Athena Mediterranean Cuisine — Restaurant in New York

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In all honesty not sure why I’m seeing 5 star rating for such an underwhelming restaurant. I’m a fine dining chef and have works along side Michelin star chefs. I’m saddened to say that I felt multiple dishes were lacking freshness associated with Greek cuisine and even some dishes I felt were actually made with frozen ingredients.

The chef was extremely present, not in a good way. Overwhelming ego on that guy. Constantly steering me to what he refers to as “more authentic Greek dishes. To my understanding this is a Greek restaurant, shouldn’t the entire menu be “authentic Greek”. My experience was mind boggling so much so that I feel the reviews I’m seeing are either fictitious or the cliental hasn’t really experience anything near what Greek cuisine embodies.

Moussaka taste days old and bland. The falafel look and tasted as if it was made on a conveyer belt then frozen. Extremely compressed. Pita was not fresh and really reminded me of something one would buy from your local supermarket.

I very rarely write a bad review or even any review at all but this experience compelled me to give a heads up to future patrons. The only good I’d have to say is my wife and I enjoyed calamari/ side salad but these are very difficult to get wrong. My apologies to the Chef and the crew for the bad rep but we must do better.

We dined in around Valentine’s Day. At the time I contemplated on writing a review but decided not to. Since then I’ve had some great experiences at other local restaurants and I could not get this experience out of my head. I was compelled to express my dissatisfaction.

I hope this helps both the restaurant and future patrons but I will not be dining in again and sadly would not recommend this in the future.

Again my...

Finally went to Athena for dinner. Had checked out the menu beforehand and wanted a nice Greek dinner cooked with care. First the good: What nice people. It's clearly a family-run restaurant and they are down-to-earth and care. The interior is clean and comfortable. The issue was the food (for us). Very mixed results We were offered some lovely pita with a ramekin of hummus to start - nice. We had a grilled sardine appetizer and it was good. 3 nicely sized sardines, properly grilled. The issue was the mains. My rack of lamb (chosen because I cannot eat cream sauces) was smothered in a veal reduction sauce (my bad for not thinking to order it on the side). I ordered it Medium rare and it was medium (not the worst problem) but the sauce...oy. Someone has lost their way and/or doesn't taste what they are sending out. It was sooooo sweet - it felt like someone had poured dessert sauce over the lamb. Not a drop of savory in it. (In case I felt I was wrong, had my other half taste it and confirmed that it tasted like someone had dumped a lot of sugar in the reduction.) My other half splurged for the lamb shank with a tomato orzo. I didn't taste the lamb - he said it was fine. I did however taste the orzo and it was almost mush. so wildly overcooked ... confirmed by my other half who doesn't like to complain just tells me afterwards and says...somewhere else next time. Staff/owners: lovely. Our dinner - overcooked, oxersauced (overly sweet), ...

Not gonna lie, I don't have enough experience with Greek cuisine, to say "this is authentic, blah, blah, blah" or not. I'm just saying that most of my reviews based off of ONE visit, and not always fair. Now, this place, Athena, we came back. In fact we walked for about 45 minutes just to get there, cutting through Botanical Garden and Prospect Park. So after another meal I could say it with even more stern face - these guys know their business. I got sensitive stomach and their food never bothered me. If you know you got your allergies or limitations ask about different dishes and staff will guide you. The chef/owner and his partner, and the waiter all pro's, friendly and I just felt comfortable there and so did the my wife. Small classy place, quiet Greek music, great wine, great beer ( I went for Greek brews), food simply beyond discussion. They definitely know their way around lamb, good appetizers and desserts, if you can't finish or too full, get that dessert to go. That pudding type cake thing was something else. I don't know what else to say, except you never know when they fill up, so call ahead, place could be packed within 30 minutes to the gills, from one busy table to full on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Google knows their number 🤓. Bon appetit! P.S. Consider their specials, this isn't "we will throw this out tomorrow, so there is a sale" place. Their specials are rare treats that's not on regular menu. No regrets...