Μπαρμπουνάκι Μητροπόλεως — Restaurant in Athens

The menu looked good with several fish dishes. We spoke to the waiter and straight away he listed dishes that weren't available. Salmon, tuna, all of the raw dishes. We asked specifically about filleted fish and he assured us he had several options, so we were seated.

We ordered a few things and they trickled out in random order, and over a long time.. ie, we ordered bread and dip. The dip came out very early on, shortly after a salad. The bread for the dip came out about ten minutes later. The dip was mostly gone by that point and would have been a waste to just leave it sitting out.

Over about half an hour the food came out. My sea bass fillets came out and I shared them with my husband, luckily, and his fish dish didn't come out right at the end of the meal, and after that, a portion of chips.

The chips were completely inedible. Cold, hard. A few round the outside were ok but mostly horrible. We left most of them. His fish, which we'd discussed being filleted, came out as four whole little fish. It wasn't what we ordered and certainly wasn't filleted despite having a detailed discussion about it. We were mostly done by this point, service was incredibly slow as more people had arrived so we asked for the bill. The waiter came to clear and asked why we had left food and if it was ok. I'm unsure why you'd ask this question unless you're prepared for any answer! My husband politely said the chips were hard and cold (which was being polite), and that he thought he'd ordered the fish we'd been shown when we arrived which was to be filleted, but it was probably his fault, no issue. And it wasn't, we just wanted the bill and to leave.

Another waiter came over and asked the issue, and loudly and aggressively started saying he repeated the order back and that's why he did it. My husband again said, no issues, probably my fault. Still no bill. But the waiter was making a scene, and we were just trying to pay and leave.

Then they gave us a small dessert and made a big deal of it being on the house (although it's customary for that at most meals and others around us received them..). My husband ate it, I could not (dairy).

They cleared it and we waited further for the bill but nothing. I asked for the bill again from the same person, and instead of going to get it, he went to another table to clear plates. My husband then went inside to pay so we could finally leave.

Finally a third waiter came over and loudly started asking about the fish. For god's sake. No issue I said. And lastly he said, "but how was the food?" All they want to hear is it's good, feedback is not welcomed, so I said, good, and we...

We dined here twice, first time at lunchtime and had a light and basic lunch, which left a favourable impression, so we decided to go back for dinner some days later. It was a busy evening, but not heaving and so one would expect standards to remain high, but this wasn't the case. I'm a sea food "foodie" and was looking forward to grilled sea bass, particularly as it was recommended and supposedly fresh. I was disappointed. It was dull and "soft", rather than a firm, tender white-fleshed fish that I expect. I have had sea bass many times, at home and in numerous restaurants, but never such a bad example as here. The salad was the worst example of a salad that I experienced in my 2.5 weeks in Athens and the Saronic Islands. It was basically a chopped up lettuce with one olive and 2 small pieces of tomato. I couldn't eat much of it. The chips were soft, not crisp or well cooked. The wine didn't arrive until a long time after our food was served, despite asking twice. I noticed that on the table next to us, the clientele were not happy with the food or the service. Their food arrived at different times for the 3 of them, the order was wrong and they sent one dish back as it was below standard (they too seemed to be fish "foodies"). My experience wasn't good and maybe it was just one of those bad nights for the restaurant (they happen), but I can only review here how it was for me/us on that particular occasion. I hope others have a better experience. Of all the restaurants visited in Greece over 2.5 weeks, we only had 2 bad experiences, and this was...

Excellent food, perfect location but service badly lets this place down - attitude and wait time awful. Asked for the table in the shade but informed that it was a table for 6 (we were a party of 4). Later, the table was given to a couple! On insisting we needed a table in the shade or in direction, they finally rotated the table they wanted to originally gave us which of course ended up with the sun bearing down as the meal progressed. Service staff then came up and said ‘simple huh, why didn’t you say’!’ We then agreed to have the dishes brought as they were ready rather than serve all together, however, the final dish (seafood linguine for our 7 year old) arrived 30+ mins after we had all finished - a full one hour from ordering to being brought out. To rub salt in the wound, the local family on the next table had a similar order to ours and despite them arriving 15 mins after us received all their food more or less together including the seafood linguine - which arrived a good 15 mins before our daughter’s!

Some better training of service staff would not go amiss and a check on attitude before employing….

PS: the manager took all the drinks off the bill (€20) as a goodwill gesture - after I said I was writing an...