Basegrill Athens — Restaurant in Municipality of Peristeri

I hadn't been to Basegrill for 5 years, so I thought it would be a great place to celebrate my birthday with my wife. Unfortunately service was unacceptable.

Generally a very dysfunctional team, but here are my main concerns:

• waiters (although plenty) are impossible to catch their attention. everybody around us was having the same frustration, leaving us no other option than to speak up to the waiters so they notice us, as if this is a chasapotaverna

• We finally got to order, 2 starters and 2 main. Second starter was served about 20 minutes after the first.

• the waiter that was cutting our meat was telling us that he has Tendonitis from this job. Because as we all know, delighting customers is making small talk about how horrible their working conditions are.

• when we finally got our main courses, we realized that they were both overcooked and cold. definition of a "greek medium".

• while still eating we ran out of water. I asked three different waiters, each with a 5-10 min. difference, but no water was showing up on our table, which led to us not being able to finish our dinner properly.

• when the waiter finally came with the water, he started asking me to snitch on the waiters I had ordered the water 🤣

• the waiter tried to save it, by bringing us a sweet dish on the house at the end, which is a nice gesture but completely useless to me, because I had to eat fast so that the meat doesn't turn into rubber while not having any water or wine to wash it down. A humongous amount of chocolate is the last thing I wanted in that instance. We barely touched it.

• cherry on top? they charged the water twice, only noticed it the next day.

• at some point I overheard another waiter explaining to another group that was dissatisfied with the experience that "it depends if the place fills up evenly or all at once". I'm pretty sure he wasn't even aware that that is also a reservations/seating failure from the management & not pure luck as he wanted to portray it.

All in all a very unpleasant experience. Waiters are either too old to move, or too young to give a shit. It's well known that after covid, service in Greece is abysmal, but you would expect places like this to pay for proper hiring/training. It's an old and obviously dying establishment, that is not worth its...

The first time we were thrilled. That's why we came back just 2 days later. And it was that second visit that was a complete catastrophe, which ruined the memory of the first.

First visit (Friday): Perfect. We ordered 4 ribeye steaks and 1 skirt, with Greek salads, grilled vegetables, fries, and desserts. Everything was tasty, and the waiters were attentive. Because of that experience, we decided to come back.

Second visit (Sunday): A complete shock and disappointment.

Wrong order and deception: The first time we ordered skirt, and someone at our table got it. When we complained about it being on a skewer this time (which we did not order), the waiters, instead of apologizing, claimed that they had served us the wrong dish the first time. According to them, what we thought was "skirt" was actually ribeye, meaning we paid for the more expensive meat but were given the cheaper cut. This is unprofessional and unacceptable. Cold food: The steaks arrived completely cold. Incomplete orders: The sides for the meat didn't arrive at all. We had to ask for them separately and wait for them to be brought out. Forgotten dessert: The complimentary dessert they promised us was simply never delivered.

Instead of remembering their specialty of eggs and potatoes, we were left with the memory of the waiters' arrogance (who accused us of not knowing what we were eating) and the complete incompetence of the kitchen and service.

We paid a significant amount of money for an experience that went from "excellent" to "incompetent." I do not recommend it, and we will definitely not...

Edit: visited on Jan 14th 2023. I liked everything we had. Prices have definitely gone up since my last time, but then again this happens everywhere! I have visited the restaurant in several occasions in the past and the last time was a couple of years ago. However, yesterday (03/08/2020) I visited again along with 3 colleagues. We ordered: 1) Spicy cheese dip (tyrokafteri): Tasty but your average run-of-the-mill spread 2) Saganaki: Very well cooked and tasty 3) Potatoes with eggs: One of the signature dishes of the place but I think this time it was rather on the oily side 4) Beef sausage: Delicious. The best dish we tried according to my opinion 5) Picanha: It was cooked medium well as we asked but I am afraid that it was cooked in higher heat than it should, since some parts on the outside of the meat were bitter 6) Dry aged rib-eye (50-60 days): I was disappointed from this. By all means it was not a bad dish but for me the meat was rather tasteless. I certainly would expect something more flavorful given the aging process Overall, I was left with the impression that the quality of the place has dropped. Please do not get me wrong: Nothing we tasted was bad but I am afraid it has lost the wow factor of the food. I will have to visit once again to see if it was something random or it is the new reality. Staff was professional as always, they have implemented barriers between tables as a covid19 measure (which I liked as it provides privacy to each table). Good wine list and in the end of the meal they treat you to some masticha liqueur and a...