Garbi Restaurant — Restaurant in Municipality of Vari - Voula - Vouliagmeni

It is such a disappointment to experience a celebratory lunch in a place that used to be one of my favourites in the area but, as I found out today, not anymore. The once cute seaside restaurant has rested on its past glory and forgotten to take care of basic maintenance and overall condition of the establishment, even though business seems to be doing well in the post-covid era.

For the comments below, I will be attaching photos, where available, as proof of words.

Let’s begin:

1. They served costly and mostly unsavoury dishes in cracked, chipped plates.
2. The table was dirty with bird poop that the waiter didn’t mind to clean when setting the table. This was quite shocking.
3. Above our heads popped out a bunch of exposed electrical cords hanging ungracefully from a rusty plug, which was not matching the renovation’s decorative effort to impress in the entryway & bar.
4. The tables are so close together to one another (in purpose to fit more people) that in order to reach my table that was in the far end of the outdoors yard, I had to politely ask all the people that were seating and eating at that moment to move their chairs forward in order for me to wiggle my way around the packed maze. Thankfully I’m relatively thin and I managed to pass! 😅
5. The yard, although relatively small, was so noisy that I could not hear a thing of what the person next to me was saying.

Moving on to the actual food, I have to confess that, even if it was moderately overpriced, it was way below average in it’s core, even for next door greek taverna standards, with an anxious effort to appear “fancy” in the set up & styling of most of the plates, but not giving value to the taste. A lot of bells & whistles here, in sacrifice of real greek sea food. Such a shame, I used to enjoy good meals here not long ago. 🙄

I do understand that Vouliagmeni is a prominent and high-end touristic area for both foreigners and Athenians alike, but the restaurants in the area need to strive to maintain their standards of high quality and not rely solely on the amazing natural location.

On the upside, the seaview is awesome if you manage to be seated in a table by the seaside!

I hope the above review will be helpful for both visitors and the...

The risotto was a clumped up mess and the salmon cooked well enough to make it dry and tasteless. We also ordered a sole fish which arrived at the table 45mins after we had ordered it and after everyone else was done eating with their main course. When we didn't accept it being so late and not being informed that it was going to be that late, the owner was blatantly rude and insulting. Note that the menu states for charcoal fish it is 30-50mins but being aware of the wait time, we ordered the sole fried not charcoaled - something that was meant to take 20-30mins tops. The staff explained that the order for the sole was forgotten for 20mins and apologized on behalf of the "grumpy old lady owner" as they described her, who was tired from a long day. However, no excuse for her behavior to mistreat and verbally abuse customers because of problems in the kitchen or ordering. Despite the owner's behavior and disrespecting the customer, it all comes down, ultimately, to the quality of the food which was subpar. Overpriced, low quality food in a wannabe high class restaurant. Not a place deserving a second chance given the selection of other restaurants nearby. Go to Labros if you are looking for upscale high quality seafood...

We visited the Garbi again, one of our long time favorites at a privileged location with great sea views. The food was fine but the service was just a mess. I had a strong impression they are in a state of mind that "no matter what we do people will come" and/or a complete lack of organization. There were many waiters and the restaurant was not even half full when we arrived for a very early dinner (we couldn't reserve a later slot). We had a reservation for 6 people and had asked for a nice table. They still didn't want to give us a table at the front saying they were all reserved and reminded us that we need to leave our table by 8 pm because it is booked as well. For us that was not a problem. We ordered and 45 minutes later not even our drinks had arrived (though we had reminded several times with hand signs). When we complained - also mentioning they wanted us to leave quickly - the drinks came, but not according to our order. The food then came quickly but they forgot one main dish completely. When we paid around 8 pm we were about the only guests in the entire restaurant. All front tables were empty... It this Greek hospitality for...