Ithaka Greek Restaurant — Restaurant in Victoria

In reply to the owner's response to my below review:

Hey Dimitri. How predictably your response meanders — much like the service I endured at your establishment—through a litany of excuses, deflections, and the kind of sanctimonious self-pity that does little to disguise your incompetence. It is astonishing that you feel the need to trumpet your "5-star reviews" and busy hours as though they somehow absolve you from the simple task of serving warm food in a reasonable time that you promised. The fact remains: you failed at that most basic of human exchanges — a warm meal for money.

Your quip about drive-thrus is as condescending as it is absurd. The irony, of course, is that even a fast-food chain is more capable of meeting customer expectations than your so-called “family business.” I find it remarkable that the irony is lost on you as you make this point against your own establishment! Yet here you stand, not in humble recognition of your shortcomings, but in petulant denial, as though a mountain of your excuses might somehow bury the facts of my experience.

And to suggest that criticism be relegated to private whispers rather than aired in the open — how quaint. Public failures demand public reckoning, Dimitri. No amount of defensive posturing or hollow appeals to pandemic hardships will shield you from the truth of your incompetence and failures to take accountability.

Until you learn to accept that, Ithaka will continue to remain a monument to mediocrity, not mastery.

The latest food safety inspection report confirms your poor management in different ways as documented here: https://inspections.myhealthdepartment.com/island-health/program-food/inspection/?inspectionID=23C64883-9077-4739-B113-94F256B4FC9A

Sincerely, Newsha Makooi

_ Review Date is September 29 __

One can scarcely imagine a more dismal encounter with the culinary arts than my recent foray into Ithaka Greek Restaurant. Arriving at the rather unremarkable hour of 7:10 p.m., I dared to order what one might consider a staple of Greek cuisine: the humble gyro sandwich, paired with a side of Greek salad. A simple request, one would think. How wrong I was.

After placing my order, I was told, with the bland assurance of someone who has neither intention nor capacity to fulfill a promise, that my meal would be ready in 15 minutes. I waited, perhaps foolishly trusting in this establishment’s ability to manage even the most rudimentary aspects of hospitality. By 7:30, it became clear that time operates on a different scale in this particular corner of Hellenic culture, one where 15 minutes can stretch into infinity without so much as a glance in the direction of the waiting customer. When I inquired about my order, they stumbled off to investigate, only to return with the same hollow promise: "soon." Soon, in this case, meant nothing.

At intervals of five minutes, I was subjected to the same charade—feeble reassurances of imminent completion, like a tragic farce played out by individuals wholly untroubled by the concepts of urgency or basic decency. At around 7:45, my patience, now as cold as the meal I was yet to receive, wore thin. I made it clear that I was leaving, only to be implored to wait a "few more minutes," a phrase now devoid of any meaning.

At long last, they handed me my food, as though bestowing a great favor. Not a word of apology, not a gesture of recompense—just the sterile exchange of money for what turned out to be a culinary abomination. Upon returning to my hotel, a mere block away, I opened the package to find that my gyro, this sorry excuse for nourishment, was cold. Cold, mind you, as though it had been languishing in some Arctic purgatory.

That such a thing could occur in a place professing to serve Greek food is beyond comprehension. Ithaka Greek Restaurant is a testament to incompetence, both in customer service and the preparation of even the most basic of dishes. I could not, in good conscience, recommend this establishment to anyone, save for those seeking a masterclass in how not to run...

Update on November 17, 2022:

My statement is pretty clear all the time. The reason why we are so mad and disappointed and left a 3 stars review is because: Our server that night, after we found that parchment paper from our food, he DID say sorry to us, but he DIDN’T take the INITIATIVE to say anything about something will be complimentary, or what the thing(parchment paper) that my friend ate and found was. He DIDN’T take any INITIATIVES to SAY something, such as “sorry about the experience you encountered, we will offer you…” Or even easier “we will make sure that will not happen again.” Are these really hard to say? We want to see their attitude and hear about the explanation about what they would like do to solve this problem, but they didn’t. Taking the initiatives and having communication with your customers are important.

I can apologize for my friend’s aggressive tone when she asking what the thing was in our rice. But we are the one who almost swallowed the parchment paper, not anyone else. Here is my apology to the server for my friend: I am sorry for her aggressive tone that might made you uncomfortable, we were upset at that time, because my friend almost swallowed it.

The reason why I left a 3 stars review and described the facts about our experience was because I wanted to see their improvement, but now i just received more arguments from it. But I do need to apologize for some improper wording underneath, because I m not good at using a second language. That’s it.

Met up with friends here once and ordered calamari, meat ball and creek style fries from happy hour, and two types of souvlaki from the regular menu. The food was good, but they insisted on serving all the dishes at the same time, but lacked a heater to keep the food warm, resulting in all the dishes being cold, even the fries and calamari. The service was slow, perhaps because the host put us in a seat above the steps and our waiter never found out when we needed help. But the most disappointing thing was that we found a small piece of plastic or parchment paper mixed with our food, and my friend almost swallowed it. When we told the waiter about this, his first reaction was to try to destroy it and apologize to us in a careless manner without any explanation. We all thought this was ridiculous, and although the waiter eventually removed the dish where the plastic piece was found from our bill, he never informed us of any action taken by the restaurant from the beginning to the end. All of us work in the hospitality industry as well and this is a failure in customer service, whether it is a casual apology or staying silent at all times and not informing the guest that the restaurant is responsible for their problem and what action...

Service was good but the restaurant is not family friendly and the food is mediocre at best. Also it was very hot and stuffy inside. Would not recommend to anyone. Lamb souvlaki was dry and tasteless.

In response to the owners frankly rude and borderline offensive comments. When I am at a restaurant I am there paying for a pleasant experience. When that experience is poor the last thing I want is to spend my evening explaining how the restaurant has missed the mark. To make this clear I do not work for you. I am your customer. Spending time from my evening to give you feedback is not my job. I gave you my review when it was convenient for me. You could of taken it as constructive criticism and used it to improve. If my review lacked details you could of requested them. Instead you attack me. You ask if I am a Michelin star reviewer. You are not wrong. I’m not one. What I am is a paying customer that will never return to your restaurant. Also you have now earned a one star review instead of a two. This is only because google does not allow for a lower rating.

Also not for the owner but for anyone that might make the mistake of visiting this restaurant here are the details of why I would never return

Angry and rude owner. According to the host when we entered strollers are not allowed inside. They must be left at the door. Not a huge issue for parents with a single child but this is going to be a problem is you have more than one. There is only one changing table in the women’s restroom. Either you have to coordinate an opportunity for a man to use it or the mother has to do all the work. High chairs are not correctly sized for the tables. There was no kids menu that I saw our server recommended pita bread. Pita and hummus - The presentation was poor. Just a dollop of really dry hummus in a small bowl with a stack of pita cut into triangles next to it. The pita was warm and tasted good. The hummus was as previously mentioned really dry, very course and gritty. Also the garlic was so strong it actually burned on the tongue. It lacked salt and in my opinion could of used some lemon. The soda I ordered was flat. The lamb we ordered was tasteless and dry. I could not actually tell if it was lamb. I did not check but if the restaurant has a beef kebab then I guess they may of mixed it up. The rice was okay but the potatoes were just boiled and lacked salt. The tzatziki sauce was bland and tasted like...