Athinaikon

I'm a Greek-American, and went to this restaurant with my parents, who are both Greek as well. We went based on the reviews in various guidebooks/online, and expected it was going to be great. It wasn't. The owner and staff are nice enough, it's a very pretty place, if that's what you're looking for. But food-wise, it was pretty awful. We started with a xoriatiki salad (which is supposed to be tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta). There were perhaps two or three cucumber slices in the salad, an okay amount of tomatoes, and a good helping of feta. The vegetables tasted like the bad stuff you can get back in DC, and the feta was just okay. I'll continue in a moment. I've been to Greece probably 6 or 7 times in my life. One of my parents was born here. We know Greek food. It's hard to get bad vegetables in Greece. Then for the meal we got loukaniko sausage, grilled octopus, and grilled meatballs. The sausage had so much pepper in it that neither my mom nor I could eat it (again, I've been eating loukaniko for going on 40 years now, mom for twice that long). The meatballs were bland. Then there's the octupus. Mom saw the size of the plate and was going to call the manager over. She says they took perhaps one, maybe two, pieces of octoupus and cut it really thin, to make it look like more. The serving was far too small for a typical Greek place, and again, the taste was so-so at best.

I love Greek food. I have never been to a Greek restaurant in Greece that I've panned, ever. It's easy to find a place that has a great xoriatiki salad, and how do you mess up loukaniko?

The place was full of tourists, by the way. If that's your thing, God bless you. It's not mine. I think this place is resting on its laurels, big time. I'm sorry, but it's probably the worst meal I've ever had in Greece in my lifetime. Walk right by, throw a stone, and go wherever the stone hits - I promise your meal will be better.

Oh, the prices were fine. But come on.