Bob and I are currently writing dueling restaurant reviews of newish local Greek eatery El Greco. We ate dinner there tonight and that will be the first and last time we go there. Bob and I love trying new restaurants and supporting local businesses, but occasionally we find ourselves unhappy. Please note, I am not actively discouraging anyone from trying it. You might have a good experience. But since it's been a while since we've walked out of a place peeved, we're sharpening our blogging tools and telling our friends to take heed.
STRIKE #1: Ordering is done at a counter. Okay. I sensed a palpable bit of employee unrest when ordering my food. Just a sense, nothing I can confirm. Our order guy walked away from his cash register to help another register monkey, which was rude and weird. I got the feeling that he was only taking our money because he had to. I don't need to feel like the cashier LOVES me, but there was some New York-style annoying attitude I was getting from this situation.
STRIKE #2: I ordered moussaka and was told that the moussaka plate comes with "house salad" but I could upgrade to "Greek salad" for an additional $1.50. Excuse me, but is this not a Greek restaurant? Shouldn't Greek salad be the standard house salad? I told him house salad would be fine, thanks. I didn't think that I should have to pay extra for a spoonful of feta and a couple of olives on my salad. I hate being upsold on things--I expect that shit from the sales guys at my local Toyota dealership, not at a Greek restaurant.
STRIKE #3: Expensive! I was aghast when I was told the bill was $33! I know that they're in a pricey building, but $6 for hummus? I thought of all the amazing places we could have gone for $33 OR LESS and regretted our choice of eatery. I think that they need to drop the price if they aren't going to have a sit-down set up with menus and waitstaff and such. That was just ridiculous. I understand that their rent and overhead is probably exorbitant, and I hope that their sullen employees are making a good wage. But I'm not going to pay $13 for a square of ground beef and eggplant ever again.
STRIKE #4: $6 hummus is pretty average. I couldn't eat too much of it because it was too lemony. Bob seemed to like it, but he later agreed that it was not worth $6. Sarah's hummus (the restaurant, not Milkes) is way better and way cheaper.
STRIKE #5: My entree arrives 5-10 minutes before Bob's. On one hand, I'd rather they do this than allow my food to sit and get cold, but that is bad restaurant juju. Yeah, they're a new place, but we were sitting right by the food window and I could still sense some bitterness among the employees. You know when people are just on edge and you can tell? No apology was proffered.
STRIKE #6: Bob's pork gyro with rice and peas arrives as pork gyro with orzo and potatoes. We didn't immediately recognize that the orzo isn't rice (orzo is pasta made to look like rice and we were totally fooled!) but the absence of round, green peas is immediately striking. I say to Bob in earshot of the Food Delivery Lady (she didn't seem to be a real 'waitress') "you should send it back." I overhear her saying to a co-worker that our table needs peas. She never actually spoke to US about this, just spoke about us in our presence. Without word or apology, she brings us a plate of peas.
STRIKE #7: My moussaka was good but not great. Bob felt the same way about his meal, too. Definitely not worth $13/$12!!
Dinner should not put two happily married food-lovers in a bad mood, but it did. We held our criticisms until we got to the car and found we were on the same page.
I regret that we had a bad experience, as this appears to be the only joint in Austin that serves the delicious and special dessert that we hairy Armenians call ekmek khatayif (mentioned in my novel!!). Shredded phyllo dough, nuts, syrup. We didn't have any, as we were full and we weren't spending any more money there.
I want to like them, but they need to get their act together. Greek food is yummy and I was pleased to see that central A-town was getting a Greek place, but this place is all wrong. All bad. Sad.
Posted by Zerd at February 9, 2008 08:15 PM