Reviews
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Ιkio
Kolonaki
15 Ploutarhou Street
Tel: 2107259216
Open: Afternoon / Evening
Type: Greek
Price Range: € 15.00 - 20.00 |
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My
inner circle of friends and I have a Saturday ritual – lunch in town
at one or another of our favourite watering holes depending on our
fancy. Saturdays are known to be challenging for shops and
restaurants worldwide, more so here in Greece where we are still
struggling to understand what the term “service” really means.
The Saturday in question we booked at Oikio in Kolonaki. After quite
a long wait we placed our orders and after another long wait the
salads arrive. By this point we are starving, so we proceed to pick
(we are ladies) at the plates in the center of the table (as is the
Greek way). We are all chatting away when suddenly one of the girls
points to an exceptionally live 5cm long green worm nestling happily
in the salad greens. We all peered in lurid fascination at this
unasked for addition to the dish – not a scream to be heard and in
an effort, misjudged as it later appeared, not to create a scene and
major stampede to the exit by other customers, called the waitress,
who chose to ignore us, and tried to catch the maitre d’ s eye. But
he was very busy chatting with some friends at another table.
It took us a while but in the end we caught the waitress on her way
out to the kitchen, with her hands full and we said “could you
please remove this salad because there is a worm on it” to which she
replied “oh, ok I will take it off” (referring to the worm). As she
had other priorities it fell to one of my group to pick the plate up
and leave it on the bar. A few minutes later they brought us another
salad which we refused as we had lost our appetite for greenery in
any form by this stage.
The rest of the order arrived to be checked amid a few jokes, but
nevertheless, meticulously by us all for any other foreign bodies.
The meal was fine even though one friend got French fries when she
had specifically requested vegetables and another got a different
cut of meat to what she had ordered but all in all we were just
happy that we didn’t find any more insects lurking around our table.
We ordered a sweet and some espressos and when the time came for the
bill – which also took longer than usual - we were all shocked,
surprised and disappointed to see that not only did they not
apologize but they hadn’t even offered us the sweets or an espresso,
or even a carafe of the house wine! I could feel my blood rushing to
my head instead of my stomach where it should have been busy helping
my digestion We all got up and walked to the exit and I stopped at
the maitre d’ who was standing in the doorway and calmly asked her
whether she had been informed of the incident. I could not believe
my ears when she proceeded to scream and tell me things like “we
can’t always be perfect”. I regretted not making a fuss at the
table, I regretted not calling the health authorities on the spot,
my blood at this point has abandoned the rest of my body completely
and is fighting for position in my head. I am seething with anger.
These things happen: “sorry”, such a rarely used word in Greece,
would have been nice, some gesture to placate the customer would
have been a bonus, some effort to show that, as customers, we were
appreciated. Sadly this particular maitre and her staff, join the
ranks of the unprofessionals in service industries that still abound
in a country striving for increased tourism and a foot in the door
of the world stage! Sad.
AMSK
