Dionysos Zonar's — Restaurant in Athens

Well how can I describe this place. It should have been wonderful 5star amazing review. Somehow I feel disappointed and cheated.... Before I continue I must stress that I am someone that has travelled all over Europe, Egypt, Tunisia, the Canaries, Florida and the list goes on. Due to my job I have been fortunate enough to visit a number of seriously fancy places, red carpet events, posh celebrity studed places & all round fine dining. Of course in these sort of places you are prepared for an oversized bill & small portions. (Unfortunately) which is what inevitably happened. First the positive. The place looks amazing, stone paths draped on a forest hill that had a clear view of the acropolis. Good selection of plates to choose from and clearly a professional set up. BUT for me that's where the greatness ends. I found the whole fine dining production a little to pretentious! You are greeted by parking attendants at the car park that want to take your car and park it without the appropriate set up (vehicle checks, photos to prove any damage afterwards). They were not pleased but "allowed" me to park my own car somewhere that I was not blocking anyone in as they were about to send me off to park somewhere else. People at the entrance were very friendly and took us to a lovely table of our choice with a great view of the acropolis. Then there were the waiters. Smiley and polite, with decent uniforms (black trousers and white shirts but no bow ties that would have been appropriate for such a place) that went on to name drop celebrities and presidents that often visit the place and that they have served... (Worth mentioning here that they were not making eye contact with me but they were very keen on making eye contact with my wife lol...) The service was very very good other than that. Friendly polite and cautious! The menu had lots of options but I could not believe the prices. Bearing in mind I just came back from Italy and spent time in Rome, that is a pricey place, eating on a roof top garden place that was looking at the Colosseum and the prices there were half to what I was looking at. Never the less we ordered a salad, a burger meal and a chicken fillet dish. Worth mentioning that they were the cheapest (by chance) items on the menu. I have attached the bill so you can make your own decisions! The salad, nice enough, nothing special. The chicken dry and chewy. Tasteless. The burger (no bun burger and potatoes with mushrooms and melted cheese) actually tasted awesome even if a bit undercooked. (Again photos attached) They even had a champagne ice bucket with our still water bottle in it that they made sure to top up our glasses with, and they charged €6 for the novelty. Now after 23 years in England driving a jaguar and having a responsible job and having visited lots of posh places up and down the country, I can't excuse the pricing. €19 for a salad, €28 for undercooked dry chicken and €28 for 2 small burgers and €6 for a bottle of water is a bit much I believe. I'm sure there will be people that will believe the old fashioned park your car and I'm pouring your drink for you philosophy coupled with small portions of food is the best thing since slice of bread, but I prefer good honest tasty food that might stop me feeling hungry. Thank you for looking after us but not for us. Way too expensive...

I tried to calm down before writing this, but here’s my honest review of this OVERRATED restaurant.

Terrible service. Rude staff. Hands down the worst dinner of our 10-day trip in this otherwise wonderful country.

Yes, the staff were suited up like James Bond… but served like a comedian. We ordered appetizers and mains, and instead of pacing it out, the waiter just piled everything onto our tiny table—like it was a buffet at a student dorm. Then one male staff member leaned over and muttered “faster! faster!” Honestly, was he talking to us, the chef, or his career prospects? Either way, not the “fine dining” energy they claim to offer.

And then came the water-pouring circus act. The waitress decided it was a good idea to pour water from over 20 cm above the glass, splashing it all over my hand. Not just once—she repeated this “trick” for other tables with kids either. I’m just grateful it wasn’t boiling water, otherwise, we’d be reviewing a hospital instead of a restaurant.

The food? Slightly better than an airport pork gyro plate. But here you pay over €40 per meal, which makes sense—€30 is for the view, €10 is for the food. Don’t get me wrong, the chef probably tried their best, but “effort” isn’t exactly worth Michelin-star prices. Hopefully, someone out there found the “passion” in their underwhelming plates.

Cocktails? We ordered them not to celebrate my birthday, but to give Zonar’s one last chance to redeem itself. Spoiler: they didn’t. The bartenders (stationed by the welcoming aisle) served drinks with all the finesse of a vending machine you could spot on the street.

The view? Gorgeous. Absolutely a stunner. But we took our own selfies—no way were we trusting staff with our memories after everything else they managed to ruin. Greece gave us plenty of joy, but Zonar’s will not be on the highlight reel.

Honestly, I don’t know how much Zonar’s spends on hyped-up promotions in East Asia, but maybe cut the ads and spend that money on basic staff training and an interview process that weeds out people who think fine dining means “spill water dramatically and tell customers to hurry up.”

Thanks for reading - Save your money, enjoy the...

The worst customer service I’ve had in a long time, especially for a fine dining restaurant.

Issues: • My friend ordered a salmon poke bowl for 28€, and the poke bowl came without rice. We took for granted that it would be served with rice, since that’s the standard at most places. The staff could’ve alerted us while taking our orders that rice wouldn’t be included prior to getting the food, but that didn’t happen (or the menu could write the absence of rice out more clearly). When my friend got the food and asked about the rice, the staff said that the dish doesn’t come with rice and nothing can be done about it. She requested to pay for an extra bowl of rice, but they wouldn’t serve it since it’s not specifically on the menu. I completely understand that a fine dining restaurant can’t serve off-the-menu dishes, but that logic makes no sense when they already have vegetarian poke WITH rice on the menu.

We payed for our bill in full, but asked to talk to the manager since the service had been highly lacking. There seemed to be at least 6-7 waiters that were just chilling by the bar instead of trying to fix the issue. The manager had lacking English, and didn’t seem to understand the issue at hand. Thankfully a waiter called Chris stepped in and tried to mediate the situation. Eventually the manager came up and quickly apologized and offered us a plate of pancakes on the house. He quickly apologized and disappeared within a minute, so it didn’t seem very genuine.

Upsides: • I ordered a cold cappuccino with ice cream, and it was delicious. • The bathrooms were really fresh and aesthetic. • Chris was the only one out of a whole team who had a service mindset. If it wasn’t for him, I’d rate...