Ariana's Greek Restaurant — Restaurant in West Columbia

The food wasn’t bad, but the service was pretty awful. We were seated pretty quickly and asked for waters and 2 coffees. We also ordered our food. 15 minutes later we hadn’t even gotten the waters. We finally got a different server to give us our drinks. It took a very long time to get any refills when we drank the waters, too. The man who took our order never came back to our table - the woman we flagged down for drinks ended up taking care of us from then on. My daughter’s food (kid’s spaghetti) came out quickly, with the salads, which were honestly delicious, but we waited over an hour for our entrees, and 3 out of four had something wrong with them - my husband got the entirely wrong meal; he ordered a gyro and got some entree that didn’t even come with pita bread, I got the wrong side; I wanted potatoes but got rice, and my dad’s girlfriend’s meal was missing vegetables. We didn’t bother trying to flag someone down to correct our meals because it had been over an hour, my daughter had long finished her meal, and I needed to get her home, and we had absolutely no idea how long it would take for the correct entrees to come out. The lamb on whatever entree my husband did receive was very overcooked, and the tzatziki sauce was awful. The rice was okay, the chicken was good, the Greek potatoes were good, and the Greek coffee and the beef were delicious.

If the service hadn’t been so bad, I’d give the food another try. But there was a couple that sat in the table behind us probably about halfway through our wait for our food, and they had their food before we even finished eating, so clearly there was something going on with just our service, but it’s not worth...

My gf and I appreciated the decor and music. We also noted immediately that only one employee was running the entire front of the house and adjusted our expectations accordingly. Let's just get into it:

I specifically asked for no lemon and received lemon in my water...and with something...viscous...else floating in the glass. My gf was quite happy to take my lemon but immediately stopped drinking after our first refill. Curious, I took a sip (as I refused to drink mine). It tasted like Windex. Our Greek salads were fantastic. We were brought incorrect food four times (to be fair, the food belonged to other tables, so it wasn't the wrong order, just the wrong table). When we finally got our food mine was lukewarm at best. Her food was excellent though on the small side (she was told lunch portions were unavailable at dinner). In addition, she ordered the chicken version of her dish but received the lamb. Then we got the bill which listed prices which did not match the menu making me question why blank ticket books were not provided to the wait staff by management.

In summary: Lackluster sanitation, poor service, hints of what could be an excellent chef foiled by temperature issues, pricing inappropriate with regards to serving size, and poor technical management all around. I'd prefer to judge the place on more than one dining experience but my gf refuses to return. I truly hope this was just an "off night" but can't in good conscience...

I don’t know why there are so many good reviews for this place. First of all it is like sitting in a small dungeon. It was 1pm but it was so dark inside it felt like 9pm. There was a nice layer of dust on the crown molding next to our table. Our waiter offered us three menus “because that’s all we have”. This continued to be the theme - it seemed they had a shortage of everything. He informed us that two starters were out of stock and two main dishes. But according to him “he wouldn’t order those anyways if you know what I mean.” We got one starter before the other because “we are out of plates, I have to go wash some.” When the main portions arrived, we were shocked that they weren’t appetizers for the price and portion. A lamb “platter” consisting of four very tough chewy pieces of lamb. Sad. My salad that was supposed to come with the main couldn’t arrive until after I was finished because yet again, you guessed it, they were out of plates. Let me just mention here that there were only 3 tables in the restaurant full with patrons. Where are all the plates? When my salad finally arrived which the waiter did ask me, “do I still want it?” Had two tiny cocktail tomatoes, two half slices of cucumber and one olive- yay me! Oh and about 6 pieces of lettuce. So spoiled😋 Dark, dirty, a waiter who is not being a very good ambassador for the place, small portions, a long wait and barely any plates. Won’t be...