Fig & Feta — Restaurant in Collingwood

WARNING: FOOD AT THIS RESTAURANT IS SUBSTANDARD AND OVERPRICED !!!

Being Greek, I wanted very much to like this joint. We were visiting from out of town and I felt that a Greek place would be safe, as Greeks normally know food; and Greek cuisine is generally hard to screw up. I was sadly mistaken and advise people to avoid this establishment.

The small serving of moussaka (supposedly based on someone's grandma's recipe that the waitress raved about) contained eggplant as tough as shoe leather. My jaw was sore from chewing it. As a Greek, I am asking the owners to please take it off the menu, as it is insulting to all Greek grandmothers. Shame on them for hyping it up that way.

The chicken souvlaki was dry and fibrous. I suspect that the chicken breasts from the restaurant's supplier are "woody" (Google for definition), or the meat was previously frozen. Also, the chicken was totally flavourless (in contrast, the ground beef in the moussaka had decent flavour). If I had known, I would have convinced my son and his mother to go for pork souvlaki, which is much harder for amateurs to screw up, as it has natural juiciness and intense flavour.

The pita served in the side dish with the olives was VERY DRY. Whole wheat pita is generally dry and also NOT TRADITIONALLY GREEK. Why not serve a thick white Greek-style pita? It's the same cost for the owner. Also, for the very high prices they are charging, that side should include a few feta slices.

The rice was fine. The deep-fried calamari was okay. The grilled veggies were fine. The tzatziki was okay. The Greek salad was fine.

Service was VERY VERY SLOW. They appear to have lots of wait staff, so I suspect the bottleneck is in their kitchen. Slow service is not cool for substandard food.

Many previous reviewers have complained about rude service. Our waitress was personable and knowledgeable, but when I complained about the leathery moussaka after working part-way through the dish (she knew I was Greek and I therefore knew better), she DID NOTHING about it. Later when she came out with the bill, she said that the kitchen was TOO BUSY for her to interrupt them with my complaint, and that she would bring it up after dinner service!

I am financially comfortable, so I did not need the dish removed from my bill (I consider it charity from one Greek to another), but she should have either removed it from the bill or offered a free dessert or something else to compensate me for my complaint. I don't blame her. I blame management, because I suspect that complaints from waitresses are met with resistance like "That malaka's taste buds are screwed up" or "That peasant doesn't know gourmet food".

Finally, I emailed the above complaint to the restaurant in order to avoid publicly embarrassing them (Greek loyalty). The delusional owner responded "stop trolling us please, we are very busy. Thank you for your restaurant management pointers. And thank you for your roleplaying answers to the servers telling management your meal was not good (funny)."

No sir, there's nothing funny about spending a small fortune on a bad meal. Avoid Fig & Feta...

Poor Service and sub-standard food

We gave this restaurant a try because we had read so many great reviews.

The restaurant was pretty full when we arrived, we were shown to our table, looked over the menus and wine list and ……WAITED 10 minutes

In that time, our waiter went by ignoring us as he wended his way to other patron-filled tables. Some obviously waiting for service. No word from him nor eye contact each time he passed.

When one of us asked “excuse me” as he walked by she received a dismissive look and was curtly told he would be back.

He eventually came back with water, but no apology for the delay and left without asking about or taking our order. We had been left WAITING almost 15 minutes.

We WAITED again another 15 minutes. Watching him go by and disappearing, but we were not alone. As mentioned, other patrons at nearby tables were enduring the same poor service.

We WAITED again. 15 minutes later he and came back to take our food orders.

He returned 10 minutes later with our salads and 10 minutes after with our appetizer. We took our time as we had a feeling our mains wouldn’t be arriving anytime soon. We were right. We WAITED for another 30 minutes to get our mains.

We really enjoy unrushed meals but this was definitely an unenjoyable experience. No reasons or apologies for the delay provided.

Of the three of us, one ordered the beef gyro and the other two chose souvlaki dinners; lamb and chicken. The one who, unfortunately for him, chose the gyro, found the beef was hard and dry. The other two did slightly better but the lamb souvlaki was over done and the chicken souvlaki was also dry.

It wasn't until we had almost finished that our waiter returned. He asked how our meal was and if we wanted dessert. We held back from saying what, in hindsight, we should have. Instead of complaining about his poor service and the food, we shied away from public confrontation and didn’t want to wait any more or endure his rudeness. Having been at the restaurant for two hours of which most of it was spent waiting to be served, we asked for the bill.

He came back with the machine and unsurprisingly it had four tip % options 18, 20, 25 and 30. Everyone knows there’s an option to leave a dollar amount, but there’s no reason for restaurants not to start at 15% option. We could tell this waiter was not happy with what we tipped him. We wondered why we gave one at all. It is also rude and annoying to have the waiter hover over your shoulder as you decide what tip you wish to give. The kicker was when we asked for a copy of the receipt and he handed us one so light and barely readable. The waiter’s parting comment was yes it is hard to read but the machine has been like this for two years. No sorry. nothing!!!

The evening’s meal was marred by utterly awful and rude service. No, we won’t be coming back to this restaurant and won’t be recommending it to our...

TODAY’S POST: Response to the owner - The waiter who served us looked to be in his 30s. Maybe he was younger, maybe he was older. Nevertheless, his skills as a waiter were awful. As for the amount paid, I selected the $1 to $10 bracket as I only paid for the beverages, due to the fact that the food was awful. An unfortunate experience all around. As for when I post my review, that’s up to me, the customer. I shelved the negative experience I had at your restaurant as I was so upset and yesterday when I saw your restaurant I was reminded that I never took the time to provide my input on your place of business. I hope your reviews continue to be positive. It’s just unfortunate my family, friend and I were not on the receiving end of a lovely meal.

I'd be upset too if my place of business received a negative review. Maybe it's time for you to re-evaluate how you train and monitor your staff rather than accusing others of posting false reviews.

YESTERDAY’S POST: About 6 months ago we chose this place for lunch as a friend was visiting and it was getting wonderful reviews. Big mistake all around. We arrived around 1 PM, and the lunch crowd was just starting to thin out. Our waiter, a gentleman in his 30s, needed to be hailed three times before he would give us a menu. That's right - one menu for 4 people. We made our selections and again, having waited 15 minutes, we had to get the waiter's attention to take our order. As we were waiting for our food we saw people arrive, be served, and still we waited for our food. After 20 minutes I approached the bar and asked what the issue was. The waiter had not submitted our order. They put a rush on the food. When the waiter arrived, he practically threw the plates on the table then turned his back and left. The chicken was almost raw, the salad overdressed and the wrap soggy. I asked for the manager, who was indisposed. I refused to pay for the entire bill. I did pay for the beverages and we left. Today I was again in Collingwood visiting a friend. She suggested this restaurant as she noted it was getting good reviews. I refused and recounted our previous experience. Bent Taco...