Athenian Owl — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Coincidence? I think not!

I've eaten at the Athenian Owl at least 10 times and have typically enjoyed a good meal. However, last night (August 16, 2025) was a huge exception - one that means we won't be back for a long time, if ever.

The trouble seemed to start in the parking lot. As I paused to turn left into a spot across from the restaurant, a car approached from the opposite direction and stopped, blocking my path. I waited politely, expecting the driver to continue. Instead, the middle-aged, dark-complexioned woman (likely in her 50s or 60s) pointed, indicating she wanted to park on the other side. After about five seconds, I figured it out, signaled, cut in front of her, and pulled into my spot - safely and without incident. She then quickly parked in hers and - ironically - headed into the restaurant. She appeared irritated.

As I walked in with my wife, I joked, "I hope she's not cooking our food!" But honestly, I didn't think much of the parking lot mix-up - it wasn't a big deal.

While we were requesting a table, the woman tapped me on the shoulder and said somewhat angrily, "That was me in the parking lot." She still seemed quite upset. I smiled and replied, "I think we were each politely waiting for the other." The hostess then showed us to our table. NOTE: given the position of the vehicles that was NO WAY I could have allowed her to park first without looking for another parking spot.

Now, about the meal: My wife's Gyro Pita Sandwich was awful - the meat had an off taste. She only ate about half before pushing it aside. Even worse, my Papoutsaki was incredibly bland, with literally no spice or flavor. The dish consisted of what appeared to be stewed eggplant, ground beef, and a small amount of mashed potatoes on top. It was floating in about half a cup of water! I ended up asking for a soup spoon just to eat it, since I was hungry and this was my dinner.

I appreciate chefs who avoid overloading dishes with salt, allowing customers to season to taste. But there was virtually no flavor in the Papoutsaki - any spices seemed missing or washed out by the excess water. I salted it three times to try to improve it, and I'm not usually a "salt person."

The final letdown came with the baklava we ordered to go. We got it home, and it was terrible: stale and absolutely soaked in honey. I could have tolerated the honey, but the staleness ruined it. That said, I just noticed we weren't charged for it - probably a server's mistake - so I guess it worked out.

Was the bad meal connected to inadvertently irritating the woman, who I now suspect was one of the owners? There's no way to know for sure. But here's a pro tip for the family that owns the Athenian Owl: If you work with the public and want to maintain a good reputation, don't angrily confront a customer over what was, at worst, a minor miscommunication in the parking lot.

In fairness, our server was great, and the jovial man (perhaps a brother or brother-in-law to the woman) stopped by our table, making us feel welcome amid the festive atmosphere. However, despite their efforts, the confrontation and subpar food prompted...

Had February 14th reservations and was super excited to try out the Athenian Owl as I had heard so many positive things from a friend about the food, etc. My date had never tried Greek food before but I am well versed in the cuisine and was looking forward to sharing a new experience together. We were seated only to find that there was a "limited" V Day menu and a very loud lounge singer for the evening. There Appetizers we had selected prior to our visit were not on the limited menu and neither was the entree, so I was very disappointed from the start. We agreed to stay because where else would we be able to go on such a busy night? Apps were okay, calamari was hot and dolmades were sorta warm but on the small side. Salad was average. Entree was supposed to be grouper, but the fish was cut into such small pieces, and there was so little of it on the plate, I am not sure it was truly grouper. There were a ton of mushrooms that seemed to be the replacement for the main part of the dish which was lukewarm at best. Highly disappointed and overall a very poor experience. It would be nice to advertise on your website that there would be limited selections and loud music to make people who are not interested in such to know beforehand. For the record, we tipped our wait person properly because he tried. He did not even pour our wine, he placed uncorked bottle on the table and...

I will start off by saying I would give this place a 3.5 if I could, but the site doesn't let me. I have worked at many fine dinning restaurants over my years, I love that this was a family operated resturant, but sadly I must not have gotten the 5 star service. I am keeping this honest and short. First the starters were great! The saganaki was as good as it gets, along with the hummus, but that's where our 5 star food ended. Next the salads came out, and they were "okay" at best. not much flavor, and they had a pool of oil the bottom of the plate. Third, I had the lamb chops. although they did have herbs of them they lacked the flavor of salt, and the chops I had were no thicker, and bigger than a silver dollar. If I had to guess, I figured if I put all five lamb chops together they'd be lucky if it weigh out to 8oz. I should have know this was coming when I wasn't asked by my server how I wanted them cooked (medium, medrare, ect.), Plus, as we were about finished eating, another server asked if we wanted more bread, but we were not offered bread in the first place by our own server. Now this is free so its not a big deal, but the bread was not even brought out when the serve said he was going to, so its just a bad look on service. Maybe they were just off this day, or maybe all the rive star review had it way hipped up, but...