Souvlaki GR — Restaurant in New York

Went there on a Friday. Around 6-6:30 PM. Since this was around the end of June, it was quite hot. The restaurant feels very cramped as can be seen in the photos too. They basically have these small circular tables meant for 2 people that they just join together to seat more people. Because these tables all can vary a little in their heights, you don't feel joining them together even helps with the tabletop surface for groups. We were a party of 7, so we did notice this issue. Even after we sat down and requested to turn on the fan or the AC, nothing was done.

When I asked the server about it again, she went to the Owner/Manager who is also the bartender I think. The owner asked who was making the request and when the server pointed to us, the owner gave us disgusted looks. To us It seemed like a racist gesture. And no fan or AC was turned on any way.

We all started with ordering the cocktails. And this is a warning to anyone reading. Please DON'T order cocktails. They're 15$ each and are all just watered down to an extent you can't even taste much. I personally ordered their Greek version of Aperol Spritz and it was basically iced water. No one else liked their drinks either. Between all of us 7 we were able to get atleast 1 each of every cocktail on their menu. So please DO NOT order cocktails at all

Now comes the food. We ordered the 3 dips combo with Pita. A bunch of skewers of different meats, lamb shanks, and the meat platter. The food is amazing. The only redeeming quality for this restaurant. The meats were all cooked very well and the pitas were fresh too. The only issue I saw there was that the ~$23 dip combo came with just like 13 small triangles of pita bread. That's such a small quantity of pita for the price and also the fact that there were 3 dips. We had to order 2 extra orders of Pitas. It's a cheap item, no need to skimp on that, I just don't get their reasoning for that.

Since our party was of 7, our check had an autogratuity of 22%. I would say that's a relatively high number for autogratuity for a restaurant that refuses to turn on their Fans and Air conditioners. So all in all. All the compliments go to the chef and none to the management. They need to reduce this penny pinching behavior drastically. The food has so much potential. Everything else should complement it, not leave...

My first time here, but I wasn't impressed at all. VERY uncomfortable and tight space, tables are packed one to another, extremely small tables, chairs, plates, glasses, silverware...I don't understand it. If you are over 6 ft, this space will be your nightmare. I couldn't relax at all, I couldn't move my body around. Only one unisex restroom for the whole restaurant/tavern, just next to the kitchen. The food is...hmmmm...I didn't take any picture, so I think that explains everything. Honestly, the dips served with pita bread and salads I could make at home. However, the octopus was very decent, altough the portion is much smaller than anywhere else. They had only 2 types of fish: salmon and branzino. That' what we were told. Not so great choice for the Mediterranean tavern. Branzino was dry, overcooked and served on a cold plate, not appealing at all (dark in color and small in size), with tasteless and old side dishes (spinach and lemon potatoes). For that price it should be MUCH better. Branzino came in 15min, too fast in my opinion (the restaurant was almost packed at that moment). It's almost impossible to prepare fresh fish in such a short time. No olive oil on the tables, bottled tap water served warm. And it was very hot inside the restaurant, altough the outside temperature was 51F. The best part of our dinner was the white wine (dry, similar to sauvignon blanc). Service is formal, typical order taking. Our busser, however, was attentive. Nobody asked us how was our food, only after we stopped eating (when we lost our appetite), but it was already late. And we were very hungry. Who knows, maybe they just had a bad day. Overall, not so great experience. Convenient location, close to Carnegie Hall, next to 57th train station. They do have a little patio outside with a few tables. Souvlaki GR has 3 restaurant locations in NYC, but they also run their business in Panama City...

What almost started as a major screw up of our own making turned to a wonderful experience at Souvlaki GR. We made a reservation for a special occasion a month in advance, selecting this place for its very good reviews and equally important due to the fact it is located literally adjacent to our planned hotel so we could just walk out of our room straight to the restaurant. To our dismay and shock as we walked in during a very busy peak time on a Saturday evening time our reservation did not show up on the list, in spite we confirmed it again earlier that day in a text message. The owner/manager noticed our stress and suggested we may have reserved at their other midtown location ( we were not aware of the two midtown locations during the reservation we did from their website) and assured us they will seat us anyway ( during a visible full capacity situation!). We were obviously relieved to be seated in no time (!) but were concerned about being charged the no show fee at the sister place. Again our kind host assured us he will take care of it for us, and suggested we just enjoy our dinner which we were only happy to oblige. Sure enough a few minutes later he showed up again to verify our name was the right one at the other place and checked it off for us. Suffice to say from there and on our dinner tasted great (scrumptious meat and orzo carbonara and of course lamb chops that fell off the bone), and our mood improved greatly with the help of a most friendly and attentive server. To finish it up we ordered their Galaktoboureko which was the best we ever had, not mention the huge serving size. To top it all we found the price very reasonable for this quality and location in midtown. We're looking forward to revisit them in our next...