The Athenian Souvlaki & Gyros — Restaurant in London

Last year my friend and I traveled to Athens and have been looking for something that can come close to the Greek food we had there but we have yet to find something like that in London.

I visited this branch of Athenian on the 8th of March with a friend. We only ordered 2 meals but from those two meals (receipt attached) we don't believe it was value for money unfortunately.

The canned drinks were very nice. The sour cherry is very nice and I would 100% recommend trying it! The food however was relatively cold and not serve hot at all. We ate inside the little restaurant/takeaway so there should have been no reason why the food felt like it was colder than it should have been.

The only saving grave was the deserts. The deserts being a home cooked flour-less brownie and a Greek chocolate bar. The chocolate bar was both of our favorite thing from there which is saying a lot...

There was not a lot of interaction with the staff but they seemed friendly enough. The table by the door however is where we sat and there was a little problem in that seating area as when ever someone entered or opened the door, the connecting table would shake making for an uncomfortable experience but not a huge deal. Honestly, that seems like a bad design more than anything. Also the wooden table/top was sticky, which make me think that it had not been wiped for a while.

Unfortunately, the combination of this is why I had to give this location a 2 star. I will hopefully in the future be trying another branch just to see if this is consistent in all branches or just this one and hopefully find some food in London that reminds us of the Greek food we fell in love...

It is a great shame for me to leave a 1* review for The Athenian because up until 2 hours ago you were one of my favorite places to come and eat.

I ordered two vegan gyro boxes for me and my partner and when they arrived it was chicken. I discovered this after biting into one.

Being a reasonable human being. I understand mistakes are made, but when I take the food back and explain I was given chicken despite not eating meat I was met by a complete "lack of cares" given.

I'd have at least expected an apology from a place that I visit quite often. I expect if I was a severe allergy sufferer or I had more protected reasons to have a diet restriction they would have followed the Barr minimum standard.

I would urge anyone visiting to try the Gyros because they are tasty and well made. But I would not feel bad if you have to order repeatedly so the staff actually listen to your order and I would also double check what you have been given just in case you have a severe allergy or religious / ethical reason not to eat certain foods.

I don't think I'll be coming back, which I doubt they'll care about much like the emotional distress I've suffered which sounds ridiculous but my feelings are just as valid as...

I was really disappointed with the chicken gyros wrap and would not recommend.

The ordering system is great and they deal with orders quickly so you're not waiting long. I went at lunchtime and was waiting only a couple of minutes before it was ready.

However, the food was not up to expectations and it lacked any Greek authenticity. The portion size was good value for money but the quality of chicken was really poor. Gyros is usually a bit crispy and bursting with flavour, this one had no crispness to it at all and was like eating air as it had no taste or texture to it. Best was to describe it is fleshy. It's made me feel a bit sick.

I had a couple of chips with a sort of Cajun spice in there, which were nice but there were not enough, a really bitter tasting lettuce and one bit of tomato. The tzatziki was lovely and was the only thing stopping me throwing it away as it gave it some taste.

It didn't taste like proper Greek food at all and I wish I'd gone somewhere else. Really disappointed...