Athens Cafe

This review is for the Athens Café of yore that would not seat us during a particular World Cup. «Where do you see seating?» said the waiter to us, hands raised up as if to say, «I DUNNO!» Right in front of you, I responded. There was seating. The waiter refused to seat us.
On other occasions, the coffee was terrible, the pastries were terrible, the staff were terrible. I think they wanted the world to be terrible.
I am so happy that this ordeal of a venue is closed and that people who actually and fully understand customer service now run the show in the current incarnation of a food venue.

Me and my girlfriend came here last summer for a frappé. The outdoor seating is perfect. We were looking forward to coming back this year but we found out it was closed :(

I use to go to this Café over 10 years ago when it was basically the only one around that was fun and happening. Lately it is not as busy, which is a shame because the desserts are delicious but the other day I decide to go for the first time in a long time and will never go back again. It is a greek café so it should know how to make a greek coffee especially in Astoria. But they don’t. It was a Friday afternoon, I ordered a greek coffee and it came out horrible… with the coffee grinds floating on top. For those who know greek coffee, if it’s made correctly the coffee grinds settle to the bottom. Well I asked them to take it back and and get me another… the same thing happened… obviously the Barista didn’t know how to make greek coffee the right way. I am surprised they would hired someone and not train them how to make greek coffee especially with so much competition on 30^th.

I’ve been many times over the years. Management has changed hands several times. The quality of desserts has gone way down. American coffee is always good. The place has a cool vibe, so if you’re visiting with a date or friends, you’ll have a good time. If you’re going to enjoy some ridiculously good pastries and that only, you might want to look elsewhere. Check it out if you’re in the area.

Use to love this place. It was always one of the dessert places my friends and I would go to end our day but for some reason the quality of dessert has gone down. Cakes become hard and heavy in cream. I came back again hoping that it was just one of those «bad experiences» but still the same.

I’ve been coming to this Greek café for the last 15 years and the management has changed hands a few times which is probably the reason why the quality of the food has changed a bit. I remember indulging in my fave Spinach pie with the crisp Phyllo dough which I used to love. Now, it seems like they’re just microwaving it… for shame!
On a better note, the coffee is always amazing especially the free refills which helped in college. The dessert of choice, Loukoumades. Very few cafes in NYC offer it.
Sidewalk Café is awesome in the summer’s for scoping out the neighborhood.

This place has a great location at 30^th Avenue near the subway station. There is plenty of outdoor seating which is great for enjoying the really beautiful summer we have had. However, the one day that I went it I was looking for a cool restaurant to sit down and do some work. It was soooo warm inside and while the breeze outside made it a tad bit cooler, I was still a bit uncomfortable. I don’t think others were, but I was. Hoping I would cool down I decided to stay. I ordered iced coffee and a crêpe with scrambled eggs and feta cheese. The crêpe was pretty good and included a side salad. They didn’t give me any dressing but it tasted fine without it. Coffee was good, too. The service was very attentive and friendly. I ordered one more iced coffee and baklava. The baklava was huge, crispy, flaky and sweet. Very good.
I was surprised by how inexpensive it turned out to be as well — the bill ended up being under $ 20. Next time I go back I will try the greek food.

We went to Athens to watch the World Cup (No, I have no idea why we went to a Greek restaurant to watch Brazil vs. Columbia, but it just worked out that way), drink, eat and be merry. We definitely had a good time, mostly because Brazil won, but I think we could’ve had a good time anywhere. The service was bad. Like, really, really, really bad. We were actually laughing about how bad it was. Everything took forever — our food, our drinks (mind you, we only ordered mimosas and beer, and they apparently don’t have anything on tap so it was bottled beer.) The only thing that didn’t take forever was the check.
Other than the ridiculously bad service and our absent-​minded waitress, the food was decent. I had the Chicken Panini and fries which was more than enough food for me (really, the panini was huge and, honestly, pretty good.)

Bad service, bad food and drinks… zero starts if I could. There was an awful confusion and when we ask for the manager nobody seems to know what to do… disastrous experience

Their chicken slouvaki pita is delicious but stingy, overpriced, and not worth the terrible service. I haven’t tried much of their other food but what I have tried have all been decent. The thing I can’t get over and the thing that docks two whole stars for me, is their atrocious service! I remember coming here with my brother and waiting over an hour for our food! I don’t think I’ve ever waited that long for food. The worst part of it was that I tried waving down a waitress to ask about the status of our dishes and she BLATANTLY IGNORED ME. Yes, she quite literally saw me waving, turned the other way, and started playing on her cell. Of all the awful things you could do to a customer! I am also fairly certain there were people who came in after we did who got their food before we did. One hypothesis my brother and I came up with, cause we had no other way of explaining this level of rudeness, was possible racism… The people who got quick service were usually the ones who rattled off in Greek to the waitstaff. We could be totally wrong about this but there was absolutely nothing else differentiating us from these other customers. Then, when the food did come, I asked why it took so long and their reply was just that they were not a fast food joint and things take a while to cook. Well, over an hour is much much more than a while. I go to «not fast food» restaurants all the time and no one takes that long to deliver on orders. If the chicken slouvaki pita wasn’t so well made, I would give this place one star. Though, as a warning to anyone who does go here to try the chicken slouvaki, they only give you 4 small cubes of chicken with a sad sprinkling of greens on a tiny piece of pita… and if I remember correctly, the dish costs $ 12 bucks. Stingy and overpriced to the extreme. I’m being very generous with my rating.
Food: ²⁄₅ — decent but not worth the price
Service: ¹⁄₅ — atrocious! I’d give them a 0 if I could
Atmosphere: ²⁄₅ — the décor isn’t problematic and the tables/​seats are usually decently clean (though once or twice, they have been sticky…), but the rudeness of the waitstaff really ruins the atmosphere
Overall: ²⁄₅ — food = ok /​service = utter crap!

Sat outside on a Tuesday morning. The app was biiig. I dunno if it’s intended as a share, but damn it was filling (and tasty). Cucumber, tomato n cheese plated symmetrically, olives in the middle. I can dig it, but damn it was a heavy app.
Next, chicken kebab over grilled veggies, fries and pita w/​tzatziki. Fries were over-​seasoned, tzatziki was a nice counterpoint to the rest of the dish. Also a heavy dish, with the potato and pita. Hope you’re hungry!
Ultimately — a good place to load up (and there’s plenty of outdoor seating), but not a place for killer food.

I need to stop going to the Greek cafes on 30^th Avenue. The only thing they have going for them is outside seating. The food is always mediocre, tables and floors are dirty and service non-​existent.
I had the Grilled Vegetable panini with side salad which was OK. Nothing special it took awhile for someone to take our order and forever for the food to come out of the kitchen. Out waitress was fine actually checking up on us when she knew we were waiting too long for the food. But with so many other restaurants in the area, there’s no need to go here. Even with all the seats outside.

I walk by this place every day, but never stopped in. It was a nice day out and wanted to have brunch outside. They had an open table so we stopped in. I have not had to much luck with any of the Greek restaurants on 30^th ave. They are all pretty similar, the food is eh and the service is not so great either. The biggest upside is they have a pretty big amount of outdoor sitting. There are so many better options available in the area.

OMG when you work in the restaurant business and do NOT leave a tip you know something is wrong! My family went here for a quick bite before cirque du soleil. There were 8 of us and from the moment we sat down service was beyond horrible!
We waited for the waitress to come for so long my otherwise patient and quiet fiancé had to get up and go get her and tell her we were on a time crunch. My sister ordered a turkey BLT which came WITHOUT the turkey. Food, service everything was apalling never again!

Athens Café is among the first cafes in Astoria and The café that put 30^th Avenue on the map as Astoria’s Café Mile. But first some Astoria history as recollected by a Bronx kid: Before the European-​esque café on 30^th Avenue there was Omonia on the corner of Broadway’s 33^rd St (founded in 1977). There was only one Greek café on 30^th Ave (Galaxy) and one Greek bakery (Evee). Both are now defunct.
In the mid 80s an enterprising Greek fellow took a triangular sliver of a property on 30^th Ave between 32^nd and 33^rd Streets and on Newtown St and 30^th Avenue and created Floka Café. It didn’t do very well. Neither did the superb Greek restaurant (lasted about 6 months) on the corner of 30^th Ave and 32 St, diagonally opposite The Flushing Savings Bank (which was then Pinochio Restaurant I and Burger Club, which was previously Pinochio Restaurant II). About six months after Flokas’ demise, opened Athens Café, the rest is modern history.
The Cypriot boy that bought Floka and created Athens sold Athens Café a couple of years ago. AC arguably has the best good weather location and I hoe that it can survive our current ridiculous winter (what ever happened to global warming?) so that I may again enjoy it in the spring.
I’ve stopped by on a couple occasions this winter and the Napoleon cake was fantastic. I also swing by every so often for a Greek frappé to go – they make among the best. So for today I give a qualified 3 star review

me and my boyfriend decided to come here for brunch. .when we came in it took a little while for someone to seat us… even though it was dead you would think that when someone walks in the door seat them so they dont want to walk out…
we had to call the waitress over when we were ready to order. once we were finally served the food was really good i just wish that the service matched and then i would have to return here to write a new review.

During the summer we stopped here for brunch al fresco and waited forever for a server (along with people who had been seated well before us). I can’t even tell you what we ordered. Once we were finally served, we and all tables around us made light of it by sharing ketchup and spare napkins because waiting for assistance from a phantom server would have meant going without.
Today we returned for (very early) brunch and were pleasantly surprised by quick, attentive service and great food and drink. I am glad to see that Athens Café redeemed itself this time around, because it’s a neat location and I’m too much of an optimist to see a place just flounder and fail. Great prixe fixe Eggs Benedict, Greek coffee frappé, and sangria! I would stop by again and recommend this spot to anyone looking for a comfortable, reasonably-​priced brunch in Astoria. Yum!

I used to live around the corner from here and it was one of the first restaurants I ever went to. They’re a classic Greek/​Eastern European diner that you find scattered all over Astoria. I think the best part is that their outdoor seating is great for people watching, and their cocktails are strong. Really strong. Also, their french fries are divine. I used to order a cocktail and fries and grade papers here in the springtime.
They’re not spectacular but you can count on them to show all the soccer games and have tasty if unassuming food and desserts. They won’t wow your socks off, but they won’t make you sick, so I guess it’s a win.

I ony stopped by this location for a quick beverage. We sat outside on a beautiful Monday late afternoon and it was a great block to people watch. It’s not overwhelming with the sidewalk so you don’t have to worry about being elbowed or smacked with a bag. We ordered a frappé which was recommended to me. I’m not a heavy coffee drinker but this beverage was good. If you’re a calorie counter, don’t ask how much it is. I’m not sure what the count is but it tastes so good that it might be high!
I would certainly come back for a meal, especially brunch which looks amazing. Or if I just want to relax and kill some time, I would totally stop by this café.

Yep, it is as if you’re in Athens — loads of staff all finding a way to do something other than serve you. The service, despite it not being terribly busy for a late after-​dinner drink, was pretty bad. However, once the waitress got to us, we found her really sweet, and she didn’t take offense when we asked that our plates — which came to us rather dirty, be replaced.
We ordered some frozen drinks — perfect for the heat wave and a plate of assorted baklavas. The cakes were tasty, though a tad heavy on the honey. There is also a nice big cake display up front — and everything looked beautiful. The frozen iced tea was tasty too — though really sweet also.
There’s outdoor seating, but we thought it way too hot to partake. Instead, we enjoyed AC in inside and dancified pop music (not exactly the atmosphere music I’d choose, but oh well).