The Apollo is somewhat of a Potts Point institution that begs locals and tourists alike to experience their take on Greek food and service and for Mother’s Day we decided to treat our wonderful women, geek style!

Sittings here are popular so book well ahead. We were only able to secure an early sitting at 5:15pm for our group of five. Potts Point is also notorious for parking so arrive early if you want to find something kerbside.

We were greeted by a friendly maître de who showed us to a table at the back of the dining room. This was an OK spot however as the night progressed and got busier the close proximity to the toilets and kitchen meant that foot traffic past our table got quite heavy. Disappointingly at one stage the staff carried a table through the dining room requiring diners to duck for cover as the legs brushed close to a few heads! Prior warning would have been nice. Otherwise the dining room had a comfortable ambiance with low lighting and music that started off soft and at a low volume but seemed to increase in volume and intensity as the evening progressed.

The service is good for the most part. Our waiter was efficient but probably didn’t cross the threshold of amazing. If you leave a restaurant believing you have made a new friend in your waiter thats a good sign they are really putting in the effort. We also found the delivery of food to be a little cumbersome with staff often reaching across the table in front of our faces instead of placing each dish from the side. There was a slight drop-and-dash feeling to the service.

As far as the food is concerned we decided to go all-in on the Apollo’s Feast Menu. At $85 per head this is a lot of food and is for groups of four or more. The dishes are served sharing style starting with some classic grazing options of olives, pickles and mullet roe dip. A small surprise again in the service was the additional warm pita bread we ordered was delivered to the table in a take away box not on a plate. It was provided at no extra charge which I guess made up for the less refined table presentation.

Following close behind was the Saganaki (grilled cheese) and Calamari. Saganaki is a pan grilled cheese in this case basted in a honey and oregano syrup. This is a traditional Greek dish and it’s delicious. It felt like you needed something to eat it with but I think traditionally it is served by itself. The calamari had a lovely marinade/ sauce but was let down slightly being a little chewy.

The salad seemed to come out by itself when it would have been nice to have with the main dishes of chicken, fish and lamb shoulder.

The grilled snapper was the stand out for our group. A beautifully prepared half fish with tender juicy flesh and a delicate sauce that was enjoyed by even the non seafood loving members of our group.

There will always be too much food on this menu to comfortably devour and we ended up taking a doggy bag for our lamb shoulder and potatoes as we were only able to keep space for the desserts.

The deserts consisted of Avgolemono pie and walnuts in filo pastry with coffee cream. The latter is fairly basic and resembles a style of baklava with a light coffee cream. The former is a take on a traditional style of Greek cooking best described by a review in the Collective Hub:

“For those of you not well-versed in Greek, avgolemono means ‘lemon sauce’. It’s a concoction of lemon and egg that’s usually used to describe lemony soups and sauces, but Jonathan Barthelmess of The Apollo has named one of his famed desserts Avgolemono Pie. It seems mysterious at first, but once you get below the dish’s olive oil crumble and meringue topping, you’re met with a luscious dollop of lemon curd, and you realise the dessert lives up to its name.”

The food overall is classic comfort category which means for some it can also sit a little bit heavy, but overall the quality was fresh and the flavours were unique.

In conclusion it is worth heading to the Apollo for some great food at a reasonable price.