Athena Greek Restaurant — Restaurant in England

We went out last night (11th September) to celebrate my girlfriend's birthday; and also receiving news that I'll be starting my new job next month.

I cannot speak highly enough of the experience we had. We had a bottle of Greek red wine, which was recommended to us. It disappeared rather quickly!

The real highlight of course was the food. We shared some starters; which comprised Loukaniko (Greek sausage), a fresh Greek salad filled with loads of tomatoes, olives, peppers and feta. Last but not least the feta meli; which may be one of my new favourite things to eat. It is a piece of feta, lightly battered and fried; then drizzled with honey. One word. Wow.

For our mains I wanted to go for the kleftiko; which is one of my favourites; but they were out (understandable!) so I was recommended their beef stifado; which is a beef stew with tomatoes and paprika. You could have it with either rice, chips or pasta. I opted for rice. The stifado was full of flavour and an incredibly gutsy dish. Very large chunks of slow cooked beef which melted in the mouth and full of paprika. Delicious. My girlfriend on the other hand had the pork gyros; roasted pork with fries and pitta breads. Not something you can eat gracefully that's for sure!

The staff were very helpful and friendly. Very happy to engage with their customers. We were also treated to a free shot of ouzo, grenadine and cranberry juice. Delicious!

We plan on going back again in the near future; and we'll definitely recommend this place to our friends.

Efcharisto...

Update 2020-09:

Restaurant sent an apology message and offered 30% off our next order. They were very busy.

Changed from two to three stars.

They read messages but don't respond. Poor service and unlikely to order again for a good while.

Ordered takeaway during lockdown and the service and food was good. We ordered via Facebook messenger as it was one of their options - they are not on just eat/deliveroo etc.

During our second order a few weeks later we opted for Facebook messenger again. Asked if we they are open for orders, got a reply saying "yes".

Messaged the order just like before. 30 mins later and they've read the message but not replied... Assumed they were busy. Another 30 mins we send another message to confirm the order... 30 mins later they read the message but don't reply again.

Tried to call, no one picked up. Messaged to "cancel the order", once again they read the message without replying.

Shame about the poor service, not sure what was going on that day.

Got a curry instead...

I visited with my husband and ordered the Greek salad as a starter and the lamb shank to share as a main. The reason we shared was because portions on other tables looked a really good size. After waiting over 45 minutes the salad arived even though we asked for the starter and main come together. The salad wasn't accurate cucumber missing, there was a slice of red onion hiding under the mixed leaves which arent part of a Greek salad. When the lamb finally arrived the meat was lukewarm and the gravy was hotter than the lamb. Mush potatoes were replaced with 4 wedges of roasted potato, 1 floret of cauliflower and 1 floret of broccoli. During the meal we noticed other tables receiving their complimentary shots with ouzo mixed with grenadine cranberry and blood orange juices. At the end of our meal we didn't receive any shots and apologie or even an acknowledgement for the lateness of the meal. As a Greek citizen I find this experience very...