The Rouga — Restaurant in Municipality of Thessaloniki

i was travelling alone in Thessaloniki and read good reviews about this restaurant, so i decided to try it. i went twice, i loved it. the place is rustic/traditional with a warm atmosphere, like sitting in a granny house and having a meal. service was kind and quick, but i want to mention especially The Waiter (don't know if maybe was the owner, i didn't asked). anyway, he was so nice and sweet, he helped me to choose what to eat recommending very well, also at the end of the meal offered me the dessert WHICH was fabulous! in italian we call it "millefoglie" and i swear this one was the best one i ever eaten, so delicate. a joy for my palate! the guy was so nice to chat a bit and asking about my day, my travel etc, and recommended what should i visit also. he was handsome and his eyes were smiling😊 he recognise me the second time i went there, i appreciate!

About the food, i ordered the "moussaka" apparently so easy to make but i guess they take a lot time to cook it and prepare it, the taste was so good and generous portion for just one person hahaha i had a spicy green pepper as appetizer, guys that was hot! simple cooked, just a bit of olive oil so you can taste all its freshness. the second time i had the grilled or baked eggplant with feta on the top, soft and delicate, amazing! and...lamb chop! the meat was so tender and you could easily cut it. usually im afraid eating lamb cause it has a strong selvaggine flavour, but it wasn't so this time. i was so satisfied and happy while eating. and i was offered the desert again hahahah

i loved this place, really recommend it to everyone, the bill was almost funny for the high quality of the food, i left tips both the times. there was all the time a traditional greek music that accompanied the meal and was relaxing listen to it on the background. hope to go back to Thessaloniki and if yes, I WILL DEFINITELY COME BACK TO THE ROUGA, cause it's worth it, and they deserve...

We loved the food at this place. Would recommend to anyone visiting Thessaloniki. We came with a group of 6, and had previously made a reservation the day-of with the help of our hotel concierge. We arrived at 7:30, were greeted by friendly waiters and our orders were taken right away. We had amazing appetizers, highlight including fried zucchini, eggplant salad, tzatziki, and really nice table bread (warm and crusty). Followed by grilled octopus, which is my personal favourite - it was cooked perfectly where you can taste the char of the grill and the flavor was fresh. We also recommend the beef cheek, which is slow cooked to perfection. We got this pork with creamy tomato sauce with fries which were also incredible. The lamb knuckle was also falling-of-the bones delicious and we even found bone marrow inside! Overall, amazing food all around. They even had live music while we were eating! The atmosphere is great. Only reason for the 4 star service is that it took us a long time to receive attention from the waiters after all the food came out. The reason being that this place had every table filled and it’s bustling with all the waiters running around direct line from the kitchen to the main concentration of tables. As we are tucked away in the back by the bar, we weren’t in the direct line of sight of all the waiters. We would have ordered desert because it looked amazing on other peoples tables. But by the end after waiting a very long time our group was already tired. It would have been a perfect experience except for the last part of our meal. Overall still recommend everyone to come try the food! Just have the expectation that after 8:30 the service might be slow because how...

Very rude staff, especially the guy at the door who assigns people to be seated. He was really racist and refused us to be seated, even tho there was multiple seats available. First time I’m seeing a place who doesn’t want clients. They couldn’t add 1 chair to a table to fit us. Answer to the owner:

1. Tables weren't reserved, we came at 10 PM and there were a lot of tables available(minimum 3 different tables totally empty and we pointed out to the waiter that those are empty). The guy in the enterence said we have to wait 1h in order to be seated just to mock with us. I said It gonna close in 1.5h how can we need to wait 1h. He said "exactly" and I was then why are you not saying "no" instead of "wait 1h" and if we waited they would've been then saying "oh we closing now". Realist guy trying to mock the clients.
2. I said we are 7 people, 5 adult 2 kids. He was like "you don't need to give me details it's 7, if you don't want to be kids seated then you can seat" in a very rude way. What would you even recommend that? Where should we put the kids, to our heads?

I totally saw the unprofessionalism, racism. There was NO EFFORD to find a table or solution to us, instead he was mocking us since I said 5 adults, 2 kids instead of 7 people. Very arrogant and rude behavior and this behavior is not acceptable in the hospitality industry. That waiter needs to remember his job, he is a waiter, not the owner of the restaurant so he CAN NOT talk with their clients in that way, if they do he can't keep is...