Barbaro Athens Restaurant — Restaurant in Municipality of Kaisariani

We visited Barbaro Athens Restaurant for the first time based on its great reviews, but unfortunately, our experience was far from what we expected. The only reason I’m giving three stars is because the waitstaff was excellent and the food was genuinely delicious. Other than that, it was a huge disappointment.

We had booked our table weeks in advance, yet at no point did the restaurant inform us that they would be hosting a private dinner for the attendees of a medical convention that evening. The convention itself had taken place elsewhere during the day, but the restaurant was essentially taken over for their dinner, with many tables reserved for the event.

When we arrived, we were given zero prior notice about this and only found out when we saw the setup and asked the staff. We were then given the choice to either stay inside with the event or sit outside.

Despite the inconvenience, we decided to make the most of it and stay, hoping to enjoy our night and the live music that was supposed to start after the speech. However, nothing could have prepared us for what followed—hundreds of people walking past and even pushing us to get to the buffet, which was set up right next to our table. At one point, we were literally trapped, with people’s backs practically inside our plates as they squeezed past to get their food.

When we complained about this chaos, the restaurant’s response was to offer us four shots of digestive liqueur—which felt almost like a joke. It was as if they were telling us to "swallow the situation and digest it" instead of actually addressing the problem.

We weren’t the only ones frustrated—another couple was complaining loudly about the same situation, clearly just as disappointed as we were.

To make matters worse, when we stepped outside for a quick e-cigarette break and returned holding it in our hands (not even using it), a staff member rushed over to "remind" us that smoking isn’t allowed indoors. Meanwhile, a couple at the restaurant owner’s table was openly smoking e-cigarette inside, along with several convention attendees who were smoking cigarettes freely, despite the clear legal ban on indoor smoking.

Honestly, if the restaurant wanted to host a private event, they should have informed and canceled regular reservations in advance instead of making us pay €200 to have random strangers’ backs and plates practically inside our dinner. A total disaster of an experience, and absolutely not worth the money or frustration.

Update: The next day, the restaurant manager, Zoe, personally called me to apologize for our bad experience—even without knowing about this review. She was very professional and genuinely concerned, acknowledging the issue and inviting us to return as a gesture of goodwill. I truly appreciate her approach, and it’s a great sign that the restaurant values its customers and takes...

We visited Barbaro on Saturday 4th of July. We had a reservation for 4 people at 8pm.

Regarding parking it prooved quite easy to find some spots too close to the place.

Entering Barbaro you get a very good impression and good vibes of what will follow. It has a very nice atmosphere, very well decorated and nice very comfortable chairs with enjoyable music floating in the air.

We had side dishes which were very tastfull but the various meat we all had as main courses was top of the class and cooked exactly as each one of us had asked.

Excellent selection of wines and later cocktails or malt wiskey perfectly accompanied our dinner.

Service was excellent with professionalism of friendly and smiling Team. Also there was always someone near when we wanted something, very good Team indeed!

But the enjoyment didn't stop there, on the contrary to our very nice surprise there was a live band which relly managed to lift the spirits even more and offer us a great night.

Last but not least, prices were very reasonable for the quality of food, service and for the fantastic time we had.

Thank you very much guys for your excellent hospitality and we are looking forward to the next time we will...

I had a very bad experience here today and served by a very arrogant server. This is my first time in Athens, Greece and wanted to have some Greek food. I ordered moussaka and the server keep saying without hearing me out moussaka and Greek salad yes. Once it came there was two big meal, first they brought a big greek salad and I told them I asked moussaka, she said later and after having salad, they brought moussaka and by that time I lost my hunger. Anyway I understand may be it’s misunderstanding due to communication but while giving her feedback she was very arrogant and rude and on top misbehaved with me. I do not like her attitude of course though all the time I was calm and smiling. I was polite and said, it’s too much for one person and I just asked moussaka. She was almost shouting at me. First ever Greek food in Greek restaurant and experienced with bad behavior. My luck! Food and atmosphere was...