Proveleggios — Restaurant in Athens

Overrated and overpriced in our humble opinion. Although we had booked a table 10 days in advance and wanted to sit outside, we were placed inside at the very end of the restaurant in the dark. We were told the tables outside were fully booked, but when we walked out later, some of them were empty. Makes you feel very welcome… The overly formal waitress then introduced us to their ‘concept’ and the ‘lab’ they have in the basement. Food was great to mediocre, but certainly not what I thought would be the result of developing new recipes in a 'research' institution as they called their lab…. Anyway, when my friend politely complained that the quite expensive meat was overcooked, we were told to wait because the waitress had to check (with whom?) but then didn’t get back to us, so we had to ask her again. A bit embarrassing. We were then told the meat was meant to be like this, overcooked, well, that's just great then, is it? When it was time to pay the rather hefty bill, we were bringing this up to the person in charge of collecting the money. He also had to check, but at least got back (he had to, because he needed to get the monies) and told us the same thing, that the meat was meant to be like that, and that they couldn’t give us a discount on the price of that particular dish because we had eaten it in the end. When we told him that we had brought this up before with the waitress, he offered (after having to check again, with whom?) free drinks outside (at the tables we were not allowed to sit at in the first place…). We politely declined and walked out, to only then being asked by the manager (probably the one the staff had to check with before, but who never made an effort to show up at our table personally) if he could offer us a free...

Only one star. 0 stars would be closer to the truth.

As location, just another chairs-on the street sort of taverna. Industrial wannabe at low cost investment.

As service, that was the the first irritation. We were 2 adults with 2 kids. Only one kid wanted to eat, and only pizza was something a kid would eat of that menu. Not wanting to eat anything more visibly made the waiter annoyed. I requested some deserts while the only pizza was eaten. Big no-no!! We had to wait for the little one to eat, then another 10 minutes for the waiter to take the desert order. After the desert, another 10 minutes for us to be seen that we wanted to pay and leave. And the cheery on top: 15 minutes wait for the change! We had to ask some other waiter for it, otherwise would have taken God knows how long!

As for the food, the 4 kinds of pizza there have to be explained. The lactic one was the only one acceptably strange. However the sourcream posing as "lactic cheese" was acceptable. The deserts were ok. I didn't eat more, I can't say more.

The gin cocktail was ok, the brandy one was a sinister joke. Some wine around a big cube of ice and some drops of brandy to change the colour. For something like 10 euros.

As for pricing, the menu is the highest I've seen in theese parts of Athen. Maybe the food would be worth it, the little we tried did not convince me. However, it is the first restaurant/tavern in Greece that billed me the still water I had while ordering.

All and all, an insulting experience. First time ever in Greece that made me...

This place is located in a lovely pedestrian street. We had dinner on the tables outside. Food was good and had some really interesting mixtures. Small wine list but it's been thought of very well. Most wines come from small wineries and judging by the one we ordered are very good additions to the food. Staff was polite and all orders came quickly. I asked the waiter a couple of questions about ingredients and some other general and everything was answered accurately. The only downside is that there is a long waiting list (which will get longer on the winter time because of fewer tables) and that reservations have a two hour frame. We were a bit late 10-15 minutes and since we ordered aperitifs at the beginning and dessert at the end we were called to hurry up five minutes before the two hours were over. I understand that it's the only way to get more customers otherwise waiting list would be longer but still it's not very nice to be having dessert in a rush so that the next couple can sit. It kind of ruins the relaxed atmosphere. I know that we were late but also keep in mind that parking isn't easy in the area. Perhaps there should be a 15 minute buffer in between or for some tables at least so that we could all enjoy our dinner better. Overall this is a good restaurant highly recommended if you manage...