Trojan Horse — Restaurant in Bloomington

Not sure what's going on with this place but it's been a family favorite for us for years. My dad moved out of state and visits every time he's in Bloomington. Something is WAY off with the food but mostly the service. We were seated upstairs for a party of 10. It seemed as though the bartender up there was responsible for 2 other tables in addition to our table of 10. Didn't seem all that busy to be honest. Students were gone on break and there was plenty of seating downstairs; just not a table big enough for our party. After we sat down, the server came over to let us know right out of the gate, that we needed to be patient. We understood and were willing to allow him the time that he needed to regroup and serve us. It took 30 minutes for us to get our drinks. He seemed to only be able to manage one thing at a time. After waiting for almost 45 minutes to place our order, we decided to help him out and we hand wrote out the food order for our entire table while also dividing the order up into two separate orders so he knew that we only needed two bills and what orders were on each bill. For example: it said "check #1" and then listed the orders for that check and did the same thing for "check #2". We waited another hour and a half for our food. We had to walk ourselves down to the "to go" window to order more pita bread and to get silverware to even eat with. Never had drinks refilled and he was beyond rude. We literally did half his job for him. I get that sometimes things can be overwhelming and that restaurants are short staffed. If you can't provide service for 10 people, then tell us upon arrival that there will be a wait for 10 people. Then we could make the decision to stay or leave. But to have had the service we did not only this trip but the two visits prior...I think it's going to be a while before we return or even think about eating here again. Such a bummer too! I've been hearing from several other locals that their experience here has changed and that even the food has been questionable. Our food was fine for our visit this time so I can't speak on that for our visit for this meal. We want to support local whenever we get the chance but when us locals show up but the service doesn't....it's really tricky. Hopefully whatever is going on, it can be repaired and things can look up for them sooner...

It breaks my heart to do this. Truly it does.

I have been going to this establishment since I was a little kid, and it was for ages something I would talk about to people even in other states who had no frame of reference to Bloomington. It was once a place of great quality food and high quality staff, but sadly, it has slipped into mediocrity.

Menu items cut, some of my favorites gone forever. Cooking styles changed from "We bake this" to "We microwave this." Tzatziki sauce that was once thick, creamy, and flavorful is now this watered down tasteless goop. I even thought they forgot to put it on my gyro last time I was there until I had the waiter bring out a bowl for me and realized it was indeed on the item, it was just so bland that it wasn't noticeable.

Price changes, holy cow. A gyro is going to set you back 10 dollars, an appetizer dip that you can make at home for the price of a can of beans and a head of garlic will cost you 8 dollars. Meanwhile, there's a food truck 4 blocks down the street on Kirkwood, Doner Kebab who sells his gyros which are more flavorful and have more meat and everything else on them (feta cheese without asking for it for example) for 6. It has to be the college audience that this establishment attracts that is driving down the quality and driving up the pricing.

But clearly the most glaring problem is that the staff is now a bunch of beatnik hippies who don't seem to care about the food or the service. When your people are only there to put in their hours and collect their check, quality will degrade rapidly. The bartenders being the only exception to this, but those guys have been working at this restaurant since before I can remember.

Honestly though, the last three times I have brought my wife and kids in there, in the same way that my dad and mom would bring me, the service has been terrible, the food burned, and even the baklava was scorched. Heart broken, very sad to have to write this, but I can't let my emotional attachment get in the way of professional honesty. I really hope the management is able to get their store...

Laughable service. I ordered takeout at 12:45 and after fifteen minutes I checked DoorDash, “pickup at 1:57.” I called to see if that was accurate but the guy answering the phone just shouted some gibberish and immediately put me on hold and hung up after five minutes. I called again, again he shouted gibberish then put me on hold. I waited five minutes then walked over, still on hold. No one greeted me, the guy who answered the phone was making food while two other guys just stood there dissociating at the wall or slowly pretending to do work. I asked the guy when my food would be ready and he said “I don’t know like 15 minutes at least.” I asked him to cancel my order, he ignored me. I asked him again, he ignored me again. I said “hello?” and he just responded “I’m a little busy give me a minute.” Neither of the guys standing there offered to help or anything. Phone still ringing. Finally a waitress came up to ask if I was there for carry out and I told her I’ve been on hold twice for the last twenty minutes after being hung up on the first time and that all I wanted to do was cancel my order. I was already charged, but after that treatment I don’t expect a refund. Clearly they don’t care about their customers. Giving at least one star because the waitresses there are nice and I know the Shelleys would want better for their business. Update: Got a notification an HOUR AND TWENTY MINUTES after I ordered that my food was ready. I walked over and told the man and the waitress that I requested to cancel my order three times. This man’s response: “I told you I was busy, have you ever tried running a restaurant...