Tsakos Restaurant (Peiraiki, Piraeus)

We visited Restaurant Tsakos in Peiraiki (Akti Themistokleous) in March 2009.

It is a very large restaurant facing to the Saronic Gulf. Although it is not directly onto the sea, being on a high ground means that you don't have to see cars passing while viewing the sea (this is a common problem of Peiraiki restaurants after the closure of all the restaurants standing on the ancient wall, i.e. illegally constructed restaurants).

It was sunny Sunday afternoon and the place was very busy.

At the beginning, we were offered free cups of shrimp soups, which were very rich and creamy, but there was a slighly unpleasant smell of (stale?) shrimps. We were given also two portions of bread (1 euro x 2) and butter (0.50 euro x 2); these were kind of cover charge.

First to arrive was the bombakia thalassinon (10 euros).

These were deep-fried fyllo pastry pies with the filling of seafood (shrimp, squid, crawfish) mixed with cream. It sounded nice as an idea, but they were too salty and too oily to my taste. However, Hubby said he liked them, so it might be only me.

The problem was that there were two human hairs on the plate. Although we already started to eat them, we requested to change the place, as we did not want to see them while we were eating. The waiter took the plate back to the kitchen and after a while brought back a new dish refilled two already eaten pieces. I guess they cooked them again. These things happen and they dealt with the problem all right.

Squid fries.

These were tough and tasteless. I don't know how they managed to do it. The fried potatoes were equally, or even more terrible. They were very dry and hard as if kept under the heater for a long time.

Boiled seasonable vegetables (10 euros). I am sure we ordered only one portion for 5 euros, but they brought us two portions. We did not find it out until they bring us the bill.

It was fine taste wise, but 10 euros for boiled veggie seems too dire.

There also were problems in service. They forgot to bring us beer glasses (keen readers might know that I don't drink, but they wouldn't know that), and, at the end of meal, wet napkins while everyone else in the restaurant were getting them. We felt that the service staff was not attentive enough.

Final bill came to 37 euros (for which they did not give us receipt). The food just wasn't good enough for us regardless of the price.

Tsakos
Akti Themistokleous 244
Piraeus
Tel.210-4518070