It took me forever to finish this review because I really wanted to like this place (so it wasn't easy for me to write so badly about them!) and because the dining experience was a bit unreal. Usually, I try to keep my reviews relatively short, but this dining experience deserves the full run-down. So here we go:
Let's start with something positive.
Dionysos has such nice outdoor seating under the trees - so green and peaceful. Perfect for dinner during summer time. And there is the attached kiddie corner with a swing and a few play things - a little bit run down, yes, but with a very active 5-year old, I am appreciative nonetheless. Those things alone deserve a star.
Unfortunately, things are going downhill from here.
I came here with a group of 5 on a Thursday evening and since the weather was great, we grabbed a table outside.
The service was the weirdest I have ever encountered.
The waiter (owner?) was super friendly - no question about it! - but extremely confused/forgetful.
Although the place was not too busy (no tables occupied inside, only 5 tables had patrons outside), it took quite a while for him took take our drink orders.
(There was one other server, so maybe he was understaffed?)
Eventually, we got our drinks and we placed our food order at the same time.
One salad as a starter, two Gyros platters, one salad and a Hellas platter as mains plus a side of fries for the kid.
No extravagant requests - we ordered just off the menu.
Should be easy enough, right?
Apparently, it was not.
My MIL, who had asked for a salad as her main dish, got her order first.
Then nothing happened for at least 15 minutes.
The waiter (owner?) came by to ask again what we had ordered.
A bread basket and butter for the table arrived.
The kid, who got annoyed that granny got food before anyone else (read: him! LOL), agreed to eat bread with butter if we take the crust off while we were waiting for the rest of the food to arrive.
Then our starter salad arrived.
My husband and I intended to share that one, but of course we gave all the hard-boiled eggs to our son who was starving at that point.
We finished the salad.
The waiter (owner?) came by to ask again what we had ordered.
More waiting.
Then more food started to arrive!
FIL got his Hellas platter.
The nothing happened for several minutes.
I got my Gyros platter.
Again, nothing happened for several minutes.
FIL had finished half of his plate by then.
The husband got his Gyros platter.
And again, nothing happened for several minutes.
By that time, the kid was ready to start a riot! LOL
Usually, he is very polite, but at this point he started to ask VERY LOUDLY where his fries were.
I couldn't blame him.
I was really annoyed too.
Everybody had food but him!
Finally! His fries came!
But no ketchup!!!
We asked again if the waiter (owner?) could bring some.
More waiting.
The kid refused to eat any of his food until ketchup arrived.
It took almost 10 minutes! and then the waiter (owner?) brought an almost empty bottle with the comment "I'm sure you can still squeeze some out of it...".
I could only shake my head.
So finally, all of us had food and had it been amazing, I would have been forgiving since I could see that the waiter (owner?) was not an asshole.. he was just off his game/confused/whatever you want to call it
- but: It was not!
The fries were awesome - yes! -, the tzatziki was decent enough, but the gyro was borderline disgusting.
SOO greasy - I didn't even finish half of it.
Meh! What a turn-off.
When everybody had finished their meal, we asked for the cheque.
And here comes the grand finale of this unreal dining experience.
Of course it took another 15 minutes of waiting until we got the bill (there were still just a few tables occupied at that time and most of them had their orders already), and it was quite extensive.
Why? Because we didn't order 3/4 of the dishes on there.
The waiter (owner?) put it on our table with the advise: "Just take into account what you actually ordered. Cause I am not sure..."
Very professional. NOT.
At this point, I thought "Screw this!" and I claimed the bill, crossed out everything we did NOT order and pulled out my iPhone to do the math.
10 minutes later, the waiter (owner?) came back.
I showed him the bill and told him what we had to pay.
His comment: "Oh! It is unfortunate that you crossed out the other items 'cause now I will have a hard time figuring out what the other tables ordered... but nevermind. Thanks. If you ever need a job as a waiter/waitress, you can call on me any time. I will hire you on the spot!"
At this point, I was just seeing this entire dining experience with gallows humour.
The craziest thing is that I am sure that the waiter (owner?) did not do all of this on purpose.
He seemed like a really nice guy!
But that is just not the way to run a business.
So, I won't be back. :/ read more