Ox Athens — Restaurant in Athens

Ox is a newcomer in the area around the under-construction Conrad Hotel (former Hilton) and the settings match the prospective clientele. The outdoor space resembles more to a premium beach bar. The overall architecture is somewhat post-industrial / minimal and clinical, with a more traditional open kitchen featuring a wooden oven/grill. My 23-year-old son described the experience as a "rich man's comfort food spot". He is probably right. The cooking is traditional with a spin (not a creative twist). I suppose the idea is to make the meat tavern concept more friendly to upper-middle-class patrons (and upper class as well). All dishes had prime ingredients. The starters sported nice flavours. The tzatziki (dip with yoghurt, cucumbers, garlic, and olive oil - the yoghurt was not strained thankfully) was a smooth, original treat . The Florina pepper salad delighted us with its deliciously spicy flavour. The two different types of potatoes are no brainers (go for the "New Potatoes"). The mains were delicious to a point. The veal loin chops were probably among the best in town. The mutton loin chops were tasteful but lacked that rustic "bite" while the burgers were rather indifferent (like the ones you might get in a hospital). All in all, the mains were made as if to cater for all tastes and hardly "insult" expectations. It looks like though that the young team (kudos there) at the kitchen needs more "burn-in". Mind you, the chef (IMO one of the best in Greece) was not in. The two available desserts were indeed delicious, especially the peanut "ekmek". The service is attentive and friendly (maybe a bit too friendly). There is a potential here and I will be returning, though not at peak hours. Book ahead and expect to pay at least 65-70 euros p.p. for a full meal and a bottle of good wine. A final remark: The music (blues, jazz, 70ies pop) is really out of context (or maybe in context with the ambience/experience approach I...

My dining experience at Ox restaurant was a very disappointing one. The quality of food and service were absolutely below average and did not meet any expectations. First, it took at least 20-30 minutes after getting seated before we were even given a menu. The restaurant was not extremely busy by any means, and we did request a menu a few times but were always told to wait a moment. The restaurant’s indoor and outdoor seatings had many bugs/insects of sorts (likely mosquitoes), and the seating itself was not the most comfortable. We were finally able to order, but the food took quite a while to arrive. We ordered a variety of appetizers which were good, but the steak we ordered was the main disappointment. We ordered medium rare on the steak but received something closer to rare. On top of that, for a considerably small portion of steak that costed 27 euros, it came with literally just the steak without any side of any sort. This was the same for the half-chicken we ordered. Aside from being rare, the steak was also quite fatty. It was cut up by one of the staff, but we still had to go through quite a lot of cutting ourselves before being able to eat. At the end of the meal when we were ready to pay, we were again met with a tipping option that had already been set to 10%. I asked the staff if tipping was part of the culture, and they quickly set it to 0. Cannot say that I will be eating here again and certainly cannot recommend...

Possibly because it was a Saturday night and the place was packed, standards that night were frankly very low.

It's a new restaurant and therefore may have some teething problems.

The starters were ok, nothing special and none were in any way memorable. The main course of Tbone steak was well cooked and very good. The other dishes (we were 6 people) were overcooked by a long way, dry and tasteless. The pork kontosouvli was simply unacceptable: tiny cubes of super overcooked meat which was hard, dry, and tasteless, served in a bowl and frankly looked like dogfood. We complained and the uneaten dishes were taken off the bill. The pork chop was also way too overcooked and hence tough and very dry. These are surprising letdowns for a restaurant priding itself on meat - and hopefully easy to resolve.

The service was excellent, efficient and helpful attitude from all the servers and manager.

As already mentioned, it's a new place and it was a Saturday evening when it was packed which might (perhaps ) excuse some of the issues.

But not the crazy loud music. Some parts of the interior are in a low ceilinged alcove where the loud music and general noise made it difficult to speak or hear anyone else at the table.

I hope they find ways of resolving the issues with quality of food as you can see they've made a big effort and it would be great if they succeeded. On the basis of the first meal there, there is some...