Rozafa — Restaurant in Manchester

We dined here in July 2022 & the food was great as well as the service. We were served by a short, jolly & funny gentleman. However this time - August 2023, we didn't see him at all and it was quite an experience, despite the restaurant not being busy, at all. The 1st thing we were told before receiving menus was that there is a service charge on the bill. We smiled at eachother and waited for the menus. Service charge is always optional. We ordered drinks, few starters & dips and our mains. One of my friends really liked the blue and white decor and said she wants to bring the kids over on the next trip to Manchester. She then asked the waiter if they have kids menus and his answer was a shocked and very firm NO, while shaking his head. 😅 I wish someone would have filmed the whole time we were there. We felt like we were in one of the weird restaurants that ended up on Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. Starters were very small but not horrible. You get bread if you order dips but sadly it was burned. And when it came to the mains - same thing. The meat was burned. I only took a picture of my dish which was the chicken & I will attach it to the review. The burned parts were very charred and the taste very overpowering, to be able to half enjoy it you'd have to cut out all the black parts. But even so it was overcooked and very dry. My friend who had the pork had it burned as well & said it was very chewy. He could barely cut through it. Both our dishes were sprinkled with lots of white onion and parsley to hide the black burnt parts. 😆 The chips were also very oily and weird tasting. There was a female chef in the kitchen who kept yelling at staff. Either her or someone she was yelling at burned the bread and all the meat, I guess. I felt bad for bringing my friends here based on our last year visit, so I offered to pay for everyone. We didn't tell the staff anything. Another table did complain about their food and they got into an argument. Plus the gentleman who served us was grumpy all through. We left most of the food on plates, asked for the bill, paid & left. Based on what we saw in the restaurant and on how the owner answers to criticism - here, I doubt us saying something would have made a difference. We just took the L and went to have dessert in Chinatown. This place is definitely not a good representation of Greek food/culture neither worth the money. If you have a soft drink, starters and a main you'll spend about £50/person. If you have the money and wanna risk it do try, I guess. If not, save your money for better quality &...

Poor food and ridiculous service! Highly not recommend to visit!!

The restaurant has 2 waiters only. However, one of them couldn’t order food. You can only order drink from him. We have to wait for the only waiter while he is available to order food. It took so long especially you are starving.

While the dishes were finally arrived. The quality of food couldn’t cheer us up. The chicken beast was too dry. And the pork souvlakia was tasteless. The only acceptable one was moussaka. However, I ordered the vegetarian one. They sent me the meat one. While I was eating, I felt so strange that there is meat inside. But I thought its vegan meat. So I didn’t bother the waiter as he is quite busy to serve different tables.

When we asked for the bill, I realised that the waiter misunderstood me from the beginning. He wrote down meat moussaka instead of the vegan one. Although I pointed the vegetarian one from the menu while I was ordering. He still blamed me that I didn’t advise while I was eating. And he wrong me that I had the meat one but want to pay the price of vegetarian one. Come on! It’s only £1 different. I don’t have to cheat you in this way just to save £1! I said to him that I’m okay to pay. And explained to him that I really order the vegetarian one at the beginning. He just walked away, refused to talk plus yell at me! What ridiculous service it is! He forced me to take the meat one and pay the price of meat one without apologies!! I checked the menu again and said to him the dishes name of vegetarian moussaka and meat moussaka are same. It confused people and himself easily. Fortunately, I can eat meat. For people who don’t eat, they will be so upset for being treated in this way.

After I paid him the price of meat one. I suggested him to change the name of this dish. He still said the menu is okay without any problem! ...

We went here this evening to celebrate our parents 34th wedding anniversary, and since they like Greek they offered to pay for the celebration. We were greeted by a somewhat grumpy old man and he seemed reluctant to seat us at first, assuming we didn’t have a reservation, I think. Then we said we have a reservation and he asked for the name, then sat us down. The other staff was friendly and took our orders. We waited about 20 minutes for our food which isn’t too bad. Then our food arrived, it was the grumpy manager. I felt a little embarrassed when he, I think, overheard us talking about the waiting time and had to explain that the fish took a while to cook to perfection.

The food itself was okay, nothing too special. My wifes chicken seemed to be burnt though, and my fish was slightly overcooked, but it was still delicious anyway. The salad was alright but one thing, there was too much rice.

Another thing is that my wife told me she kept smelling a foul odour the entire time, at first she thought it was the toilets, but when she went there they smelled nicer than the restaurant. We never found out what the smell was.

And also, like another comment mentioned, there was a woman in the kitchen who kept shouting at the staff. Im not sure if it was meant to be good or not, because Greek people can be a bit dramatic like all southern europeans are.

Lastly, the menu online seems outdated. The one in the restaurant was a bit more expensive, as you can see the kotopoula kokkinisto cost £20.90 on my receipt and the menu, but online it says £18.90! How is this possible? Please update the menu because I actually spent more than expected.

The rest was pretty good, the coffee was delicious and the greek yogurt as well! I might come back...