted like it had been prepared with the utmost respect. Amazing, amazing, amazing! The flavours worked so remarkable together, and I was encouraged to accompany my dish with an amazing Greek red wine that just worked with the dish and enhanced the flavours so much more. After our mains we were greeted by the Executive head chef James. He suggested we try his creation of prawn saganaki. OMG! As an avid seafood lover I never expected prawns could be more flavoursome. It worked and I am salivating just writing this review and remembering the taste sensations. All in all my wife and I were thrilled with everything. And although the night was hot and steamy, Lisa and her staff went above and beyond to ensure we were comfortable and we were made to feel special at every turn. El Greko is on our "must return" list for every time we...

Dined here last night and since the restaurant has already emailed asking me to leave a review I thought I’d oblige. The food was excellent- very nicely cooked lamb and chicken skewers had by my father and husband which they thoroughly enjoyed. And my saganaki was very good too. So thoroughly recommend on that front.

The one disappointment was the service - only after waiting at least 20 minutes for our meals, did our waitress come back and inform me the entree I had ordered as a main was no longer available- a communication error made by the kitchen, and could I order something else please. I was pretty peeved but ordered something else and said, “I hope at least it’s complimentary.” “Yes, you won’t pay for it.” My dad and husband’s meals arrived and they started eating while I still waited for my food to arrive.

Upon paying the bill I was surprised to see they charged for my meal- when I pointed this out to the waitress she said “No, we haven’t charged you for the meal that didn’t arrive.” Well of course you couldn’t because it didn’t arrive- “I can see you’re upset” then was the comment by the waitress when I protested about it. So what did she do? Nothing. We paid for the meal and left.

What I was upset about was the failure to own up to your service mistake and properly address it for me as the diner. Sure, you served me a replacement but you didn’t acknowledge the fact as a customer that it was not a great experience for me having to first wait a significant time before telling me to order something else, and then second, having to still wait while my companions began their meals. And then failing to acknowledge that on the bill really left me with a sour taste in my mouth I’m sorry to say.

Excellent food but please do better for your customers when you...

The food and atmosphere are lovely, however we arranged with the restaurant to do something special for a friend's birthday and the staff failed to deliver what they suggested (bring some candles and they'd provide a dessert and bring it out/we could sing). We waited 40 minutes for dessert, but gave the benefit of the doubt as we thought they were preparing something special. After checking where our order was, they came to the table and asked if we wanted the candles we provided in the desert... in front of the birthday girl (dessert ordered by other members, asking which one candles needed to go in whilst currently holding the dessert. But we thoughtan extra one was being provided). They then shortly brought out a dessert ordered by another member with the candles upside down in ice-cream. The order was wrong and the waitress also spilt honey all over one of us. So we put the candles right, lit them ourselves, sang happy birthday and then gave the dessert to the person who ordered it! We laughed this off, but the staff showed little courtesy or professionality as when these (albeit minor) issues were raised to the lady behind the till she stated ''what do you want me to do about it" insincerely. As we were leaving there was a group of staff mocking us which overheard by several of us and left a bad impression. As such we thought it necessary to leave this review for the restaurant owners. Again, lovely food, but disappointed by staff attitude over something that could have made the night fantastic for a...