The Real Greek delicious, refreshing food in the heart of London (The Real Greek)

Member Name: chrisc92

Product:	The Real Greek
Date:	10/09/09 (35 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: All food is fresh and prepared in view

Disadvantages: Waiter service is a little slow - granted they want you to take your time

I would like to point out before any comments are written or low rating given strictly on the basis of the fact that this review is about a different restaurant location that after 3 weeks or so of trying it has not been added as a seperate location, so aplogies to those that want to give accurate reviews on the specific location - whether this is because of the size of the database I don't know, but this review is for The Real Greek at Marylebone!


In early August my partner (Sue) and I visited London for a hectic bit of sight seeing without our kids, that despite being given the opportunity preferred to stay with other family members.

We needed to keep costs down so apart from travel (to/from London) hotel costs, general food, the loos and the London Underground evrything else was discounted or fully paid for using the substantial amount of Tesco Clubcard Vouchers that we had built up.

A lot of what we did during our trip was planned weeks in advance and we were surprised to find that there were some restaurants listed as accepting the vouchers.

We wanted to have at least one proper meal while we were in London, and decided to try something different. Neither of us had ever tasted Greek food before and it would be a new experience for us to share. The Real Greek just stood out amongst the restaurant section, and in the end it wasn't what type of food we wanted to try, just the location.

The Real Greek is a small chain of 6 bistro type small restaurants at Hoxton, Clerkenwell, Bankside, Putney, Marylebone and Covent Garden.

We chose the Marylebone location in Paddington Street as it was only a few stops from our hotel on the underground, and literally a short walk from Madame Tussauds where we had been only a few hours earlier, so gave us a chance to either go back to the hotel and freshen up or go straight to it if we were limited on time.

We were getting a little worried walking along Paddington Street and we were thinking about being late for our pre-booked table, which had been booked by e-mail using their internet link. Glauce, who had been my e-mail contact had always had a friendly tone to his e-mail correspondence and I felt it only right that I should e-mail our findings and let them know that I would make this available through this site. It was good to hear that we "had made his day" when I confirmed it to him.

It was 8pm on a Tuesday evening, not the busiest day of the week, but there were still a number of tables in operation and we were greeted politely and shown to our reserved table by the young waiter.

We had looked at the menu on-line before visiting, but found it a little hard going other than it contained a number of cold and hot dishes called souvlaki, and despite the waiter trying to be helpful Sue felt embarrassed by the inability to choose items on the menu and was prepared to walk out.

Luckily we didn't, and we decided that as we had no idea what was on the menu we decided to try one of the set meals - set to an extent but each line of the menu has 2 options so there was quite a range to choose from. We decided to opt for the Athenian menu. Our particular meal consisted of flat bread, taramaslata, dolmades, grilled kalamari, salt cod, greek salad and new potatoes which was £25.95.

The waiter stated that the idea was for sharing and that it was like a tapas bar, well he could have been talking Greek to me because we'd never been to one of those either, so it was an experience to see a rack appearing filled with small plates.

We ordered a coke and diet coke and this too was an experience as they arrived in glass bottles and yes there is a distinctive difference between drinking it from a glass.

Well, the food was to die for, the taramasalata had a tang to it that is sadly lacking from the versions available in supermarkets, there were similar looking triangles to samosas but filled with feta and herbs which was so morish. The salt cod strips were fresh, juicy and the batter was delicious. As for the Kalamari, well I've never had squid so even that was a new experience.

As an idea of just how much we loved the food Sue made several Greek style salads on our return and we bought quite a bit of virgin olive oil and feta cheese (but not the olives!).

We felt rather full by the end of the meal, but we both decided to try the desserts so I chose strawberry ice cream and Sue the Greek Lemon Cake served with Greek Yoghurt. Well, we thought we'd enjoyed everything up until that point, but we didn't enjoy the desserts, we absolutely loved them! The strawberry ice cream was fresh, fruity and filled with strawberry pieces. The lemon cake again was fresh and the yoghurt fresh with a tarte taste.

We completed our meal with a cappucino each, which was exactly as we'd expect them to taste.

In terms of the bill, this came to approximately £42, of this £30 was covered by the Tesco Clubcard Vouchers - which excluded all drinks.

Our only critisism, and it is only a small one, is that we were left way too long after we'd finished the meal before the waiter gave us the bill - which seems to be a common theme amongst a lot of restaurants these days.

In summary, if we were to visit London again in the near future I would have no hesitation in going back to this restaurant. I cannot comment on the other ones in the chain, but we adored it.

I have no hesitation in giving 5* for The Real Greek, in fact if 6 could be awarded I would give them that instead. We can't comment on the authenticity, but it was new to us and made us want to try more. I hope like us you get the chance to try it.

Summary: The Real Greek is a restaurant chain that I really want to visit again and again