Papadakis — Restaurant in Athens

We had the Sea bass ceviche, fried baby squid with honey and pepper sauce, Linguini with tomato sauce and shrimps, the whole grilled fish which was a grouper and the sorbet of the day, which was mandarin.

As for the appetizers the ceviche was bright, fresh and flavorful, the fried baby squid dish was crunchy and a nice balance between sweet and savory.

As the main dish the linguini was flavorful and the tomato-bisque sauce was tasty. Unfortunately the biggest disappointment of the night was the Grouper (see photo for reference) which was way too dry and flaky leaving it 3/4 uneaten. We ordered the mandarin sorbet as dessert expecting a fresh and light pallet cleanser to balance the linguini with tomato bisque sauce (eating a bisque-tomato sauce pasta dish always accumulates saltiness on your tongue) to conclude our dinner on a fresh, light and bright note; albeit, the sorbet was very sweet and almost felt like an ice cream rather than a sorbet.

Although our dinner was off to a good start we left unsatisfied. The main reason is that the whole grilled fish (Grouper) cost 80eu per 1kg (the grouper was 1.03kg and 55-60% of our bill), and when you are paying this kind of money for a dish, you expect perfection, if not a grilled moist fish to say the least. When I informed the waitress about the dry fish the reply was, “I don’t know what to say” shrugging off my concerns without any apology or acknowledgement; which leaves me to question whether the chef even tasted the whole fish (Grouper). The silver lining was that they gave us the sorbet on the house (8eu).

Lastly, my girlfriend whom I had dinner with was very shocked that the service didn’t say anything to the table next to us which was smoking cigarettes having the smoke blown on us while we were eating, even though it was clear that we are non-smokers, I find this unacceptable in a high class a la carte restaurant. Maybe this is normal in Greece however, we are an international couple having lived in Czech Republic, Canada, Netherlands, Vietnam and visited many 9more; this is the only country where we experienced this in a fine dining establishment.

Under normal circumstances, disregarding the Grouper I would still rate this restaurant at ~4.5 even though I found the sorbet too sweet. However after reviewing the photo of the fish again, I noticed that pieces of the whole fish were missing when it was served (see photo), this leaves me thinking that the chef overcooked the fish and took out the burnt parts which gives me the impression that the chef knowingly served an overcooked dry fish (I think its very clear from the photo). Combined with the fact that the fish itself was 60% of the bill, a complementary 8eu sorbet with no verbal apology of admittance of a fundamental technical mistake for overcooking a fish makes me leave the restaurant with a...

Extraordinarily slow service. Over fifteen minutes to get menus. Seated outdoors, we ask about alternative seats as ours were on the most angled ground. Told, "No, that table is reserved for five" ([a] never showed over the next two hours; [b] four plates were set); and "that table is reserved" (again no takers over two hours, and the four-top was just set up for two).

We got menus. No wine list.

We were asked to order, but responded by asking for a wine list. Answer, "We are changing menus, it's online." OK. A glass of assyrtiko/sauvignon blanc. Never arrived.

Finally we order, replacing the ordered but undelivered glass for a bottle of chardonnay. And wait. And wait.

Forty-five minutes for the first starter, fifteen-hour cooked chickpeas. When asked why it was taking so long we were told that it takes time to boil the chickpeas and "I don't do the cooking." Huh? I thought they were already fifteen-hour charcoal prepared.

They arrived, bland, lukewarm, and textureless. But where is the baby squid appetizer? Why didn't it also arrive? Five minutes later, arrived. Chewy and occasionally fishy. Stopped after second fishy baby. Done.

A madam arrives at the table, seeing the pushed away and uneaten baby squid, and apologizes for the delay and says the mains will be out right away. And fifteen minutes later, just as promised, they are.

Orzo with fish seems freshly reheated and good except for the slightly fishy fish. But since small chunks of fish are in the orzo, we stop there. The bass is, at the same time, room temp. Has no grilled flavor, with excess sauce hiding any fresh fish flavor.

After seeing other diners wait for a check, I walked in to the main restaurant and paid. The uneaten squid was removed from the bill.

Probably...

Probably the worst quality food that we had in Greece. Grossly sweet salad and undercooked pasta (NOT al dente -- crunchy raw inside!) with chopped up pieces of terribly overcooked and bland shelled shrimp served by a variety of young ladies (perhaps chosen purely on the basis of their looks?) who knew very little about the food and, you could probably guess, food in general.

We went to this place because it was highly rated and said to be run by a famous female Greek Chef Argiro Barbarigou in Kolonaki but for whatever reason everything we ordered was subpar.

It very much had a pretty & calm Beverly hills or Rodeo Drive vibe and if that is what you're looking for, this place will feel spot on.

While an expensive place like this which doesn't deliver on food quality is an annoyingly common feature in the upscale corners of LA, it seems like an inexcusable sin in a culinary and cultural hotspot like Athens, Greece where you can get a mind-blowing meal in one of any hundreds of places for half of what you will spend at this restaurant. And every other shrimp we ordered in Athens was fantastic which confuses me more about why the bland overcooked shrimp crumble thrown onto the pasta here.

This chef may be famous? but there was no quality control going on in this kitchen.

One last blow against gourmet and oneophile standards was the pervasive smell and taste of mosquito coil smoke bathing the outdoor patio area. Guaranteed to interfere with the palate of someone trying to enjoy great food if that had been available here. We didn't run into one mosquito in Athens, but for whatever reason this place found it necessary to bathe the patio in mosquito coil smoke. An odd...