Papas Authentic Mediterranean Cuisine — Restaurant in England

I’ve been to Papa’s several times before and have always had excellent food and service, which is why I was so disappointed by my most recent experience.

We arrived at 5:15pm to a nearly empty restaurant and asked for a table for three. The staff informed us they had a lot of bookings later in the evening, but they were kind enough to find us a table that needed to be vacated by 7:45pm—which we were perfectly happy with.

However, as we were being shown to the table, the phone rang. Another staff member answered and then quickly intervened, telling the person seating us that we could no longer have the table because a party of six had just called and wanted immediate availability. This call came after we had already been allocated the table.

We were told the table was now being given to the party of six. When I expressed how unfair this felt—pointing out that we had requested the table first and that it seemed like they prioritized the larger party for financial reasons—there was no explanation or apology.

This was incredibly disappointing from a place I had always considered my favourite in Harrogate. Sadly, after this experience, I won’t...

What an incredible little gem of a restaurant! The atmosphere is absolutely lovely with warm lighting, a soft mood, light music and such an air of authentic charm as you look around at all of the things on the walls and shelves.

The food was 10/10! Every dish was outstanding, a perfect temperature, flavourful and delicious. The portion size was great too, whether you chose a few plates from the Meze tapas or main dishes (we had a bit of both), and left feeling very full!

Service was impreccable, with extremely friendly staff who would smile, have a joke and a laugh with you, and welcomingly recomme dishes when asked.

The price was also very reasonable considering the amount of food and the amazing quality. We (2 people) had 2 alcoholic beverages, a mix (bread, dips and olives) platter, a spanokopita tapas, a patatas tapas, a main lamb stifado dish and a main sea bass with potatoes... And the bill was only around £65 including service.

Overall a fantastic greek food experience, would highly recommend and...

No vegan main options which isn't the end of the world as I ordered 3 vegan starters, they were labelled as vegan on the menu so that is always reassuring.

When the vine leaves arrived I asked if the dip they had given me with them was vegan as I was a little suspicious given the lack of effort for vegans on the menu, the waiter went to check and it turned out the dip was not vegan, he was very apologetic but this really wasn't his fault, something should not be listed on the menu as vegan if it is not.

Papa's will probably have to go down as a vegan unfriendly restaurant and I will give my custom to the many vegan friendly restaurants in Harrogate.

The most worrying thing from a vegan point of view is the reply below. "Regarding the dolma starter that you had ,we normally serve it with tzatziki unless there is someone vegan we replace it with humus or babaganoush"

It is listed on the menu as vegan so it should not be a case of a vegan diner having to inform the staff...