Kalypso's Sports Tavern — Restaurant in Reston

Could have given this a solid 3-star review because the food is very good. I’ve come here weekly for a while with a small group playing trivia on Thursday nights. Whether we arrive early or on time, the service is always the same: painfully slow. Tonight I came here at 6:45 PM to join my friend already seated. I tried to order at least an appetizer and a drink before happy hour specials ended at 7 PM. Except our waiter let us sit there until 7:05 PM and then told us that the happy hour prices on cocktails and appetizers no longer applied. His loss because my tab would have been higher, and thus his tip would have been higher too, had he been more attentive.

I’ve tried many of the appetizers, but my favorite is the spanakopita. It’s very flaky and crisp on the outside, and a very flavorful spinach and cheese inside. It comes with three large triangles, and if you don’t finish your appetizer and need to take it home, I highly recommend using your air fryer to crisp it back up again the next day.

For cocktails, lately I’ve been drinking the spicy pineapple margarita with muddled jalapeño. It has a little kick to it, but not so spicy that you’re sweating in the A/C.

For dinner, I typically get the chicken souvlaki which normally comes with fries but I swap out for a small Greek salad. I also highly recommend a side order of broccolini, which they sauté in a tasty way with garlic.

They have a really nice patio outside with umbrellas, so if it’s a nice night I recommend being seated there.

I also recommend thoroughly reviewing your check, especially if you’ve got more than one person on it. My last two visits I found errors and was charged for things I didn’t order.

All in all, food is very good. For food, it would have been a solid three star rating, like I said. Unfortunately I have to deduct a star for super slow service that I have experienced weekly over the last three months without fail. We sat there tonight for 3 hours and our water glasses were not refilled once. We waited 90 minutes to get our entrées. I drank one cocktail because the waiter never came back and asked if I wanted another. If this was just an off night, I could easily overlook it. Coming here on Thursdays for trivia week after week, and never seeing any improvement in service, I can’t help but offer only a two...

I said I would never go back, however the owner was always nice so I figured why not give them a chance after the last 3 times, cutting them slack. I can honestly say this restaurant has unfortunately gone down the tubes. The new manager (who used to be a server) is extremely stingy on everything. The tzatziki no longer comes with garlic inside, so we asked that it be added to ours. We were charged $1.50 for a tiny amount of garlic. Although this is not a major issue, this was not told to us, and it was the smallest of all issues we had throughout the night.

We ordered a Greek pizza and chicken kebab as well as octopus. The pizza came out before both appetizers, and it was not the correct pizza. We sent it back and asked for our appetizers again. The pizza came out and not either of the appetizers. Our server was extremely kind and let us know that she put the order in for both the octopus and the chicken kabob. After completing majority of the pizza, we asked about the Appetizers again. She went back into the kitchen and stated the octopus was going to take a long time, so we canceled that and told her we only were interested in the chicken skewers. She came to check on us when she brought our second or maybe third round of drinks and we still have not received the chicken kebab. We also informed her that the drinks were not mixed properly, and we asked for them to be corrected. They simply brought a shot of vodka and charged us for it. Our server offered us a free appetizer for all the inconvenience but we told her we were ok, and asked if we could just get another round of drinks. She went to ask the manager (Luz I believe) and she said no.

The last two times we had similar experiences, servers were not coming by, drinks were terrible. They started going really down hill once KP was removed as one of the bartenders. It’s really unfortunate this restaurant has deteriorated so much because it was one of our favorite places to go and it was so close to our houses that we could all walk. We will have to find a new hang out...

I really wanted to like this place. The outdoor patio next to the lake is beautiful and the reviews say the food is good. However, I’ve now been here three times with my wife in the past eight weeks and haven’t even been served so much as a glass of water. They are so incredibly understaffed that we’ve never been able to purchase anything.

All three times, there was no one at the host stand. The previous two times, we left after waiting for about ten minutes even though there were empty tables. This third time, we decided to try and stick it out since we just wanted a couple drinks and it was a really nice evening. After waiting once again at the host stand for about five minutes, I asked the bartender inside if we could just seat ourselves on the patio. She said sure and someone would come see us, and there we waited ten minutes. I came back in to ask if we could just place our order and pick it up at the bar, she asked what we wanted, and when I asked for a drink menu she said she would come bring us one to the table. We waited another five minutes. She comes out, takes our drink order, and then we proceeded to sit another twelve minutes without getting so much as a glass of water. So now we have been in the restaurant for nearly a half hour and we have yet to even get a drink. I saw at least three more couples similarly waiting to be seated and served, so we finally left as I didn’t see the situation improving.

I have to give this place the worst possible rating because this is not an isolated incident. I always try to give service employees the benefit of the doubt when it comes to this kind of thing, as this isn’t their fault. They just don’t have enough people working there and the people they do have are utterly overwhelmed. What this comes down to is poor management and an owner who doesn’t care about their business.

After this has now happened three times, I can’t see coming back here again unless there’s a dramatic improvement in their staffing. I wouldn’t recommend this...