ΛΙΝΟΥ ΣΟΥΜΠΑΣΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΣΙΑ — Restaurant in Athens

Visited this place on a very busy Saturday night after reading and hearing exceptional reviews since its opening couple of months ago

The restaurant had a nice ambience and was simply yet very thoughtfully decorated.

The menu is small (always positive) and changes based on what is available

We ordered 4 dishes plus bread plus two glasses of wine and we paid over 90€. I am not of the opinion that cheap is value of money. You could pay even 80-100€ pp and it could be vfm. This wasn’t the case here in my opinion

Yes whatever we ate was well prepared and the crayfish is an expensive raw material but I can think of at least a dozen restaurants in Athens where you can enjoy equally as good food at better pricing.

I liked the “simplicity” of all the dishes (the simply boiled veggies was amazing) while the cod wrapped in lamb’s caul’s fat with homemade pitta and tarama was really good!

I heavily disliked the fact though that i got doused in wine on my back when a waiter accidentally dropped a bottle of wine and none of the personnel actually even hinted or tried to offer me something (like a free glass of wine etc). Yes i got told over 6 times how sorry they were, yes accidents do happen and it’s normal but no you should not just stick to apologising verbally but you should show it somehow.

I will not be visiting this restaurant again not because the food was not good or because it was expensive but because when you want to be considered a high-end restaurant (because that’s what you are at this price tag) the service should be at the same high level; and although service was fast, polite and knowledgable, the fact that none of them even tried to offer something after what happened, was the deal...

Overall, the restaurant offers a mediocre to bad experience and not-so-exciting food, especially given the expectations created by the good reviews and the prices.

Food: the food was mediocre, especially for the price tag. The best dishes were the bread (well made, tasty, very well picked dips) and the desert. All the in between was a good idea, well prepared but nothing exciting. Something was always missing, especially for plates that cost 20€ on avg. The pumpkin with the blue cheese was meh, the fish with greens was cold, the raw tuna was interesting, the duck with the beetroot sauce was missing any twist.

Service: the service was bad. The staff were nice and polite per se, but clearly not well instructed on what needs to be done and in what order. If you want to be a high end restaurant the flow is important: dishes came in a rush, in no particular order, the wine came after the 2 first dishes and once we asked, the waiter was refilling the glasses again in a rush. Nobody took the time to think where those huge plates will fit on this small table all at once. Nobody gave a warning that e.g. in 10' there is another reservation so we could pay our bill on time and leave. Instead, they let the people come and stand above our heads, as we were rushing to pay the bill.

Environment: quite noisy and not that cosy. Lots of tables in a relatively small space, where you constantly feel people moving around you. The WC is on a type of attic, accessible only via a small steep staircase. Not accessible by people with disabilities or even smaller difficulties...

After reading the mixed reviews we weren’t sure what to expect. We decided to take a chance and overall we are glad we did. The host was not courteous, but we enjoyed the hip vibe, the wine and most of our dishes.

I’m not sure what the host had against us (were we supposed to tip him, or flatter him?). We arrived in time for our reservation at 7pm and most of the restaurant was empty with only one table seated. The host showed us to a rather undesirable table cramped against a wall. We asked if we could have one of the more centrally located tables and he replied that all the other tables were for people with reservations at 7, which was odd, because ours was among those 7pm reservations. We pointed this out, but he did not budge. So for the next hour we watched as others arrived later than us and were given better seats. Alright, fine, whatever.

The menu focuses mainly on seafood and most of the dishes were excellent. We especially enjoyed the fish soup, crayfish pasta and the grilled oysters. We did not especially enjoy the fried flounder. They have a large selection of wines by the glass, including some delightful orange wines.

The vibe looks white and sterile during the day, but after sundown it warms up as they light candles (in what is, apparently, an old candle factory).

Overall, we look forward to returning and trying more items on the menu. I just hope the host doesn’t treat us like second class...