Athenian Garden — Restaurant in Galloway Township

Is there an option for 'No star' ?!

So I have 3 scenarios to give a horrible review on this place. My coworkers and I travel to this area often and have been to this place several times as the food there is genuinely good. The family who owns this restaurant knows some coworkers (who travel very often) on first name basis and are very nice to them. The rest of us, unfortunately, got the 'true' service when we were not with the 'platinum' group.

So here are my 3 scenarios that will stop me from going there ever again:

Few months ago we ate there in a big group (15+). As various across table conversations are expected in a large group, the grouchy lady owner who was taking the orders told one of the coworkers to stop talking as he was disturbing her and she couldn't understand a particular person's order. She said he was too loud and needed to be quiet. Other patrons literally looked at our table in disbelief on the words that came out of her mouth. Few minutes later, she came back and 'screamed' that we all need to stop being so loud as we were giving the chef (her hubby I guess) a headache! Well, we should have learnt our lesson that night to not come back, but it is all about giving a 2nd chance, right?

Last night we called at 630pm to find out what time they close (website said 830pm). She (grouchy lady!) said they close at 8pm. We politely mentioned the site said otherwise. She told us that they close early if there is no reservation so the last walk-in will be 7pm. We asked if we can make a reservation for 730pm in that case. She obviously refused to take the reservation and told us that we need to show by 7pm if we need to eat there. Well (I repeat), we should have learnt our lesson yesterday to not ever go there again , but it is all about giving a 3rd chance, right?

So, since we couldn't eat there yesterday due to early close and we craved for the Gyro's, we decided to squeeze in lunch over there in between meetings. We called in on our drive in and told her we were ordering ahead as we were on a time crunch. We got there in 15 min and settled down with our drink (It is a BYOB place so we brought few cans of coke with us). She made a HUGE fit about bringing in soda while eating at her restaurant. We apologized for the misunderstanding as we have always walked in with our wine at nights so we assumed any 'BYOB' is valid. My manager, infact, walked up to her to apologize and even offered to not open our cans and buy from them instead. She blasted at him and also said that we should have just done a take-out order instead and there was no reason to dine in. Well, we quietly finished up our (last) meal there, paid, and left without making too much noise. We all were equally pissed at her behavior and did not appreciate her horrible attitude towards her customers.

Mom and Pop restaurants usually run well because love is served along with the food cooked. Obviously this family lacks that! I hope they read this and realize that they made her patrons feel unwelcomed and unwanted over a can of coke that was...

My family has ordered takeout from this establishment for many years. I can fondly remember the hot pita bread and tasty salad. However tonight, we decided to eat in. We got inside and discovered there was nobody really around, just us. Okay. Quiet but fine. We were seated, then the waiter asked us what we wanted to drink. When my aunt asked for tap water (since she knew about their odd water bottle preference) the waiter just said over and over "it's store policy, only bottled water." Okay. Weird. So I just grit my teeth and had a bottled water. But then I asked for a gyro. I had ordered it in store before. Our server then says "gyro is takeout only. Store policy." Huh? What? I asked him why, because I was curious... Were they unable to sell gyro meat after lunch? The server just repeatedly said "it's store policy" again, before the lady in the kitchen started yelling at him in Greek. It was all very, very awkward and I just wanted to know what was going on- I was totally okay with ordering a different entree, but really, why continue to say "store policy" and not give a reason? Further more... it says gyro meat is available for additional cost for the salads on their dinner menu. Something isn't right about this but okay. Thankfully the food was good. But service was not. The waiter never really checked up on us. When it came time to package our meals and get the check, he set down the containers and started walking away like he had to run for the hills, all while my poor mother tried to ask him for a smaller container! A gratuity charge was put on the bill, and I didn't see any note about party size factoring that charge anywhere on the menu, so I could have missed something. But we were a group of 5... isn't the charge for 6+? All in all, it really seemed like the waiter was desperate for us to leave. I spotted what seemed to be the owner sitting in the front of the house, BLARING TikToks while waiting for us to leave. Really, dude? Either way the food was good, but we're not coming back to dine in. If you're gonna run a business-- you can't rely on ONLY your food to get you through. You have to actually train your employees to smile, to be accommodating. And based on other reviews, clearly this is falling on deaf ears since the server is a repeat offender. Just focus on takeout,...

We visit Smithville every year for Oktoberfest. During our visit we always make sure to stop in at Athenian Gardens Restaurant for dinner. I will not take away from their food. Although pricey & small portioned, it is delicious and authentic. Their service is a whole other ball game. They took our reservation for 8 PM but when we got there, told us that the kitchen closed promptly at 8:30, leaving us no time to really order. We managed to get a quick order in and felt extremely rushed. Not only did we feel rushed, but we had to smell Pine-Sol being mopped all around us. After paying the bill for $200 and change, we then kindly and politely explain to the owner and his wife, that for the future, when someone makes a reservation for 8 PM, you should kindly tell them over the phone that the kitchen closes at 8:30 PM. The owner proceeded to ask us what we were looking for? We explained that we were not looking for anything, and that we actually paid the bill before saying anything purposely so he didn’t think we were looking for a discount. We were just explaining that we were not local, so we did not know the time restriction. The owner proceeded to say, if you don’t like it don’t come back. Shame on him and his wife for treating customers this way. Between their costly menu, small portions, rude service and empty dining room, it’s a wonder they’re still open. I don’t care how delicious and authentic the food is, their behavior is disgraceful. There is a lovely little Greek eatery in the town of Historic Smithville. Although it does not have the same decor, I can assure you that the food is just as delicious and the people there are extremely polite and the service is much better and so are the prices and portions. ...