Athena Greek Taverna

uncooked chicken which after a bite puts you off your food, i’m sorry to say this was the last visit for me as this isn’t the first time during a visit that the foods been under cooked.
Real shame as there isn’t that many Greek places in Glasgow

If you Love Greek this is the place! The grilled Souvlaki and Dolmas are amazing. It’s easy to explain in 1 word! AWESOME!!! Go eat here you won’t be disappointed.

I have been following Athena around Glasgow for years now — and will continue to do so. Their location has been a little inconsistent, but fortunately the food is consistently great. The latest incarnation on Elderslie St is an intimate and comfortable space. Service here is also excellent, always warm and welcoming.
The Athena menu has all the staple Greek classics. For starters — light and fluffy meatballs (keftedes), delicious vine leaf encased rice and meats (dolmades), and a fantastic hors d’oeuvres plate for 2 – 3 people piled with a sampling of hummus, taramasalata and tzatziki dips.
For mains, I always plump for a mousakka (can’t help it) and theirs is one of the best — a generous helping, tender and always piping hot with a gorgeous layer of bechemel on top. These are definitely mains for the meat lovers. Hearty stews, spicy sausages, meatballs, kebabs. There are some vegetarian options too. All rich dishes served with Greek salad, rice, and some with roast potatoes.
Prices are reasonable and you get a lot of food for the cost. Average starter and main on the a la carte is around £16 per person, and they have lunch and pre-​theatre options. There’s also a frequent 5pm deal for 25% off a la carte mains. My husband and I usually fill up on hors d’oeuvres, 2 mains and a few drinks for a tidy £40. We’ve also been known to get a wee order in via Just Eat, where they usually offer 20% off mains. Enjoy!

Athena has had a bit of a tough time over the past year or so. After relocating from Argyll Street, they set up on Hope Street near Central Station, but this was not to be a permanent home. They are now located just off Charing Cross on Elderslie Street and hopefully, this is where they will stay. I’ve been to all three of their locations, having been eager to find good Greek food in Glasgow — one of my all-​time favourite cuisines.
Last weekend we visited their new premises on Elderslie Street to see how they were getting on. The first thing I noticed was that the restaurant was quite empty, which was disappointing at 6.45pm on a Friday night. I also noticed that this was by far the biggest space that they have had, which can only be a good thing. The interior is quite cosy and dimly lit by candlelight which provides a lovely ambience but is not ideal for taking photographs, hence their poor quality! Both of us were keen to kick off our weekend so we quickly ordered a glass of white for me and a beer for Sam. We were already familiar with their offerings but had only ever tried a couple of elements. We decided to go for the Mezze — the Chef’s Selection of starters, mains and desserts for £39.95.
The starters included Dolmades (stuffed vine leaves), Keftedes (lamb meatballs), a selection of Greek dips, fresh pitta bread and a Greek salad. Too much food for two people, essentially. I kind of wished we had asked to miss out the salad as neither of us are a fan of olives and I hate feta.
We’ve had the Keftedes on many occasions and as always, they were full of flavour and bathed in a rich tomato sauce. The Dolmades were very similar in flavour and sat in the same sauce which acts as a base for many of their dishes. There were a couple of dips which were difficult to distinguish — namely the houmous and the tahini — I had no idea which was which! The tzatziki was the best I’ve had in the UK but I steered clear of the taramosalata — a pink dip made of fish roe.
When our main course arrived I was a little fearful — I had no idea how we were going to eat all this food! Our main dishes included Souvlaki, Pastitsio, Stifado and Soutzoukakia along with a portion of rice and roast potatoes. Like I said, a lot of food, and possibly a few words that mean absolutely nothing to you. The souvlaki is marinated and grilled chunks of both pork and chicken. The chicken is thigh meat and I’m not massively keen on the texture, but the flavour is unquestionable. The pork was super tender and both meats had a really great, fresh taste.
Stifado is probably my favourite Greek dish after the mighty Moussaka. It is a stew or casserole of beef with shallots, flavoured with red wine, cinnamon, tomatoes etc. The last time I had stifado at Athena I found the cinnamon to be overpowering but tonight it was my favourite dish by far. It was rich and had natural spice from the wine and the beef. What I was not a fan of was the Pastitsio — layers of minced lamb with macaroni pasta and béchamel sauce — in other words, a lesser version of moussaka. I found the lamb flavour really overpowering and as someone who doesn’t really like lamb, it was a problem. It was my first time trying this dish but I found the pasta made it too heavy and the flavours were just a bit off.
Weirdly, I really enjoyed the Soutzoukakia, which is also lamb (one of the most used ingredients in Greek cooking). The spicy lamb sausages were slow cooked in a tomato sauce with garlic and herbs but were not overly hot. The chilli was more of a flavour than an overpowering burning sensation and both the sauce and sausages were very tasty. All of this was accompanied by rice, which I didn’t even touch, and Greek roast potatoes, which were a tad underdone.
Our final course was a trio of Greek puddings: the famous Baklava and the not so well known Kataifi and Galaktoboureko. Sam isn’t really a big Sam isn’t really a big fan of desserts, which left me with the daunting task of eating them all myself — thankfully the portions were small. The Kataifi is a sweet, nutty filling wrapped in shredded filo pastry. It sounds very similar, I know, but they are different. The filling is quite fudgy with a good nutty, sweet flavour and is surrounded by crispy, shredded pastry. The baklava was stunning — so sweet but with the crunch of the nuts, the chewy filling and the crispness of the pastry.
Getting the mezze is a really great and good value way to get a taste of all that Greek food has to offer. Even though I’ve been eating this type of food for years, it wasn’t until this weekend that I actually tried some of the most traditional dishes, like Dolmades or Pastitsio. I highly recommend Athena, not just for the Greek food, but for the staff who were attentive and friendly. It’s probably been a tough period for them moving around so much but the staff are friendly, knowledgeable and helpful, and I hope that they have finally found their forever home.

It seems like Athena has been all over Glasgow — moving from Argyle Street in Finnieston to Hope Street, and now to Elderslie Street (where Sideways used to be, *sob*). I think it even had a few incarnations before that. If it were any other restaurant I think so many moves would be a sign of imminent death, but Athena seems to have a loyal hoard of customers who will follow them wherever they go.
We visited last night just for starters — we were doing a foodie crawl around the area. They did the Cyprus hors d’oeuvres for us which is essentially a sharing platter — keftedes (meatballs), dolmades, Greek sausage, houmous, taramasalata and tzatziki as well as feta, salad and olives, plus pita bread on the side. It’s £9.95 between two and a perfect sized portion as a starter.
And the taste? Amazing. I started with the meatball and it was as good as meatballs get — succulent and juicy with a delicious tomato sauce. The sausage wasn’t to my taste but I really enjoyed the dolmades which were really light, being mixed with rice. The taramasalata was some of the best I’ve ever eaten (and I ate a lot of Greek food when I lived in Melbourne) and I scooped up every last drop of it from the plate. I’m not a huge houmous or tzatziki fan but also really enjoyed these dips and thought they had a really fresh flavour to them. The feta was great for a nibble.
Service was warm and friendly, and they looked after us really well. They’d been told in advance that we were coming in just for starters so there wasn’t much of a wait for the food.
The space hasn’t changed a huge amount from when it was Sideways — obviously a bit of a freshen up and the bar area is now gone to make room for more seating. It was quite busy for a Thursday night which is good to see! I had a quick look at the menu and was impressed with the selection of Greek classics (moussaka, pastitsio and more) as well as meat dishes served on the skewer. There’s also the option for mezedes, essentially a Greek version of a set menu but with more of a surprise factor at £39.95 between two. You get a selection of starters, main, dessert and coffee — the staff could probably give you more guidance as to what’s actually served up as the menu is a little vague!

When I was little girl my family and I used to to the Athena on the south side of Glasgow on a regular basis. Years on I thought that going to the Athena in it’s fourth or fifth location might bring back good memories for my mum.
Although they have a really well priced lunch menu we booked through a site that would give us 25% of the A La Carte menu. The starters were of a decent size which allowed us to share them and the main was also well portioned. The food was of a decent standard and worth going back for. Service was quick and friendly as well.