Parthenon Gyros — Restaurant in Madison

I’ve been to this establishment more than a few times and I’ve always paid for my food and left no issue. Today 10/5/24 around 2:20pm I go there. I order a gyro plate with hot peppers on the side and a cheese sauce on the side as well. It came up too $20 and some change I believe. I tapped my card on the card reader and the guy behind the counter said only a portion was paid. I thought that was weird because I know that I had more than enough to pay for my meal. I told him I was going to step outside since I wasn’t getting any internet service in the building. I went outside and was finally able to log into my bank account and I see that I had two pending changes from Parthenon for $3 and come change and the other one was $20.94. I got back inside and wait in line. When it was finally my turn i noticed the guy who took my order was no longer there. It was a girl taking orders now . I asked her if my payment went through because in my account it’s showing that it’s pending. She said no only a certain amount went through and that we could cancel my whole order and I said OK let’s go ahead and cancel it. I asked her for a receipt to prove that the order was canceled and she was unable to give me one since she canceled it in their system I guess. So I left with the money still saying it’s pending To be taken out in my bank account. I called Parthenon to talk to a manager and the manager who I spoke with was very rude and basically just told me to wait for it to not say pending in my account because they can’t do anything about it right now. Then he hung up in my face . It’s safe to say that I will never be going back there again. They lost my...

Update: I did return to Parthenon on State St. after posting this review. I requested my pita have a half greased dip in oil before crisping on the hot grill. The profesional taking my order immediately shut my request down and denied the ability. By happenstance the owner was working on another project behind the counter. He nodded to the pro-preparer and motioned to the grease for him to use. I was shocked that I was the first and only person to request this step be returned. The flavor of the pita bread is night and day, when pretreated with an oil dip. I advise you to try it, the old fashioned way. The way that God and Greeks intended. Anyway you slice it. Be it horizontal or lamb leg vertical, Parthenon is delicious!!!

Parthenon is under new ownership(1st statement I was wrong about). Service needs time to grow in speed and confidence (2nd statement I was wrong about, but not sure why far fewer familiar faces behind the counter). The most disappointing part is the healthier new owners removed the partial grease dip on the pita bread. The pita is simply warmed now. Without crisp and flavor. I'm hoping this step returns as an option (This delicious step IS available if now only by request❤) Parthenon was (could very well still be) the very best! I look forward to going back to Parthenon Gyro on State St and appreciate the personal reply to this review! Madison is my native home and gyros on State is part of my pride and...

Food is great!

An aside, a note, a précis on the self-order kiosk, if you’ll indulge me. When I entered Parthenon with a few friends, I saw the machine and said internally, “that’s enough, thanks, I’ll order with the Human”- in hindsight arguably a radical sentiment. And so as the Kiosk orders continued to be filled in front of mine I gazed idly into the obscure distance, looked calmly around myself on the perplexed scene where I sat, “have the Machines really won without a shot fired” I thought. To order via kiosk is to let the Machine win, to order via kiosk is to forgot the body, it is to forgot our frailty, our limitations, our flesh. To forget these is also to forget the value, indeed the necessity of humility, generosity, care, patience, and mercy. So I found myself wondering if there is a threshold of artificiality beyond which human artifice becomes counterproductive and destructive. I’m not thinking principally of particular technologies, which might be turned toward destructive ends. I’m thinking, rather, of an aggregate degree of artificiality distancing us from the natural world to such an extent that — paradox again — our capacity to flourish as human beings is diminished. What are the consequences of so structuring our necessarily artificial environment that we find ourselves largely indifferent to the rhythms, patterns, and textures of the human world?

The invention of the ship was also the invention of...