The Apollo Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

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...

We arrived at 21:30 on a monday and were almost immediately seated at a table (party of 5). We had made a reservation earlier that same day at noon and they were happy to take us in. At first we wanted to sit outside, but that area had already been closed off for the night. We ordered 2 tzatziki with pita bread, the saganaki cheese with honey and oregano, a lamb shoulder, village salad, charcoal chicken and the swordfish, along with roast potatoes. For drinks, our lovely waiter offered either still or sparkling water - we chose still. The table also got a bottle of 2021 Gentilini Rhombus, a glass of orange juice and two mocktails: the "No Boozy Karpouzi" - a watermelon rosewater, and the "Pearsepho-No", which is a pear, elderflower and lemon drink with a touch of coriander. We asked for the cheese and pita to arrive first alongside the drinks, and it was amazing, everyone at the table loved the saganaki and as someone who loves tzatziki, i was amazed at how good it was, aswell as the fresh bread, which really complimented the flavour well. Finished with the entrees, it was time for the main dishes. What really excelled in our eyes was the charcoal chicken and roast potatoes, with a simple but strong taste, which almost brought me to Greece. The salad was also brilliant, but it must be said that obviously, if you don't like feta, this isn't for you. I was told that the fish was very good too, but I personally don't like seafood, so I can't give you my opinion. The lamb did not taste as good as expected, but nevertheless, it was still nice, but as we couldn't finish it all, we got it for takeaway. Afterwards we ordered two desserts - the honey doughnuts and ice cream made of goat milk, the ice cream was exceptional and the doughnuts were also extremely delicious, with an interesting sauce, which tasted a bit sour, but went well together with the pastries. Sadly, we didn't get to try the highly recommended lemon meringue pie, but there's always next time. I would also like to give a very special thanks to our waiter - Diego, who was very nice and helpful and seemed to fulfill any request we had, his suggestions were also top notch. He was also fun to simply chat with, funny too. Can't wait to meet him again. In summary, the restaurant was clean, the waiters were friendly, the food was amazing, the atmosphere was great and the bathrooms smelled like lavender, which was a nice little touch. I truly, truly can't emphasize enough how much I've fallen in love with this restaurant from my first visit, and I'm sure there are many more to come - maybe I'll even get a drink at the bar, which was lit by romantic candlelight and looked enticing. Thank you again very much, and this visit will not be our last visit - until next time. (Apologies for the low...

Overall very disappointing experience. Came for our final meal with my parents who were on holiday visiting from the UK. Have had some excellent food all across the east coast of Australia this trip but this was some of the worst unfortunately.

We had the Easter Banquet where most of the dishes were fine at best. The beans and the stuffed tomato dishes were bland and boring with little variety in flavours or texture. The cod fritters were also fine but again bland and the batter was undercooked. The lamb, the dips and salad were all fine id say maybe a 3 or 4 out of 5. The potatoes were good. The dessert was my least favourite of the night and it’s hard to get a dessert that wrong.

We also noticed that the table next to us (a table of 2) were given the same portion sizes as us (a table of 4) for many of the dishes. Not sure if this is because it was the end of the Easter weekend and they were running out? They had the same exact portion size of the stuffed tomato/pepper, the same potatoes and actually more Easter bread. We also got given 3 pieces of lamb to share between 4 people and then when we asked about it a waiter said that it is weighed and she will check but then our waiter immediately brought out another piece and apologised which was nice but I’m pretty confident they were just trying to get away with giving us less food throughout the banquet.

Lastly, only one waiter explained the dish as she brought it out. When I asked one of the girls what dessert was she seemed annoyed and said twice its Greek name and that it was just an almond biscuit. Come to find it was actually filled with a type of ice cream and something else so definitely not just a biscuit. We were also given 4 red eggs in a basket which I again had to ask her about- to which she said ‘you just hit the top and the bottom it’s just a hard boiled egg’- later to find (from a family talking to another table) you are supposed to play a game with them which is obviously the whole point of them being served. Again this just left us confused and kind of spoiled what was supposed to be a fun little activity at the end of the meal. Talking about staff, the host, (who seemed to be in management) was also unwelcoming and didn’t even say hello when we got there so I think unfriendly staff is the maybe the vibe they’re going for?

Overall the food is very average and overpriced, the staff are unfriendly and need more training but the wine and the...