The Real Greek

We went to the Real Greek on the South Bank last night and like the overwhelming majority of reviewers on this site, probably won't be going back again.

My wife had been quite keen to visit as we've been to Greece a few times and like the food and culture. After getting a whole load of Tesco vouchers which could be redeemed at the RG, we decided to test it out and bring along a couple of friends as well. What an embarassment.

The restaurant was quite busy and a little crammed, the table hadn't been wiped down properly and had a decidedly sticky feel to it. We were seated next to a big picture of a Greek village, which appeared to have as many people taking pictures of the same scene in it as it did houses. I can't help but think that a bit of photo-shopping would have been in order if they were trying to make this place as classy as the owners seem to think it is.

The food itself was fine for us, relatively tasty although not what I would call authentic. The Souvlaki is basically a 1/3 sized kebab, and given the price which is just short of £5, we would have been better off picking up a doner on the way home. For 4 of us we ordered 10 items, mostly Mezes. The waiter said that one portion fo Pitta wasn't going to be enough and we'd need two, and how right he was.

If we'd ordered 10 dishes at an Indian restaurant we woud have walked away bursting at the seams. At the RG however the hunger set in about 1/2 an hour after we left, as what we'd been presented with probably would have just sufficed as a meal for 2, but not 4. All the mezes came on a little wire tower like those they'd serve afternoon tea on at the Ritz, which is very impressive, but completely unnecessary. In a way it kind of summed up the RG, which is style over substance.

The staff admittedly were friendly enough, and you'd expect them to be for a 12 .5% service charge, which escalated the bill by another £9. We're not sure what it was paying for as the dish prices were already very high, £3.35 for 4 small dolmades, £4 for 3 small filo parcels, £3.25 for a little plate of tabouleh. All up we thought the place was a rip-off, and were pleased we were paying with vouchers. For the value of the final bill however we could all have had starters, mains, and coffee at Zizzi or Pizza Express.

We felt quite ashamed for having taken our friends to the Real Greek, as the last thing you want when you offer someone a free meal is for them to leave feeling hungry. That's exactly what happened for us though, and it seem we would have had to fork out closer to £100 for enough to feed 4 people. We once had a meal for 7 people at Ciao Bella for £120, so I can't help but think that the Real Greek is massivly over priced and under proportioned.
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Chris B
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Thursday, June 19, 2008

Myself and my wife went to \the Real Greek in covent garden in april 2008.

After seeing their website and being a lover of all things Greek we thought it looked fab..... Was i ever wrong!!

When you enter the restaurant it was like being in a packed out east end pub. We didnt know the people next to us but we were forced to virtually sit on their laps!!

The place is so packed out it is untrue..

The food left a lot to be desired also. Having been all over Greece , we thought we knew he food. However the chefs at this restaurant had their own interpretation. Souvlaki is basically 3/4 pieces of meat in a pitta bread with a bit of onion, nothing like what you get served all over Greece. Dolmades were dry and looked like dried dogturds!!!

After paying well over the odds , we left and vowed never to return, honestly if you like Greek food , avoid this place!!
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Darren
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Saturday, May 31, 2008

My boyfriend, who is a Real Greek, and myself wanted to try out the ‘Real Greek experience‘ in the Putney restaurant, earlier tonight.

A fellow Greek colleague of my boyfriend warned us for the bad quality of the food & service, but since we consider ourselves fair people and didn’t want to judge purely based on prejudice, we decided to see for ourselves.

Our disappointment however already started right after ordering: It took up to a half hour before we received our meal (meat platter) & side dishes and when they finally arrived, the Bifteki and the chicken wings were cold. The Tzaziki was overly minty, the Htipiti was extremely bland and the Greek salad was old and everything but fresh. I sent back the chicken and the Bifteki, and quickly received a platter of hot chicken wings, and a lamb skewer, which was given to us by the manager, telling us that he will ‘send us a new Bifteki and in the meanwhile we could enjoy this lamb skewer’, which, oddly enough, was part of the menu, but not yet delivered to our table. My boyfriend took a bite of the lamb skewer, horrified by the taste for he said the meat tasted like it was far overdue. And the new promised hot Bifteki never arrived...

The staff of the restaurant and mainly the manager, didn’t make eye contact with any of the guests, which for us, resulted in minutes long waving our arms up in the air, trying to ask for the bill. Set aside, the only good things about the evening was the Loukaniko, the flat bread and the fact that the ‘overdue’ lamb skewer didn’t result in food poisoning.

You have to understand that we are not extremely critical eaters when it comes to dining out, and we understand that sometimes a culinary experience can be disappointing.

But combined all together, this must have been one of our worst dining experiences.

Especially considering the fact that this restaurant is called ‘the Real Greek‘ and everything, from the quality of food to the extremely bad service is anything but Greek and we KNOW Greek gastronomy.

For us, unfortunately, this experience was reason enough to never recommend it, and for ourselves, to never eat at this restaurant again.
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Erica & Dimitri
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 1
Sunday, March 02, 2008

My friends and I had the most amazing time at this restaurant. My family and I have been to Greece several times before and the the food served at The Real Greek is the closest you are going to get to authentic Greek food!

The service was excellent. Our waiter was always availalbe when we needed to order more food (even though the restaurant was packed) and his knowledge of the menu was great and he was particularly helpful on dish descriptions.

I really have never had a bad experience at any of The Real Greek restaurants, but I definitely love this one the most as the interior is absolutely breathtaking!

I would recommend The Real Greek to anyone, and especially to those looking for a good night out!
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Thursday, February 21, 2008

Since I am often at The Circus Space next door to The Real Greek, I have passed it many times but have never really considered eating there.

After meeting a friend with the plan of going Vietnamese around the corner, I thought perhaps we should try The Real Greek as I was sure I had read something positive in a free paper recently.

Sadly, I think I must have totally imagined anyone saying any thing good about this place.

An empty restaurant is always worrying, and the few people dotted around didn't manage to create any atmosphere.

My friend and I ordered some water to drink which was delivered but the waiter failed to ask if we wanted anything further ,as he should have.

We decided to plump for the shared meat course at £20.95 for two which consisted of meatballs,chicken wings,kebabs,two plates of sauces(?) and a choice of greek salad or chips.we chose the salad and asked for chips as a side with spanatripitaka(cheese,spinach and leek pastry parcels).

Before I lay into the food I feel I must add that my father's best friend is a greek and my family and I spent many summers travelling the Greek islands and mainland,and have eaten in many 'many taverna's.My parent's still tell the tale of when as a 3 year old I accidentally drank a glass of ouzo thinking it was water.Hilarious..not..

The cheese and spinach parcels were disgusting,not wrapped in layers of filo pastry and filled with feta and spinach as they should be but like an awful cross between a spring roll and a samosa,with a tiny amount of leaky cheddar in there.

The two plates of mysterious dips the like I have never seen in Greece,well suffice to say I cannot remember what they were called,nor do I wish too.

The meatballs arrived rare and so did the kebabs(we were not asked how we wanted our meat done).I am not averse to rare meat as many people are,in fact I recall one particular rare steak that was like butter, but I seem to remember my partner(he is a professional chef) telling me not cook some mince for burgers rare,and I also found the kebabs very chewy.

I thought the meat was probably not of sufficient quality to be rare so I called the waiter over (itself a difficult task which involved much neck craning and eyeballing) to request the chef to cook both the meats to medium to well done.This was received with a sniff and the retort "This is how it is served"..I insisted,and watched as the waiter explained to a surley looking chef.

The meat came back hot but equally as bleeding as before.I gave up and filled up on chips.At least they managed not to ruin those or the salad.

I think we made our point by not paying the service charge but I would say to anyone after Greek food,or in fact decent food,not to bother with what my friend re-named "The Plastic Greek".
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Mamzelle Fifi
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, February 19, 2008

I have to say how saddened I am at the change in this restaurant. Living just round the corner from it it has over the years been a great spot for my boyfriend and I to visit but the last two times we have been we've seen a noticable slip in standards and won't return. The last but one time the food was more than average and the menu had changed along with the layout of the restaurant..before there was a type of a la carte section and then a mezze section, now you can sit anywhere which is fine but the atmosphere has totally changes, it was like a morgue! The open kitchen displayed not one Greek chef ...I thought this place was called the REAL Greek?? Our food was average, we sent burnt calamari back, saw the chef curse us and then sent out another burnt again! Service was poor and although the manageress was nice we were mstly ignored. We complained and said that it wasn't the same as it used to be and we probably wouldn't come back and got the cheque with ALL food discounted. We went back a few months later to give it another shot but suffice to say this time we won't return...so disappointing as I used to have very fond memories of this place. Perhaps it's because it has turned into a chain restaurant?
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 3
Thursday, January 10, 2008

A group of four of us went to The Real Greek in Covent Garden over the weekend. I had been to the Putney branch about two years ago so I was expecting it to be a good meal. However, the food this time round was rather dissapointing - it was not very tasty and everything arrived lukewarm for some reason...

Also, this particular branch of The Real Greek was not big in itself but was crammed with too many tables and chairs - leaving it hard to manoeuvre around to the table and w.c.

I would not be going to any The Real Greek branch for some time now and I especially don't recommend the Covent Garden branch to anyone...
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Sunday, December 16, 2007

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the majority of the reviews written here.... I recently went with a group of friends to the Real Greek in Putney, and despite the restaurant's pleasant decor and atmosphere, the meal itself left much to be desired. I was looking forward to a hearty meal (we had all just been ice-skating), and not being a fan of tapas-style dishes I was greatly disappointed to find only about 5 main course options (all slouvaki), only one of which was vegetarian. Cutting my losses, and opting for a mix of cheese-and-spinach filo parcels, spicy humus, bread, and greek salad, my spirits were not raised. The "spicy" humus was completely bland and of the most bizarre texture I have ever had; I had to ask others at the table to try the filo parcels to see if it was just my taste-buds or if they were in fact off; the salad was boring, and the chef hadn't even bothered to chop up the feta cheese which arrived in a large slab on top of mushy tomatoes, cucumber and olives.The bread was nice, but that was about it. We all tried hard, but none were satisfied. The Real Greek?More like Real Cheek to let its customers down so terribly.

:(
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

My wife and went to The Marylebone restaurant recently. We live in the area and still joke about it when we walk past it, this place is a complete and utter rip off. For the two of us it cost nearly £50 and that was with one glass of house red wine! The portions are like 'small' starters but at main prices, served in quaint little Greek bowls which fail to hide the severe lack of quality and value for money they contain. It was a snack rather than a meal. If you really want quality kebabs, humus and the likes then there are a lot better places a short walk away in Edgware Road.
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Tony
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Monday, December 03, 2007

Went to the hoxton branch last night for the first time in about 4 years and how standards have dropped since last time. Tapas sized portions at almost main course prices. The food itself was poor, humus stale and prawns and calamari dry, kebabs cold and about what you'd expect from a semi decent take away joint anywhere in London. All in all a disappointment, very poor quality food, expensive and lacking in atmosphere.
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Paul
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Sunday, November 25, 2007