Lefkos Pyrgos Cafe — Restaurant in New York

AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COST. I am only giving this place 1 star because I can't give it zero stars. I grew up coming to Lefkos Pyrgos when we visited Astoria from Philadelphia. I decided to take my boyfriend and his parents, who are from Cleveland, to this bakery on 6/10/18 since it was their first time here. I was at the counter ordering Greek coffee for us while my boyfriend and his parents were admiring the dessert display. His mother took a photo of the display because she thought it was beautiful. The old lady behind the counter, who was the owner, saw her taking a photo and in Greek, said to her employees, "look at this crazy/stupid lady". Little did the owner know, I speak fluent Greek and was able to understand what she just said. Now, since my boyfriend's mother and I were not next to each other, I didn't realize the owner was talking about her at first. The owner proceeded to go up to her and started rudely yelling at her for taking the photos and to stop immediately. My bf's mom was shocked and very apologetic and didn't know that she couldn't take pictures, and stopped right away. Even after she stopped, the owner CONTINUED to be rude to her saying no pictures were allowed (by the way, there are NO signs in the shop that say 'no pictures allowed' so how would someone know?) We kind of all blew it off because we were just so shocked by the owner's rudeness.

During all this, I was at the counter waiting for the coffee and to pay. My boyfriend's father was next to me with the desserts they were ready to buy. At this point, we were all next to each other so the owner could have taken a guess that we were all together. My boyfriend's mother asked if she could have some desserts to go and the owner, once again, gave her complete attitude and said "lady, you have to wait, not now" and other rude commentary. I had enough of her attitude at this point. I turned to the owner and said "You know, you really shouldn't talk about customers negatively in Greek because you never know who speaks the language." She pretended to not know what I was talking about because she was embarrassed that she didn't realize we were all together. She asked me "What are you talking about?" I told her that I heard her call my boyfriend's mother stupid/crazy and she instantly started denying it. She said "no no no, are you kidding me? I did no such thing" to which I responded, "no are YOU kidding me?? I was right here when you said it to your employee and you didn't know that she was with me." It started getting heated and we all decided to just leave our stuff and leave this place immediately. However, the owner felt the need to take the coffee away from me, like I really wanted it anyway at this point.

We are Greek and are truly disappointed and shocked that the owner feels the right to treat customers like this. From all the other negative reviews I have read about her, this isn't the first time she has done this to a customer. She deserves to be put out of business. As a Greek, I have never felt so unwelcomed by a Greek business owner in my life, but also as a regular customer. Think twice about supporting this awful owner and instead go to Artopolis. We went there after this incident and the Artopolis workers said they literally get complaints of the Lefkos Pyrgos owner...

I was visiting NYC and happened to be in Astoria. I had some time on my hands and decided to do coffee shop hopping as I cannot really stay for too long in one place. In cases where I have stayed longer , I made my waiter's time worth. I was in mood for some Greek sweets and walked into that Lefkos Pyrgos cafe. After spending about an hour and so outside at an outdoor table enjoying the sun I was getting ready to wrap up and leave. While waiting on my polite waitress for the bill, I suddenly changed my mind and decided to have another beverage and more sweets, but had to walk inside as I was in need of an outlet in order to have my electric device charged. Well, bad idea of mine. I found one outlet in that large for Astoria place, but soon I realized it was near something like a service table with all sugar caddies and other similar stuff placed on it. After looking for another outlet, I found a second and last one and quietly headed to that table. Well, that was not to the liking of the grumpy old Greek lady, whatever her role was in that place and whomever everyone else talked about on all the reviews. I need to mention that there were 4 tables taken inside and outside altogether in the entire venue. It was not rush hour either, so I assumed that it would not be a big of a deal to pick the second only table with outlet nearby (which happened to be for 6 people). Once again the place was empty, and if a party of 6 would have arrived I could move somewhere else with some peace of mind. But the old rude Greek lady did not find necessary not only to approach me politely and quietly, but also to begin to talk to me out-loud from distance as if we were at the farmers market. Actually, I was forbidden to take the table of my choice in an almost empty coffee shop, but on the top was assigned the servers table. I am pretty straightforward, usually, but this time I decided to keep my mouth shut as I did not want to spoil my day just because of a grumpy or maybe sick old lady. Ideally, I would have quietly charge my device, finish my sweets but that "fire spitting dragon" was not only rude but she continued with her "go to Hell customer" spiel consisting of "if you do not like it , you can go somewhere else". That reached the limit of my patience. Obviously, she practices it quite often daily and after looking around I realized why that huge place with nice interior was empty. Because of the "watchful eye dragon" inside. If you want a peace of advice: do not make the mistake arguing with the Dragon, it is pointless. It will spike up your adrenaline only. I am giving 1 star for the polite service of the young girls behind the counter and for the interior of the venue. The desert was good but I have had better ones. I will never ever go back to that place again and I promise I will use all my influence to reroute my friends and family's needs to another pastry shop in Astoria. 101 hospitality class won't be a bad idea at all, M'am! May God help that poor old...

Where is Gordon Ramsey when you need him? Terrible service. Terrible pastries. Terrible cleanliness. Terrible manners. Lack of human decency.

My family and I decided to eat some baklava while waiting for our reservation at a nearby restaurant. We went inside, multiple tables were not cleaned and cakes were half eaten. I should have known that was a red flag!!!

So we decided we would sit outside. My partner ordered multiple mini baklavas and when they asked us if we would "sit in or takeout" he responded "take out but we'll sit outside." We did not get an objection from the staff. The rest of my family then headed outside and sat at the tables until he came out with our order. Please note, for 4 mini baklavas, the wait was 15-20 minutes.

After my partner comes out with our order and when we begin to eat, an old women (presumably the owner) comes out yelling at us stating she asked us if we wanted to sit in or take out as if she was implying that we were deliberately trying to lie to her. We begin to state to her that we were not told that we needed to say "sit in" to be able to utilize the tables. Let it be known, it was empty and there was only one party there. She then repeats herself at-least 5 times as if I didn't understand english, was deaf, or was stupid. I get agitated and said very clearly "so can I buy something and "sit in" to be able to utilize the tables?" She repeats herself once again. My family gets up and begins to leave, and then she tells us we can stay and finish.

I should have thrown the baklavas in her face. I've had better baklava at foodcellar, a local food grocery chain. I have always been a loyal customer at Martha's and wanted to support another business, but I will no longer support this establishment. It is very evident that this bakery does not have respect or the business acumen to treat its customers with respect. If you don't have to provide good customer service then that is fine but you also need to be a good person and treat others with respect. It is clear this woman needs to go to hospitality school to learn some manners. I might also recommend some classes on diversity and inclusion to be able to treat customers who aren't white with respect.

If there was a way for me to get this bakery featured on "kitchen nightmares", I would seek the opportunity to expose them and their...