Lefkes — Restaurant in Municipality of Galatsi

i must admit I'm a very hard critic on restaurants and living in NY i have spend a fortune on fine dining. During my visits in Greece the last 3 years i have been to many fancy restaurants with great food, ambiance, spectacular views and great service. None of them made me want to go back to try some more of their dishes, or try that perfect dish one more time. Until today that a friend took me to Leukes in Galatsi. At first I was not impressed. It was a hot day and our seats in the cosy garden was nice but not very comfortable. I settled with the idea of good Greek dinner that doesn't cost me as much as the underwhelming Michelin Star place we ate last night. I quickly ordered a small bottle of Ouzo set my expectations low and let my friend take control of ordering. My wife helped me finish that Ouzo before the food started coming but I'm already enjoying the friendly no-pretentious service from the service team that made me feel Home in Greece. And then the food starts coming... A fava dish. Looks great, and the presentation is excellent. My wife (no-meat eater) loves it and it goes great with the perfect bread they bring . OK so far and then BANG!!! here comes a zucchini pie that doesn't look like a pie. The waiter drops pieces of the crust in the dish and mixes with a white soft cheese. I taste and I'm in love. Never had any pie like that. Wow. Make room for hor dolmades is an amazing arrangement over a fancy egg-lemon sauce. BANG!!! My mother's favorite dish that I had the first day on every time I would come back to Greece. I felt like my mother came back from heaven to cook me her improved version for my 40th Anniversary since i left Greece after high-school. What is that fancy creamy chicken salad called? Leukes Salad? It's amazing. The red beets salad looks good but i trade it for tan extra meat dolma with my no-meat eating wife. bring some more ouzo... The main course is already here. Three people from the service staff prepare our table to perfection for the main course in a heartbeat. And here it comes. Served in a perfect cast Iron pot with a beautiful cover a huge portion of stewed goat. My wife is impressed by by her solomon dish, my friend is presented with a big female cow ribeye steak and then I stop paying attention to the rest of the dishes. I'm i love with my goat stew. It is by far the best I ever had. Far better than the famous overpriced goat stew I had in Patmos last summer. Far better that any stew I ever had. I was in heaven. this was my best dinner in Greece. I felt like the first time I came back home after being away for 2 years and my mother was trying to fill the gap of all the good food that i missed being in America eating hot dogs and burgers every day... Unfortunately my body betrayed me. We had a ton of food left over that i didn't want to part. i made a joke to the waiter about my dog that is a food critic and the waiters perfectly cleaned out table and came back with a bag containing every dish that we didn't finish perfectly packed in a separate fancy container. Wow, that was rare for Greece, especially the way they did it. The bill for 5 people with drinks: 150 Euros. Guess where I'm going for my...

After many recommendations from friends and experiencing difficulty finding a table on numerous occasions (even on a weekdays) I am sad to say that the experience was very much lacking the hype and anticipation I had built up.

They have done the best they can to create a dreamlike secret garden vibe which does well to improve the atmosphere which is sadly very much affected by the noisy busy street just outside the high walls of the restaurant. And the team is very well trained and are doing their best to deliver a pleasant, carefully curated service to the guests.

The positives end there, as we experienced sub-par quality in all our dishes ordered that evening, a mildly busy Wednesday with many tables empty around us - which should mean a less busy kitchen and overall service. We ordered the special salad of the day which was tasty but consisted more of raisins than of the salad greens and was somewhat drenched in the dressing. Summery and fresh in theory but just missed the mark on the execution.

For our mains we ordered the pork tenderloin with a mix of raw carrot strips and the tagliolini with fish ceviche and lemon. Both the tenderloin and fish were sub-par in quality or at least a few days old and not cooked/prepared properly. The carrots were entirely under-seasoned and undressed adding nothing to the flavour of the dish. Finally the biggest mistake in my view was the tagliolini was undercooked and stuck together.

As our mains arrived over an hour after we ordered and since we only had a salad as our starter it resulted in a huge gap between starter and main. I was no longer hungry so I decided not to mention anything to avoid waiting for another dish.

The service staff noticed my plate was full and insisted in finding out why. After I explained, they offered to make it again, when I declined (being too full and late in the evening) they removed the cost from the bill and offered us a desert which, while being very kind and the right thing to do, took another 15 mins to bring which was slightly off putting after a disappointing evening.

The team did everything to improve the negative impression left by our experience and were very nice and understanding. However I wanted to share my experience as I felt that this restaurant serves a vibe and an air of a higher quality restaurant and can very much support it and reach their aspirations should they look after some of those details in the service timing and improving the food experience.

Overall the dishes looked beautiful and appeared to be very well thought out with imaginative combos, but with poor execution and attention to detail which would really provide the experience this restaurant seems to aspire towards.

Finally the menu prices were acceptable but sadly nothing excuses poorly prepared and bad quality food.

I would love to try it again but I fear it might not be...

The restaurant is spacious, with 2 separate areas on the garden, hosting various size tables. We had a reservation and we were guided to the upper external area, which had a shade but was very hot, because all the heat "stayed" inside the area. There were 2 fans on each side of the area but unfortunately these were not sufficient. If I was to visit again, I would select the lower area in the garden, which has trees and thus has also shade and it's cool.

The restaurant had to share a meny with extended options as conerns to starters, salads and main dishes. We visited as a couple and decided to go with three appetizers, a salad and 2 glasses of wine.

We ordered the "SALAD WITH BLACK BELUNGA LENTILS" with cous cous Thessaloniki's, feta in black sesame, finely cut vegetables and olive mayonnaise. The salad was excellent both in presentation and taste - 10/10.

Afterwards, we proceeded with starters: DOLMATHES with mince meat, short grain rice Agriniou, cretan vine leaves and lemon sauce: There was no balance between the filling and the vine leaves, thus mainly tasting the mince (which was overseasoned and salted) rather than the whole dish - 5/10.

HATS (pasta filled with pork panseta, graviera cheese from Naxos and grated potato, dipped in pepperoncino pesto and black truffle oil from Grevena): Almost raw pasta, non flavored filling and non-balanced tastes. We mainly tatest the truffle oil and nothing else - 3/10

SOUFRA TOU PASA (pork pieces marinated in a spicy sweet sauce cooked on the hot plate): Very nice flavoured but a little bit out of season - too hot for summer. Neverhless the taste was good and balanced - 8/10.

The wine cataloguwe was quite extensive and the glasses we chose (4 Limnes and Pera) were excellent.

As regards to the service, the staff was very polite and helpful but was also very slow (maybe because the restaurant was understaffed based on the reserved tables). We asked 3 times for a water refill and had to wait 15 minutes to get the check.

I am not certain I would visit the restaurant again, considering the price-quality ratio, the difficulty in finding a parking spot in the area and also the service delays. Maybe the main dishes have a better taste and result than the starters but I unfortunately I am not convinced based on my...