The Real Greek (Hoxton)

We booked a table for four people at The Real Greek in Marylebone to celebrate a Birthday. Being Greek Cypriot and having eaten in many Greek Restaurants in London, we were most disappointed with our meal. We ordered Fish Meze for 2 people at £20 and this was served on one plate with only one small portion of Tarama. We then ordered a mixed meat Meze for four people and again this was disappointing. The accompanying salad for the four of us was in one small bowl which consisted mainly tomatoes. The only other food to accompany the meat was a small bowl of chips. Usually Mezes have an abundance of dips and other dishes but sadly this was not the case. Our orders for coffees/teas at the end of the meal were all wrong but that was not surprising considering that only two people were serving on a busy Saturday evening. The Restaurant is supposed to be Greek but neither the waitors or kitchen staff were Greek.
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Leah Michaelides
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Monday, February 19, 2007

This has always been one of my favourite restaurants in London. I've been a regular for three years. I went recently though and it has changed into a souvlaki place. I was gutted. Still the same great mezedes though but only kebabs now, none of the fancy stuff. On the bright side at least its now a lot cheaper which was the only excuse needed for me to eat twice as much. No aubergine salad. Please bring it back! I always eat in the big room that used to be a chapel. Even when its not busy it still has a special character I am yet to define. Oh and another plus, the usual I-love-myself-Hoxton-brigade that have warped fashion-irony into a way of life are thankfully absent from here. Great grub, great wine and not a tosser in sight. You can edit that last bit, if you want.
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Rick Aphex
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, January 16, 2007

We went to the Mezedopolio last night - sadly, it seems to be going the way of the chain restaurants, judging from the reviews below. Positives: taramasalata (fine), bread (good), red pepper with feta (good, but lacking the smokiness of previous visits). Negatives: biftek (served with chip shop-esque chips - correct me if I'm wrong, but is this an authentic touch?), lamb souvlaki (tough meat, and arrived in greasy looking paper - why?) and dolmades (cold, cold, cold - fridge cold - horrid!). We loved The real Greek when it opened and this annexe restaurant really used to deliver, but we won't be back.
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whipped
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Friday, November 10, 2006

The Hoxton 'Real Greek' has good ambience, wooden floors and open kitchen. Enjoyed the food but portions were on the small side and prices on the high side. London needs good Greek restaurants and I hope standards will be kept up - I had the lamb and okra and although the okra was delicious some of the lamb slices were a wee bit on the chewy side. Cretan carafe rose was a nice accompanying tipple.
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Dillip
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, August 09, 2006

I'm not the first to say this, but the problem with this place is that while the food may be interesting, even adventurous, and is often very well-cooked and tasty, it simply isn't very Greek. The ingredients are Greek, the chef is Greek, the wines are Greek, but instead of the simplicity of a few clear and unadulterated flavours coming through you get a series of clever concoctions and combinations that taste of - well, like nothing you'd find in a Greek family kitchen that's for sure. Having lived in the country and visited its four corners, I can say with some certainty that the menu here would leave most real Greeks scratching their heads with puzzlement. This is a nice, clever Modern European restaurant, offering a new take on east-Mediterranean cooking (and it's a thousand times better than most of the dire Cypriot taramasalata joints in London), but in reality it's no more authentically Greek than I am.
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mike
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Monday, July 31, 2006

I have to agree with Yiannis' comment on 20 June about the Bankside restaurant - we had a bad experience there last night. The food was mediocre (and overpriced for what it was) and although the waitress serving us was polite 2 of the other staff were very rude when I asked for the bill - they both just mumbled something at me and walked off - it turned out that only "our" waitress could deal with our bill - so why didn't they politely inform me of that instead of mumbling "no" and walking off?? Although the bankside branch is in a nice location, I would not recommend it and won't be going there again.
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Rebecca
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Thursday, July 13, 2006

I've admired Theodore Kyriakou and his hoxton restaurant for some time now. What an excellent example of modern Greek, it makes me proud to be a chef and greek. I would recommend the mezodopolio and the restaurant to anyone, excellent slow cooked dishes, authencticly stylish. Having been there recently it was nice to see a fresh new management team, that seemed well informed. unfortunately, I must express my disappointment and revolt of the chain version called "souvlaki and bar", how tacky and ugly across the board the service and food well below average. What a sad attempt to get rich quick I think. Unfortunately reputations like Theodores have and will suffer, what a way to go, good luck in the future!
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vasillious - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, June 27, 2006

The Real Greek (bankside)

Having been to the Bankside property and experienced the WORST Greek Cuisine in my life as well as some of the Worst Service ever, I felt that the original property must carry some of the guilt and since I couldn’t find the Bankside property on this site I use this one to alert potential victims from delivering themselves to such a joke of a "Greek" Restaurant!

More in detail, the waiters would constantly ignore us (even after a 45min wait and not been busy at all) and eventually they took our order and came back 45 minutes later with the wrong order. When we send it back they returned with the same food saying what we had ordered actually had finished... The Aubergine Salad and the Taramosalata was inedible and I wasn’t sure even what it was made off definitely NOT the ingredients it was supposed to be made, EVEN sainsburys taramosalata tastes better than what they produce!

The Souvlaki was so dry!!! but as I was hosting some friends I didn’t bother to make any fuss, about the quality of food (or lack of it). Did I mention that the food was so overpriced that the average per person you list on your site doesn’t even come close?

To add insult to injury we were automatically charged a 12,5% service charge (WHAT SERVICE???) normally I would give around 15% for good service and I would dispute an automatic charge that did not deserve a tip but once again I was so angry, disappointed and not wanting to cause a scene and make my friends uncomfortable that I paid the bill and was out of the door NEVER to even think of stepping my foot into such a place.

The original Concept might have been something to talk about but what you do at your Bankside property is a disgrace to the true spirit of Greek Hospitality!

Suggestion: Rename your concept to = THE UNREAL GREEK
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Yiannis
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Went to the Restaurant on a recommendations. The food was ok, but it was to pricey for me. Me and my two friends only had the main course with a couple of drinks which were fruit juices and a glass of wine and the total was over £80, so it work out to around £26-27 per head. The services was good and friendly, but it was way to pricey for the food we had.
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Cass
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Went here last night and had a really awful experience. One member of our party was vegetarian and we were told the vegetarian menu was not available. He was then offered a couple of choices.

The starters were OK if a little on the small side. We then had to wait for nearly an hour for our main courses - apparently becuase the vegetarian one had to be 'cooked from scratch' (This made our vegetarian member feel guilty being the cause of our long wait - excellent customer service skills!!) When the main courses arrived, the vegetarian one seemed to be a bowl of grey gruel, the liver was inedible and the chicken dish bland and uninteresting. The final insult was a bill for over £30.00 per head.
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geoff pine
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, February 15, 2006