The Athenian — Restaurant in Bristol

Horrendous experience. One guy working on his own which in fairness the owners shouldn't allow one person to run a fast food restaurant on their own anyway. If short of staff they should close it if they don't have the staff for the day. He was clearly working flat out understandably and I appreciate that it must have been stressful. However we had two young kids and I ordered two wraps which I assumed came with fries as it said fries on the menu (later I discovered this meant the wrap). We waited quite some time for our food and part way he had to close to pick more food up from downstairs as was he running out (again the issue with being on his own).

The food came out and it was two wraps and no chips (chips were for our kids the wraps had hot sauce in). I went back in and politely asked if the sides of chips were coming out. He looked at me blankly in front of other guests and said 'they are in the wrap'! I said sorry I misunderstood could I possibly get a couple of portions and he said we do not have any they're off the menu as we do not have boxes. I said any chance you could put a few on a grease proof paper for me tye kids are hungry. He responded saying I'm a bit busy! He then said order a sauce and that can cover the cost and I'll sort it out when I can. I said don't worry about it. It would have taken another 10 minutes or so to get the chips at which point our kids would be kicking off and other people were waiting to order. We sat outside to eat what were very bland wraps (we have eaten here before and really liked it).

He then came over to me ten minutes later and rather than apologising he tried to justify the situation he was in. I fully appreciate the situation he was in but there is no need for being rude and maybe have a little appreciation of a family with two younger kids. We ended up having to go to McDons to get the kids some chips after. A really bad experience and we won't be going here again as it's one of the worst service experiences I...

Took approximately 45 minutes from arriving to receiving order. Not taking walk-in orders so had a 15 minute wait before order was taken, then got told there was a 10 minute wait for Slouvakis, "sure no problem" ordered something else on the understanding it'd be faster, though still 30+ minutes to get order. Personally I'd much rather be told that there's a 30 minute wait and then it's my decision to wait or you get the chance to have the order early rather than be kept waiting.

I would highly recommend encouraging staff to not only pause taking walk-in orders, but to make use of pausing orders for delivery services. Staff were clearly very busy but were still obviously inundated with online orders as delivery drivers kept arriving and having to wait a significant time themselves. Really, they needed to stop taking walk-in orders AND online orders for 10-15 minutes to catch up and clear the backlog. They seemed surprised when orders started getting cancelled, and when walk-up customers started querying where their orders were, as many (like us) had been waiting upwards of 40 minutes for their order. Tried giving this feedback directly via their own website but the page won't submit (go figure).

Food-wise, was alright but The Athenian was out Athenian sauce for the wraps. Generally nothing special and not the taste-sensation a lot of the reviews make it out to be. Probably fine for a quick bite but certainly not worth a long wait.

Also very surprised and concerned by the number of reviews posted (specifically to the Bristol Cargo location) that are clearly for other locations which then comes across as disingenuous. This location is a shipping container (think Boxpark in Shoreditch) and certainly not big enough for waiter service.

TL:DR: Long waits for average food, and in no rush to come...

Final update: two weeks and still no reply. Clearly their initial "worry" was to appear like they care about their customer base in the review section rather than from any genuine concern to rectify the situation. Couldn't rate their customer service and the overall experience with this company any lower. Avoid like Covid and choose Taka Taka for Greek food or literally any other container at Wapping wharf (I'd particularly recommend Bandook Woky Ko or Squeezed). The Athenian is sub-par, unauthentic, overpriced, frozen food with terrible customer service as the kicker.

Update: Still no response after over a week! Don't ask me to get in contact about my experience if you have no intention of replying!

Awful experience today. Waited 30 mins for our food with others who ordered after being served first, this happens fair enough maybe they ordered something quicker to prepare so we gave them the benefit of the doubt. However, we finally got our food and walked for 1 minute down to the waterfront before opening it up and it was all stone cold. The meat was dry and cold and the chips were virtually inedible, even the pigeons struggled. Considering this cost me £25 for lunch I'm pretty unhappy to be honest.

Edit: I've sent an email to the owner/manager on their request and will update once I've gotten a response

It's now been 3 days since my first email. No response yet, beginning to wonder if they ever intended on responding or if it's a ploy to look like they value the customer's opinion in the review section. Will update again if I...