Athenea Bar & Grill

This place has to be one of the worst places I’ve been to in a while. I got invited here for a friends birthday (small group), when I walked in. I was faced with a long line, which I don’t mind waiting. However when there are groups of people that walk past you in line and give the secret wink to the door guy or whatever he calls himself… We waited for 45 minutes while people that clearly didn’t make reservations got in because they «knew someone» inside. We finally get a table inside and sit down. After waiting about 30 – 40 minutes, we finally see the server only to be told that there is a $ 35 minimum. Moving on, we receive our drinks 40 Minutes after ordering only to taste juice and water. I’m pretty sure there was less than 10 grams of alcohols in my drunk… If that, which by the way is more expensive than a Hollywood club. I

Athenea Bar& gril is the worse place to be for having good time I have a very bad experience at Athenea Bar the management was so poor rude personals I ordered Hooka and foods they brought wrong order after I kept waiting for long time and not even small apologize they way the treat me was not polite at all I felt so embarrassing front of the girl I was dating I wanted to take her to a nice and high class place but in the end I feel so down and disappointed at Athenea and I remember when I was telling the manager about their bad service he did not even look at me just said it’s busy u have to wait and then played with his phone I believe the owner and the manager don’t know about the business very well how to run it well I hope some day soon they understand customer service is very important

Very rude people the staff are. I went 2 go charge my cell & they told me if I left I would not be let back in for awhile but had a table ect… security got in our face for simply asking if the place was still open. Wow

I am giving two stars ONLY due to the nice décor, otherwise, this place would earn a zero. Service is so poor, I needed to get up and find a waiter after sitting for 20 minutes with no one taking our order. The hookah was terrible after we smoked the first few minutes, save your time and go somewhere else.

I’m astonished there are so many 1 star reviews. I came here on a Friday night and really enjoyed it. The only factor that prevents me giving them 5 stars is the music. It was okay when we first got there, but when the DJ came along, it was too loud to the point where we couldn’t hear each other.
We asked to move our table further away from the speaker and they did so without hesitation. The service here was great. The prices are reasonable, especially the hookahs.
The interior looks like a club with the strobe lights and lounge chairs. There are a few TVs as well.
The charcoal was changed about 5 times during our 3 hour visit. These people are on top of their game! We had a bottle of wine, my friend ordered pasta, and they were quick to refill our water.
I probably would try this place during the week, when there probably isn’t a DJ.

Athenea is somewhere I always look forward to going to. yet every single time I go there something has to go wrong. The food and entertainment is great, however, the service is horrible. It literally took our waitress 20 minutes to bring our water and menu’s. not even drinks. The manager is very strict and picky about birthdays and requires a 25 – 30 minimum charge per person. Tuesday nights are my favorite because they have karaōke, but the person in charge of it doesn’t know how to organize a list in order if his life depended on it. I waited almost two hours to go up and sing one song. when I noticed people were going two times in a row! Ridiculous. This is a great place and has a lot of potential, but it is poorly managed.

To all the people who wrote good reviews: you got very lucky with the service, or they’re written from people who actually work there.
My experience was beyond horrible. I used to come to this place a lot, but it got worse over time. If i could only give 0 stars, this place definitely deserves it.
Last saturday i came for my friend’s bday. Not only it was difficult to get in, even though we had reservations, the service was beyond horrible. The waitress was annoyed when taking our order and very rude. We sat inside, in a complete darkness. It was so dark, that i had to turn on a flashlight on my phone so i can read the menu. When we asked to bring candles, the waitress refused to do so. My friend got up, and got us 2 candles herself (hmmmm, so i guess they did have candles to give us). All right…
One of my friends arrived a little bit later. At the door she was told that there is no room for one more person at our table (of course we did). She was told to sit with complete strangers at another table. Honestly, when i heard this, i was shocked. I really thought they were joking. After fixing that problem, we had to close the bill early just because one of the people wanted to leave this horrible place ASAP. That was another problem. She couldn’t pay a part of the bill and leave us the rest. We had to close the whole bill early. Okay, i understand. Maybe it’s their policy, not a big deal… Not only it took forever to bring the bill (my friend actually had to stand up and chase the waitress herself), but after closing the bill, no one ever came to us. My empty plate was in front of my face for more than an hour staring at me. What kind of service is that???
This place is becoming less and less packed, because they keep losing customers. Never in my life i will come back again, so as my friends. the birthday was ruined and the birthday girl was beyond upset about a horrible treatment by the whole staff.
And one more thing: even after reserving a table for more than 10 people, they sat us down part from each other and split us into 2 tables. They said there was no room for such a big group… hmmm, the place had at least 5 – 6 empty tables available.
I didn’t even wait till the DJ started playing music, i wanted to run from there. Very unwelcoming place. I usually don’t write reviews, but this night really got to me. Never have I even been so so disappointed. Suggestion: AVOID this place. Soon they will be out of business either way.

I feel bad giving bad reviews, but I feel like I have to for this place. My friend celebrated her birthday here and invited ~40 people. My first impression of this place was actually good, I thought it was a very nice looking venue with a classy vibe. The outdoor seating area looked very pleasant with heaters all around. The bar, dance floor, and dining area was also very nice. It was Persian New Year weekend, so they had hired some Persian singer for the night.
They set up a huge table for our group, but we had to wait for everyone to arrive before they even started bringing appetizers. We did not know how the group dinner worked, so we had to ask our server and he explained it was a fixed price per person and they bring appetizers and dinner to the table for everyone to share. Unfortunately this was not made clear to everyone in the group, so some people thought they did not need to pay if they did not eat. Anyone who used my friend’s name at the door to come in was automatically added to her bill. The doorman should have informed people before entering that they have to spend a minimum amount, or if they are part of the group it is a fixed price.
My friend got stuck with a huge bill at the end, even though some of her friends had just stopped by to say hello and some actually paid the waiter separate since they were leaving earlier. The waiter failed to subtract those amounts from her bill. I was not impressed by the appetizers, mostly fried finger foods. The dinner finally came out so late and the chicken and kabobs were dry and cold. It seemed like it had been sitting at the back for a while. We couldn’t really complain at the time, since we were part of a big group. I did see other plates of juicy fresh chicken and kabobs being served to other tables, so it was unfortunate that we got stuck with cold, dry meat.
So my recommendation is if you plan to go to this place with a big group be sure to make it clear to your guests that it is a fixed price per person/​minimum you have to spend whether you eat or not.

First time I’ve felt compelled to write a Unilocal review… it had to be done.
What an experience.
My friend and I came here to hang out and and catch up, neither of us had been out in a while so we were excited and had heard good things about this place. To say that we were disappointed would be an understatement.
Arriving at the front they asked us to check our ID’s, hold on to a CA driver’s license, check our purses, and informed us of a $ 25 minimum per person… a little overboard for a hookah spot, but not that big of a deal. It was a little late when we got there, like 12:30, so we double checked that the kitchen didn’t close until 1:30 and the place didn’t close until 2:00.
At first they wanted to sit us inside, but it was a little too loud for conversation so we asked to be seated outside. They put us way by the entrance, away from the majority of the people, and promised to turn on the heat lamp.
Our waiter came over after about a 15 minute wait and appeared very annoyed and in a rush as he took our food and drink order. We told him we wanted to order hookah as well, and he gave us a menu, but never returned to take out order. He dropped off our drinks (my hot tea with no lemon or honey, and my friend’s champagne) and that was pretty much the last we saw of him.
We finally flagged a female server down to turn on our heater, and they allowed us to move to the warmer more populated area and assured us we’d be taken care of. But about 10 minutes the same woman came over and told us they would be passing out checks soon and we hadn’t met our minimum. We informed her that we never got our food and no one had taken our hookah order and we wanted to order another drink…
To wrap it up, by the time we got our food, drinks, and hookah, after waiting forever in the cold, they began coming up to our table every five minutes asking to take our plates, take my friend’s drink (at 1:43), take our hookah which hose kept falling out anyway, and finally told us at 2 we had to leave, even though they had barely brought us our stuff!!! The worst part of all is that they have MANDATORY TIP INCLUDED for all parties!!!
My friend and I were both servers, we understand how hard it can be when you’re really busy, but I have NEVER treated a customer that way, and I have NEVER felt so unwelcome in a place.
Worst of all (and I hope I was imagining this part) but I could have sworn I heard cheering as we left!
Needless to say I will never be going back to this place. Decent food besides the mozzarella sticks with no cheese on the inside and the hard pita bread. But hands down the WORST SERVICE I have ever experienced.
Too many other hookah places on Ventura. Don’t waste your time, money, or emotions haha

We asked the dj to play «drunk in love» by Beyoncé and he had no idea what we were talking about. What century are you from? Anyways, I find it ridiculous that minimum for each person is $ 25. They should accommodate with whatever the customers order instead of pin pointing the amount they need to spend.
Don’t get me wrong my girls and I get ratchet in this lounge but they really need to play better music rather then Just middle eastern.
They have bomb hummus! And it sucks they don’t serve dolma because that should be on an appetizer menu.
They don’t have amazing hookah you just need to be lucky if you end up with a hookah that hits all night.

I had high hopes for this place, but turned out to be fairly disappointed.
Pros:
— No entrance fee.
— Plenty of seating.
— Good hookah.
— Food was surprisingly good.
— Price per person was reasonable, about $ 27.
— Good music. Trance, Dubstep, Hip Hop, Armenian, Russian, Persian.
— Indoor and outdoor seating.
— Plenty of free parking.
— DJ and dance floor.
Cons:
— The slowest food service I have experienced in a while.
— Drink refills took 20 to 30 min.
— Cannot bring your own alcohol. Must buy from their bar.
— The drinks are watered down and that’s a fact. Two other couples complained to me, without me saying a word about my opinion, that their drinks tasted like water. If you are going to drink, buy anything that must be opened fresh (bottled beer). They don’t allow going in and out either (to prevent you from drinking elsewhere and coming back, I’m sure). I’m Russian so I know my vodka… I know if its pure or watered down!
Dress code is here is dressy. You can somewhat get away with jeans, but slacks for the guys and dresses for the ladies is common.
It’s a nice alternative from going to Sunset or Hollywood. However, I’ll pack my drink in a paper bag and drink in the car before coming inside Athenea next time.

Pros:
1) Easy to find parking
2) Hookah was great
3) Tons of seating (indoor & outdoor)
4) Staff was really nice. Our waitress was Ana and she was great!!!
5) They have karaōke and the people that get up and sing are terrific!
6) Drinks are made well. There is a 2-​for-​1 deal during Happy Hour
7) Prices are reasonable!
8) They give you a free refill with check-​in on Facebook
Cons:
1) Wish indoor seating area had more ventilation.
Overall, this place was great! I will definitely come back again.

I was at Athenea again a couple months ago for a friend’s birthday party, and wow… has it changed! When I made reservations for my birthday in Sept 2011, they had given us lounge seating without having to pay for bottle service. They don’t do that anymore. The service of the staff has also gotten worse. At my recent visit, the waitress visited our table maybe twice during the whole night, unless we actively looked for her and called her over. And when we finally had her, I got the vibe that she got easily annoyed when one of the girls asked her a question or had a hard time deciding.
The food: The entrée was decent, nothing too special, but the lebni/​pita appetizer we got was delicious. That was probably the best part of the night.
The drinks: I had a sex on the beach from the bar and boy was it watered down! I mean, it’s not like I asked for some crazy expensive alcohol either!
I won’t be going back here unless it’s for someone else’s birthday. I think initially when they first opened they were very nice and accommodating but over time as their popularity went up their services started to lack, that’s too bad!
Giving two stars because this place is one of the few places that offers a combination of tables for dinner and/​or hookah (indoor and outdoor), lounge area with comfy couches, and a dance floor with a live DJ (mostly Persian music later in the night). Most places have either one or the other.

I am so disappointed with this place. Horrible service, terrible food, and the manager is an idiot. You ask him something, he says he’ll be back in a minute and after 3 attempts of trying to get his attention he returns in an hour and totally ignores what your saying. Drinks are overpriced and food is not what your expecting. I do not recommend this place!

Went on a Saturday… called in around 6:30pm to get a table for a medium group for 10 oclock. Got there they had 3 tables left and all around the main entrance.(worst spots)
We ask for a heater. they say their heaters dont work… then he says you guys can go sit inside and pay 200 – 300 $ for a bottle and a table since its warm inside.
So we try to go get jackets from the car since we were freezing our asses… then we find out that there are no «Ins and Outs»
just horrible!
Didn’t get to try anything off the menu because we were out of there in 5 mins.
Try not to go sat & sun

**update. Someone from the restaurant contacted me regarding my negative review. The response was very thoughtful and they offered a lot to make up for the terrible night. Although I do greatly appreciate that someone actually reads the reviews and cares, I don’t think I’ll be returning to this restaurant again.
The thoughtful, and fast, response did warrant one extra star since someone actually cared and tried to make up for it. Thank you.
Original review from night of ¹⁰⁄₂₆:
Pretty terrible. The food was all over cooked and rubbery. We ordered:
Chicken strips
Calamari
Bruschetta
Hookahs
The calamari tasted like rubber and it took several minutes to chew each bite until we gave up and stopped chewing.
The bruschetta’s bread was terrible and way too crunchy and hard. It would deteriorate instantly and there was no flavor of bread. The topping was weird and not normal.
The dips were all generic and gross. The staff were nice sometimes and then strange other times with their communication; as if there was always some secret language they had to agree on before responding to your question. Too weird.
And then came the worst part– they came to our table when the kitchen was closed to tell us we missed the kitchen and we’re short on the minimum per person. Wth??? No warning or any «last call» announcement which most places do. We asked them about this and they didn’t care and said they’d charge us the difference.
And on top of that, some weight loss infomercial was playing the whole time we were trying to eat our rubbery and disgusting calamari and appetizers. What is up with that?
I only noticed this now because I would only come for hookah in the past.
Overall– dont come here if you want food or hookah or drinks.

Great combination of food, drinks, music, dance floor, and hookah!
At first I thought the menu wasn’t too exciting but the food we ordered was very fresh and tasted great!
The Mediterranean sampler makes a great app for a group (especially love the smokey ikra).
Lula kebob — moist and flavorful, come with a generous portion of rice and deliciously charted veggies.
The only complaint was when they started blasting the music later on in the night– there’s a dance floor and interior room for that! Why blast our eardrums if we’re trying to have a chill conversation with hookah!
And P. S. If you’re a Mediterranean place you need to have lamb on the menu, come on.

Stay away from this place!!! I went with a group of 13 people on a Thursday night… I have NEVER seen such poor service at a restaurant. It took them about 15 mins just to come to our table to take our drink orders. It took them another 10 mins to bring us water, about 15 mins for us to order food, and we were forced to wait over 45 mins for the food to come out. They ended up charging us an extra $ 30 because 3 extra people came for about 7 – 10 minutes to pick up their friend (they did not even sit down). When we explained the situation to the manager, he told us that he didn’t care and that they had a $ 10 per person minimum charge. I understand this policy, but these three people did not sit down and were only there for a few minutes. It was our first and last time visiting this disgusting restaurant.
P. S. The food tasted disgusting. I would rather eat McDonalds.

OOOOoooooooooooh Noooooooooooooooo Doooooooooooon’t Gooooooooooo… There are so many other hookah lounges to try…
Well do what you want but don’t you dare say I did not warn you!!!

I have always seen their other location and always wanted to have hookah here so when my friend and I decided to go out for drinks and hookah, we wanted to go here, not the usual. I was told to dress stylishly but not overly clubby, that there might be a cover charge, they charge for parking, they make you wear 21+ wristbands and they go through your purse or jacket to make sure you don’t have outside alcohol or illegals.
A. Right about dressing stylishly but not overly clubby. I saw some girls wearing really nice dresses and heels, but no one was dressing jersey shore ho style, so, this is a place with class.
B. No Cover Charge.
C. Free Parking in the back parking lot or you can go ahead and go park downstairs in the garage.
D. They do check your ID and make you wear 21 + wristbands, which may not go with your outfit but it’s part of being a responsible business owner.
E. They do go through your things, but that’s not a big deal for me. But for my fellow Unilocalers, check yo self before you wreck yo self.
Anyway, we walked in and I was so intrigued by the outside seating. Why would anyone choose to sit inside when you can sit outside. under a heat lamp, under a gigantic ornate circle that has a sky view? It’s gorgeous and the centerpiece outside is gorgeous as well. I really loved it.
Service was okay. We were seated and it took forever for us to get our waitress but once she came over, we went ahead and ordered our hookah flavor and drinks. We were checked on a few times by the waitress and our hookah lasted well over 2 hours, which was fantastic.
It got super crowded by the time we were about to leave. Funny enough, I happened to run into fellow Unilocaler Wael M. so shoutout to Wael for being so charming. Ladies, message him, he is a keeper!
…It WAS pricey. but worth it? Yes.