The Real Greek (Bankside)

I am Greek, I love Greek Food and I consider myself a good cook! Serving me a so called 'souvlaki platter' with tiny souvlaki (pork, chicken and haloumi) that tastes of nothing really....won't impress me! How on earth you can serve souvlaki that has no taste of oregano? Now...tzatziki, gigantes and htipiti (cheese salad) were not that bad size-wise, but I can buy better quality things from a supermarket or a canned tin of Palliria Giant beans! Why to spend £20 for mezze? Pitta breads were good...real Greek pitta breads...but again no spices! Come on guys, add some salt and some oregano on them!

Retsina...well it was not restina...but a very drinkable cheap wine! So if you don't like real retsina....you will be fine!

Atmosphere was great....service excellent....and live music one of the best Greek music I experienced outside Greece (always for a taverna style dinning experience)

So, visit it if you are not that hungry, you do not have high expectations of food, but you want to spend some time listening to good Greek music, try out some other than the usual suspects from the menu (there is plenty of choice of other than tzatziki and souvlaki mezedes) and order some of the nice bottled Greek wines !
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Panos
5 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, January 18, 2012

We ate here last night - and we are still airing our clothes this morning.

We had walked past the place so many times and in the end we decided to give it a try. The venue was welcoming and cosy, with a great view. The service was acceptable, but that can vary wildly depending on the day you go and who serves your table in the restuarant.

And the food? Well after reading previous reviews, I too can confirm that the portions are indeed tiny, so don't go here if you feel hungry.

For starter we ordered Greek flat bread (the only copious serving but it was fried), tzatziki (no better than Sainsburys), tabouleh (a bit dry but otherwise ok) followed by chicken souvlaki (3 small cubes of chicken wrapped in a round bread overflowing with yoghurt and red onion), lamb souvlaki (same) and a small greek salad served in a tiny wooden cup!

We also ordered a carafe of retsina which lacked punch and managed to taste more like an expensive chardonnay!.

If I am honest, we didn't have high hopes - we were just happy to leave the children with the mother in law and get out the house and let someone else do the cooking. But overall it was a disappointing experience, with average service, not enough food, hot dishes that just weren't hot enough and a disappointing (and expensive) choice of wines. At least the setting is good!
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chamoix
4 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 1
Saturday, December 31, 2011

I went for dinner with my partner to this restaurant and what a waste of money! Against all the bad reviews we thought we will give it a go. What a big disappointment.

Lamb meat smelled so badly I didn't eat it, beef was raw, baklava was disgusting, yogurt awful, hummus was full of garlic. Everything comes as a very small portion. Bad quality food for the money. DO NOT GO THERE!
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Kathy
3 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Sunday, September 11, 2011

Having read the below negative views, I felt compelled to defend the restaurant as reading these almost putting me off eating there.

I went with my mum a couple of weeks back and had a lovely evening. We shared one of the meal deals and were very impressed by the food, and while I thought the portions wouldn't feel me when they were brought to the table, I ended up not able to finish my half.

Service-wise, the waiter we had was very friendly and attentive, explaining to us how the meal deal worked etc. The lamb kefte was a little undercooked for my liking, and when I queried whether this was how it was meant to be, the waiter happily brought me a new freshly cooked one, despite the fact that my mum had already eaten about a third of the original kefte.

All in all, a really good meal - I feel sorry for the restaurant that people may read the below reviews and end up not going (that said, the restaurant was pretty full so I'm sure they'll get over it)
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9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Sunday, August 28, 2011

VERY DISAPPOINTED!! Very mean portions; the laziest slapdash Greek salad I have EVER seen; thumbnail sized dolmades which weren't as tasty as ones you buy in Waitrose - size of a postage stamp. Horrible loud music so you couldn't hear yourself speak. A real rip-off price wise. Won't be going back.
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ssiii
3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Thursday, August 25, 2011

I have eaten here before and recommended it to my son and a friend. We thoroughly enjoyed the food. The beans are the best since we lived in Crete. I want the recipe!!

I'll recommend it to others - the service was lovely. Thank you.
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Helen Bamber
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, August 16, 2011

No value for money, extremely expensive and the food portions are tiny. After spending a fortune at the Real Greek, we ended up eating sandwiches in the nearby Pret.
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James
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, June 08, 2011

There's that old phrase- "A typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to ten people about their problem". Well I am hopefully telling more than that by writing this review.

First off, I have eaten at the Westfield venue twice and have had a more than a satisfied experience so I am not passing judgment on the Real Greek as a brand itself.

However, owners and shareholders of this brand, you have got to do something about the staff at this venue on Bankside. I feel passion when I write the following line, "What Utter RUBBISH". Never have I felt so incensed about waiting staff that I feel to write a negative review.

Upon arrival on the last day of the sunny bank holiday weekend, the place was literally empty apart from 10-20 people inside and out however the waitress took time in approaching us and made a half-hearted attempt to seat us. We wanted to sit outside as the sun was still out. We firstly sat at a table that was a bit exposed to the wind and was therefore a bit cold so upon seeing a couple move and leave from a 'good table' with overhead heaters we got up and asked one of the waitresses if it was okay to sit there even though the table hadn't been cleaned up yet. No problems there.

It literally took forever for any waiting staff to come back to us and we were practically being ignored every time they walked past to serve the 2-4 other customers sitting outside. Upon an obnoxious waitress eventually arriving to us asking why we were sat there, I explained that this wasn't our mess and that we would like to order. Without any hint of customer service did the waitress barrage us with an insulting and patronising way of telling us we shouldnt sit at a dirty table until they have cleaned up and that we should wait to be seated before walking into her restaurant! It was so awful her manner that the other 2 customers behind us turned around and looked at her with disgust. The clincher was the patronizing sentence"If you want to sit at a table with a heater, look I can switch this heater on and off, its not that hard yeh?".

Well my darling school-of-rough waitress, you can keep your switchy on and off heater remained at that off position as we were out of the place as you already know.... immediately after your real RUBBISH Greek welcome.

Real Greek Managers at Bankside, this isn't acceptable in the slightest, you know this as I have seen similar reviews. Clean up your act and get REAL with the rules of customer service and etiquette.

....And to think out of all the above, all I wanted was some Calamari....
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Nick
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Awful food. The taramasalata was dreadful, absolutely tasteless! Flat bread was ok. Halloulmi was fine, how can you mess up fried cheese?? Tabouli was fine. Souvlaki was awful. I wasn't paying but I thought it would have been dreadful value for money and the service was SLOW...

Will never return (willingly!)
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D - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 5
Thursday, March 31, 2011

Extremely poor, I wish I read the reviews before we visited the restaurant. Service was very slow. We had to wait for a long time for our hot (!) meze. When it arrived only the chicken souvlaki was hot, the other dishes placed on small plates below were completely cold. The grilled octopus in particular was oily and stone cold. The lamb kefte was lukewarm and tough like a bullet.. I think the problem is that the restaurant insists on bringing food on special stacked up dishes, however as the dishes are cooked not at the same time some food ends up completely cold. We were reluctant to order anything else, so we just ordered coffee - you thought you can not go wrong with greek coffee - the coffee which arrived was not really not a proper greek coffee - there was no froth on the top at all.. The only good thing was that the octoups was removed from the bill after we complained. Will not be coming back.
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3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Sunday, February 27, 2011