Kayak Ice Cream Store – Plaka — Restaurant in Athens

Short version: ice cream ok, the worst service ever experienced Long version: My girlfriend had ice cream and I had a cappuccino. The cappuccino was fine, the ice cream rather average.

But what left us stunned was the service. Within a very short time we were asked twice whether we had chosen already. Due to the unfriendly manner we felt urged to order. We would certainly have been able to choose faster if we had had two menus (quite feasible, because the shop was not very full). When ordering, the waiter reacted to my order. He spoke quietly and to himself, so I'm not sure exactly what he said. But the way it was said left me with the impression that it was nothing positive.

When we paid, the waiter asked us if we wanted to tip him. Speechless and unwilling to tip because of the service, we said that we would pay the normal bill and when we leave we would leave the tip on the table. The waiter took a long time to find out the right amount. Then he demonstratively stayed close to us and looked to see if we would tip him. To escape from this unpleasant situation we put 50 cents on the table. Immediately the waiter came very close and asked in a very unpleasant way if something had not been right with the ice. A clear reaction from him on the small tip. We were downright harassed. We just wanted to get out of this situation.

In the two weeks we spent in Athens and the surrounding area we did not even begin to experience such behaviour as here. To be honest, we have never experienced such behaviour anywhere in the world. And many of the other comments suggest that this was unfortunately not an isolated case. We have tried a lot of ice cream in the area and can say: go anywhere, no matter where, the ice cream and the service is guaranteed...

To summarise the food was ok (apart from the chocolate souffle which was microwaved), but the service was atrocious. Went there with some friends to celebrate a friend's birthday. We sat upstairs at a table we really liked since it was next to the window, bit we were asked to move since a big group of people arrived that wanted to sit inside as well. The shop was pretty much empty, but we still agreed to change tables to help the waiter. The tables the waiter put us at were dirty, still full of leftovers from the people before us. We requested that he cleans up before we sit there, but he didn't. It took him a while to come to take our orders, while also being pretty rude as we ordered (mind you he still hadn't wiped the tables, but only taken away the leftovers). When he finally brought some of the things we had ordered only then did he wipe the tables (it wasn't exactly wiping, more like smearing the dirt around). Over the time we spent there he ignored us, even though we had been nice to him. After about an hour of calling for the waiter he finally came and we asked to pay to leave. We asked to pay separately, cause some wanted to pay in cash and others with card (the people who wanted to pay with cash had the exact amount ready), he then practically order us to pay with card and settle the bill amongst ourselves. We refused. The service was terrible and the waiter...

Very disappointing experience: we went to Kayak Plaka today , as we usually do after going to the restaurant across the street, myself my husband and our 6year old. We had one ice cream scoop in a paper cup each and a coffee to go. I was holding 4 shopping bags, so while holding the bags and my ice-cream cup in one hand and the disposable spoon in the other, I sat on a chair next to the cashier waiting for my husband to eat his ice cream while he was standing up: he would then take the bags, and we could start walking on our way to our car holding any unfinished ice-cream and the coffee. But the waitress came and said that I was sitting and according to their policy we would need to pay more, we said that we are not exactly sitting and we were about to go (my husband was eating while standing up, I was still holding the 4 shopping bags ,we had no proper cutlery or ice-cream bowls, no waitress etc.) The waitress came then and brought water to the table and asked for 4 euros more, we paid, we tossed ourselves any finished paper ice-cream cups and took the rest and the coffee to go and left, all this didn't take more than 5 minutes, I guess they charge 1 euro per min if you need to hang around the cashier for any reason before you leave the store?? RUDE – a good thing though that the whole area is full of other ice-cream places, I guess it is time...