EKIBEN KITCHEN — Restaurant in Athens

Found Ekiben by accident. What an amazing experience! Highly recommend coming here, even if you think "why would I want Japanese fusion in Athens?" We got 6 pm reservations (reservations recommended) for 3 and it was in the Ramen House side of the restaurant. Upon arrival, we were greeted by two super-friendly hosts. They offered drinks while we waited (we were 20 minutes early). We opted to go inside and check out the record album shop. DJ inside playing 90's rap which was super cool since I'm GEN X. After only a few minutes we were escorted over to the Ramen House side (which would've been my preference anyway). Sat down at a large table with stools. This side also has bar seating where you face the cooking staff who work in an open kitchen. We ordered from a paper menu by writing down how much we wanted from each dish. We ordered edamame, gyoza, steamed white rice, kimchee, a pork katsu sando, a smash burger (not weird and I'll explain why), and the braised beef noodle bowl. Everything was fantastic! The Smash Burger is not weird because it's fusion and they did it right! It's small, simple, and hits the right notes. The meat is from the owner's farm-raised cattle (according to the waiter). The sauce had the right flavor and ratio to the meat and bun. The bun was soft and toasted and the cheese was ooey gooey all the way through the burger. Seasoned perfectly, I would run this up against other craft smash burgers back in the US. The pork katsu sando was made with milk bread, but toasted on the outside which isn't traditional. However, it's fusion, not tradition. The pork was moist and tender and cooked perfectly. Great crunch on the breading. The pickled cabbage was a perfect complement to the pork. The braised beef noodle bowl was a killer dish! The cured egg yolk when mixed in gave a creamy texture that highlighted this dish. This was an Umami flavor bomb to say the least. Other reviewers who say this place lacks flavor have to be local competing restaurants who are getting killed by this place. There was no lack of flavor anywhere! So, if you want to sit and have a great dining experience then go to Ekiben. If you are intrigued by the review, but can't get a reservation, walk down and see if they'll squeeze you in or get it at the To Go window. Either way,...

We had very high expectations for this place but were very disappointed by what we found. The Ebiken Kitchen has a great atmosphere and good food - but the complete lack of service quality mitigated all of that for us. It took almost an hour for us to receive our food. There are multiple dining rooms, and it seems more than one kitchen. But the staff are not trained to be able to serve with any efficiency. Worse, when I asked about how long the service take, I was rebuffed. The server came to our table only twice in the evening - to bring the menus after we had been sitting for twenty minutes, and to bring the receipt to us after we had asked for it a few times. Even the manager did nothing to assist us. Instead, they gave reasons like “it’s our rush hour so we don’t know how long it will take”, and “there is more than one kitchen so it can be complicated”. While those reasons are valid, the staff needs better training to make sure that the service meets what is being advertised.

1. Prioritize the in-house seating, or don’t offer it at all.
2. If a customer asks for help or brings a problem to your attention, at the very least apologize for the problem. Better yet, give more attention to that customer. At best, offer a discount. But don’t act like it’s the customers’ problem.
3. When someone asks to pay, assume that they don’t want to just look at the receipt for twenty minutes. Perhaps that will improve your table turnover. Ultimately, the food was decent. But the complete lack of service quality ruined our experience. We will not be returning and will discourage anyone we know from...

We were really excited to visit and try one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, the beef tartare. Upon arrival, we waited at least 10 minutes before even receiving menus, only to be told that the tartare was out of stock. This was surprising, considering it was only 7pm. We expressed our disappointment to the waiter, explaining that we had specifically come for that dish, and even considered leaving, but due to time constraints, we decided to stay.

Right after we placed our order, we noticed the same waiter handing menus to the table next to us. To our surprise, they weren’t informed that the tartare was unavailable. At first, we assumed it was a simple mistake, but by the time our food arrived, we saw that they had been served the very dish we were told wasn’t available. It’s unclear what went wrong between the kitchen and the service team, but the experience left a bad impression.

As for the food, everything we tried was just okay, nothing particularly exciting in terms of flavour. The pork katsu was served on plain sliced bread instead of Japanese milk bread, the smash burger was just a standard smash burger with nothing special about it, and the sauce that came with the wagyu gyoza was far too overpowering.

On top of that, it was both hilarious and ridiculous that the dining hall is located directly inside a record store, yet instead of playing music from an actual record, they were playing a mix of a Greek radio station and Spotify when the station has ads on. It felt like such a missed opportunity.

Overall, a disappointing visit, and I wouldn’t...