Acropolis Greek Taverna - New Tampa — Restaurant in Temple Terrace

Mother's Day. We called 30 min ahead for a res with 2 adults, 3 well mannered kids. Got sat immediately in a 1/2 full restaurant. After 15 min of no acknowledgment of our existence, I approached the empty hostess stand. (Later we were told they don't have a designated hostess) Stood there for another few minutes before I was noticed, apologized to and another 5 min before we had a server. Once greeted with another apology, we were kind, understanding and patient. By then, we knew what we wanted. Clearly ordered drinks, 2 apps, and meals. Also asked for an app to go. Drinks took 10 min to come out. 2 milks, a soda and 2 beers. 1 milk didn't even make it to the table. Our "3rd day" waitress walked by us to tend to her one other table next to us, so many times and barely gave us a glance so that we could remind her about the 2nd milk. The App Sampler came out with enough pita bread for one of the four dips. Literally 1 pc of bread cut into small trianlges to make a bucket look full. Waiting, waiting, waiting.... Still, we were patient. Finally our server brought more pita but making us feel foolish for asking for more. AND 1 app didn't even come out until my husband had to get up and approach the empty bar to ask about it. Dolmades. 10 min later. Food finally came out, as the table of 8 who walked in 30 min after us were getting their food! For perspective, we ordered 3 wraps while they had full entrees. The wraps were mediocre compared to what we have experienced in other Greek establishments or even the Pita Pit. Finally, after almost 2 hours, we got the check. There were added items with extra charges that we weren't asked to add on to our lunches. On the bill, there was a credit card total and a cash total. But going over the items, they were over almost $2 per item. The server should have explained the smaller print on the menu about the cash vs credit and should not have added the extra items without asking if we even wanted them. We knew what we were ordering. I understand the credit vs cash and it's common these days to pay the credit price bc it ends up costing the restaurant money for ppl to use cards. However, by this point, we were over the whole experience. They took the extra items off the bill and we were made to feel like we were the idiots. Because of this 2 hour debacle, we weren't able to finish our plans for the rest of the day. We eat out all the time. We tip our servers 20% or more even when there are hiccups. I was a server for 7 years in all kinds of places. We are great customers and forgive little mishaps. But this was an absolute crap show of negligence, disrespect and poor quality. I've worked for chains and private restaurants. If there was an issue even close to unsatisfied customers, the manager would offer to compensate either 50% or the full bill. Either way, at that point for us, they are lucky we didn't walk out. As honest patrons, we paid for the blah food we ate and tipped our server. We hope this review cautions those who expect a nice experience at this...

Acropolis New Tampa has some of my favorite Greek food anywhere in the city. Their pita bread is so good that I often get 2 orders, and my wife and I adore their Athenian chicken salad. I highly recommend it, as my wife and I get to-go salads nearly every Friday for a long time.

However, their service and kitchen consistency leaves much to be desired. Now, don't get me wrong, those who are there work hard. Service industry workers are wholly underappreciated. Yet, I routinely wait 15-20 minutes after my takeout order is supposed to be ready. For this most recent visit, I waited 40 minutes for a salad that I was told would only take 10 minutes (it was only 5pm and not busy). The bartender was very busy taking orders over the phone, making drinks, and checking on to-go orders. However, there were numerous servers standing around not offering to help. While I understand that there is probably a division of labor in terms of who is allowed to do what, I think it might need to be reassessed when myself and another customer waited so long. When I was helped by a manager, they were very pleasant. Again, I'm not knocking the people, but I feel the way things run should be reassessed, having worked for 5+ years front of house in a restaurant.

The food quality at Acropolis is great, but it is pretty much a gamble as to whether my Athenian chicken salad will have the right ingredients. I have had probably 5 different combinations of the salad - sometimes no pesto, sometimes with pesto; sometimes without pita strips; sometimes without tomatoes; sometimes with green peppers; sometimes without the feta as requested; sometimes a lot of lettuce, other times I've stopped at Publix to get more lettuce on the way home to add to my salad. This most recent visit, I received the butt of a stalk of romaine in my salad (picture attached).

As with the second paragraph, I really enjoy the food; it tastes delicious. But, I'm almost always frustrated at the order being slightly incorrect, the wait being much longer than expected for a relatively simple order, and the general inconsistencies. What I would say is that you definitely should try this place if you love Greek food, but be prepared that wait times could be long and the food might need...

This was our first time here restaurant had a funny smell the minute we walked in we told the hostess it was our first time dining there you think she would of said welcome or hope you enjoy but nope just went to the table and I guess we had to follow. The tables were sticky and restaurant smells we were the only ones there that should of told us something in a Saturday at 4pm. But after waiting 15 minutes our server came over to our table to get our drink order. After we got our drinks we waited for him to come back while he was sitting at the bar texting for 15 minutes, we actually almost left at that point but he finally came over took our order and he went back to the bar I guess to finish texting. Our food finally came out now remember we were the only ones there my gyro meat was luke warm at best my husband's was the same, we ordered Greek fries which come with feta cheese good luck finding the feta cheese the two little crumbs that were there, I know we should of sent it all back but we were just fed up at that point and ate it. The best part came when he brought the bill which we were told nothing about a higher price if we paid by credit card vs cash so we were charged more to use our card we didn't have cash with us why should we have to pay for your bank fees so we called waiter over and asked and even he had trouble explaining it but at the end it was well that's the way it is for using credit card so I said you should post it some where to make customers aware then he says it's on the menu so we look at menu you would need a magnifier to see the ant size letters but yes it was on back of menu, this just upset me to no end. Service very slow food Luke warm and dry, staff knowledge was there wasn't any knowledge and to think we were the only ones there what if there was a full house dont know how they would of handled that. Our experience was not good we will not be returning but everyone is different on what they like or don't like. So the choice is...