Yiamas Perth — Restaurant in Subiaco

After seeing such good reviews/ videos on Yiamas, we decided to book our work Christmas dinner here. If you don't enjoy sitting outdoors then this isn't a restaurant for you, as a good 85% of the restaurant is outside. You can request to sit indoors when booking, however they do say in the booking it cannot be guaranteed. Our table was so awkwardly placed. 2 of 6 of us kept getting our chairs stuck in between the rocking pavement and the odd patch of timber decking. This made for some very uncomfortable seating. The music was far too loud and hard for our table of 6 to have a decent conversation, and not even remotely greek which was disappointing given everything else was "Grecian Inspired". We ordered drinks, 2 of us ordered cocktails in addition to the bottle of wine we were going to share between 3. Only 1 of 2 cocktails came out and when asked, the 2nd was still ignored and never came out. The waitress helped select a wine based off a flavour profile, however the price was not disclosed. The recommendations of the waitress were some of the most expensive bottles they had. I suggest you stick to choosing your own wine options so you know the prices. We ordered a bottle for the table, yet they barely fill the glass and take the bottle away. There were multiple staff members that walked past our table as well as took our food order, yet didn't refill our glasses. We ended up getting fed up when food was arriving and we still hadn't been topped up, and asked for the bottle to be left at the table so we could serve it ourselves. For the price of it, we most definitely wanted it! We decided to go for the Chefs Choice "feast" option on the menu where they supposedly offer a meze style dining. However this came out in dribs and drabs and we had no idea how many dishes were actually being served to us, so it was hard to decide whether to eat more or less of some dishes.

Dishes included in this: Hummus & Lamb topping - 8/10 Battered Fish - 9/10 Dolmades - 4/10 (undercooked & flavourless) Side bowl of 3 breads - 7/10 (only good because it was warm) Marinated Octopus - 6/10 (very soft/tender but ice COLD) Grilled Zucchini - 4/10 (undercooked & COLD) Pork Belly - 6/10 (nice flavour but a bit chewy) Grilled Chicken - 8/10 Fried Potatoes - 9/10 Tzatziki - 7/10 (VERY minty) Baklava - 7/10 (nice but not traditional. had custard inside)

As a Greek, that has travelled to Greece and been to many Greek restaurants around the world, this was unfortunately one of my least favourite places. The flavours were not "traditional", too many cold items and serving sizes were small. A simple greek salad could have been a delightful addition and some kind of Lamb dish. Perhaps it was our mistake for not just selecting our own dishes and should not have opted for the "feast" selection. Given the price we paid and lack of 'friendly' service, we likely won't be back - at least for...

Came here with a group of 3 for dinner in early August 2024 and was the first time at this place in many years. I have fond memories of the previous restaurant here George's Meze and we were all keen to see what was on offer.

My first impression was very positive with the mature decor being warm and inviting with natural tones instead of the typical Greek white and blue or lurid murals of Santorini. We arrived in the early evening when it was still light, but unfortunately once the sun had set, it became quite dark with barely enough light to see the menu.

Can't fault the service at all. Our waitstaff were very attentive and friendly - the only hiccup was that they either didn't hear us order the grilled octopus or the kitchen staff forgot to cook it. Either way - we didn't get any grilled octopus but the rest of the food was enough to fill us so that we didn't realise until we had already left.

So, onto the food and beverages. Drinks orders were taken very promptly and arrived at our table in no time at all. The Georges Reviver No. 2 and Cherry Koufeta were both nice, but expensive for what you get. The very first thing we noticed is that there is no tzatziki unless you order the spit roasted meat dish. I mean what? NO TZATZIKI!!! In a Greek restaurant??? Anyway, we ordered the Avgo Pose to have with the bread selection instead and it was amazing. Absolutely recommend. The breads themselves were good too being perfectly grilled with 3 different varieties to try. We also ordered the coal smoked greek olives, fried new potatoes and the Yiamas salad. All the dishes were very nice, the snapper was cooked to perfection and came off the bone very nicely, the potatoes were amazing but the salad was nothing special unfortunately. I'm not a fan of eggplant though, so that could be why. We also ordered the baklava and a bougasta for dessert. The bougasta was quite bland and a bit dry and really needed a nice dollop of cream on the side. The baklava was lovely, very different from normal baklava with a lovely chilled layer that really made it.

Overall, it was a positive experience with friendly and professional waitstaff but be aware it gets very noisy inside once it fills up and the lighting is quite dim (atmospheric?) which makes it difficult to see the menu without a torch. The prices are also on the expensive side for what you get. On a more positive note, there is heaps of free parking after 5.00pm in the parking...

I don’t usually do this (I’ve left 2 reviews in my lifetime) but I wouldn’t recommend Yiamas to my grandmother who has lost her taste, and here’s why…

Here’s the good: Cool ambiance Soft lighting Nice decor

Yup. That’s it.

Entrees ordered Dolmades I’ll put it this way.. I didn’t know something so green, with so much flavour and so many ingredients in its recipe could taste so.. grey. Don’t order this. Assorted bread This was fine. But it’s also not an achievement. We got 5 triangles of flash fried naan-bread, and 1 random bagel. Not sure how this is an assortment. Okay to order I guess. Char grilled squid I didn’t know chargrilled squid was meant to be served cold. Like really really cold. It’s about as cold as it was when the fishmonger plucked it out of the Pacific Ocean.. what a shock to the system when I put it in my mouth and was overwhelmed by the cold, slimy texture of stale grilled squid floating in oil. Maybe this squid was subject to the famous oil spill in the ocean a few years ago. Don’t order this. Hummus/lamb Favourite dish of the night. Favourite being a solid 6 out of 10. The bar is in hell now. It’s really hard to mess up hummus. Mains ordered Meat of the day - Pork It’s usually not a good sign when I have to wash my pork down with 2 glasses of sparkling water because of how dry it left my throat. It feels and tastes like the meat was cooked 3 days ago, and reheated in the spit to make one think it was made today The ‘crackling’ was so stale that it felt like I was trying to tear open a Duracell Battery packet with my mouth.. just hard, plastic & brittle. I’ll probably need to see my dentist after this. Salad - Yiamas salad The lovely waitress recommended we order a salad to complement the pork. Little did I know the seemingly freshest thing on the menu (tomato/eggplant/feta salad) would be the oiliest thing to enter my sorry mouth tonight. It was funny because it did actually complement the pork… the perfect accompaniment to stale, dry pork is oily, cold, slimy ‘grilled’ eggplant.

To top it off. The lovely waitress dropped the cutlery all over me whilst packing up the dirty dishes.. yum. Minimal apology, no courtesy or reimbursement for my dry cleaning I will have to...