Decided to try this restaurant as local. Wish I had taken a look now at reviews. Meal was average but the Stand Out Point for myself and my friend was the arrogant and quite frankly disgusting attitude of the ?Owner or Management. We had a lovely pleasant waitress and found it very disturbing how she was treated and also openly for all patrons to hear. We hope she got her tip and hope this waitress has found other employment. If you are the owners time you left this type of business.

Last night we went to Athenia for dinner, I was very impressed the meal was just lovely. This is a local restaurant and one cannot expect to high an expectation but for the price we were very happy. We started with garlic pizza, I had salmon pasta with a greek salad -delicious, my husband had a seafood pizza, we followed with desert and they were both delicious. We also had a bottle of Italian wine. We loved our experience, it is easy and the staff were very nice. Our meal cost $123.00 and we thought this was great value for money.

I really can’t get how they calculate the voucher to be worth $173… I didn’t think it was anything more than what we paid for it. The meals (although tasty, except for the seafood one) were of a small entree/child size. The drinks were flat, and the wine was sour. Service was NOT good. They did not want our booking, and claimed to be “fully booked” and the soonest they could take us was 3pm! For lunch! I walk past at 1pm, when I tried to book for, and the restaurant was closed up! Not fully booked. The meals were very tasty, although more of an appetizer, and the service needs some work

Friends and I dine there regularly. There’s an 18 yo girl that runs the place most nights and when she’s there the place runs like clockwork. Of course it’s not a Euro but neither does it charge like one. It’s good value for money and the meals are complete; no need for additional sides. And if you’re not frightened of a rare steak, they’ll cook it for you just as you like. The one common denominator I see in all the negative reviews is they’re all using vouchers. Cheapskates.

Mixed thoughts here…. I have been to Athenia 4 times, first time was nice and both my husband and I enjoyed our meals. Second and third time were average with the service amateur.the fourth time will be the last!!!!!!! To keep it short, our food took a very long time to arrive, we asked three times where are meals are before the owner or chef flew out to our table from the kitchen and Came close to an altercation with my husband due to his aggressive and threatening behavior. Never again.

This place is terrible if your using the Groupon voucher. The value of the voucher was clearly $173.00 and all we got were four pasta dishes which were mediocre in taste and four glasses of fizzy drink. These would only have reached the value of $90 max We asked the guy to please explain and he was very rude and impatient and said we were wasting his time. He said something about coming back next time and getting a free bottle of wine. I can assure you we will not be coming back ever!

Service is bad, portions are small and definitely not worth the money!

It’s been at least 2 years since we dined at Athenia, having moved from Milford, so were hoping the experience this time would be as good as we had remembered. It was! The four of us chose from the ‘mains’ menu, shared two desserts between us, and enjoyed a bottle of Marlborough Pino Gris. The service was friendly, the food was very tasty and well presented (each of our mains were under $30). What especially took my attention was the great “buzz” of a near full restaurant on a Sunday evening – I surmised, a lot of locals who knew from experience this would be an affordable and very satisfying night out with family or friends.

This could be the worst place I ever been to. I bought the coupon on-line, and I expected the service would not be as good, but I didn’t expect it would be that bad.

First of all, their phone booking system was a failure. So, I left a message and provided my mobile. And, the owner rang me 3 times, but I couldn’t answer as I was in an hour appointment with my physician. Instead of leaving a message, he called my land line number and basically yelled at my landlord… saying how he called a million times and I didn’t answer. Oh well, frankly my landlord wouldn’t care just like any other normal person.

Still, I’ve decided to try it out since my friends and I had an appointment at Milford that afternoon anyway. This was a dumb decision. The service was plain bad. There was no greetings what so ever. And, the guys served us was rude and impatient. He not only seemed that he didn’t want to be there, but also rushed us to order. The drinks was just as bad. And finally when the food turned up… I just promised my friends I’d make it up to them next time. I have to say the pastas were the worst I’ve ever had. The sauce were exact the same, even though we ordered different kinds. The noodles itself is supermarket quality. And, the size was smaller some kids meals. The vegetable weren’t even fresh. The taste was not good too… we didn’t finish despite the fact that the portion of the food were really small. It was a total disappointment even tho I didn’t expect much at all.

I’m using the voucher which states clearly that it’s valid from Mon to Sun 12noon to 5pm. We arrived on Mon in 1.30pm and found that it’s closed. I called the manager who’s very reluctant for our booking and finally gave us an earliest booking at 2pm for 7 of us on next Mon. We ordered 6 spaghetti mariana, costs $24.5, and we all had a half-size spaghetti with cooked “frozen mixed seafood with unveined tiny shrimps worth $12/kg”. Not to mention the sour, tasteless, half-filled complimentary white wine and the only staff dsappeared after the food had come.
I am so embarrased because I think this is a ‘GOOD’ restaurant to recommend to my friends, elderly women, but what a shame! This restaurant sold the vouchers for better reputation or simply want to get rid of all the potential new customers. I tried the E-cucina Cafe in Albany through the voucher and it’s really GOOOD. They gave you exactly what the quality should be no matter you were using a voucher or not.
In a word, I will never ever try this restaurant again.

What a disappointment to say the least. It was certainly an experience. The antipasto platter was a joke, the worst l have ever had. The mains were a good size, (l had chicken and my husband had the veal) but very plain and basic. As for the deserts, my husband had the grilled banana, it was more like baked in the skin and served with half of the skin removed with a small amount of sauce and a dollop of cream $14.50. I’m not sure what the house wine was but it was not good and the (basic size) glass was half full, The prices are high, the quality low and service poor. Sorry Athenia you really need to look at why you are in this business.

I have to follow on with the previous negative reviews about the Athenia Roma Restaurant and Living Social deal.
What a total rip!! Have done some excellent restaurant deals prior to this one and this was shambolic to say the least.
We arrived was told to sit anywhere we wanted to which we did. We were given a menu at which stage the waitress spotted our living social voucher and said ” Oh you have a Living Social voucher, proceeded to remove the menu and bring us a hugely reduced menu. Not one pizza offered on the Living Social menu, I mean come on you are in an Italian restaurant! The most expensive main offered on this rather limited menu – Lamb Shank, was not on offer as it had run out, yet the restaurant was not full. After looking at our very disappointing menu we made our choices. We got given the 1/2 a glass of complimentary wine and on looking around and seeing fuller glasses on other tables, my husband decided to ask the waitress why we had such small glasses of wine and was told actually she had given us more than what she was supposed to.
We then waited almost an HOUR for this as the one previous review said shocking platter to share. It was not worth waiting an hour for. The main meal then took a further 40 minutes to get to us.
What I want to know is why should be be compromised and have less of a choice of what we want to eat just because we had a voucher? I thought the point of the voucher was to encourage people to come and eat in your establishment, enjoy what was on offer like all the other full paying customers, instead we felt cheated and very let down!! Will never go back there again.

We had tried this restaurant a number of years ago and had a terrible meal, so decided to give it another go recently and now I know why we had never gone back.My husband said his meal was OK mine was terrible. It was suppose to be cannelloni but it was sheets of lasagne floating in some sort of liquid that someone had dropped a container of nutmeg into it. I had one mouth full and quite honestly that was it for me. I explained the problem to the waitress but no apology was given. All I can say is never again.

We write in full support of the previous poster regarding our Living Social voucher experience at Athenia – what a joke!

To start with I rang up and left a message with a booking request, never heard back so called again to make the booking. Turned up and our booking was not in the book – they had no record of it -thankfully it was a Monday and although reasonably busy there were still tables available.

Move on to the food (and wine), it wasn’t until we had finished our glass of wine that was “included” with the deal and decided to order a second glass which we would pay for that we realised that the glass included in the deal was a great deal smaller than their standard glass which we got with the wine we ordered – why didn’t we get what would normally be served?? They are obviously trying to save a buck instead of giving what they are legally obliged to provide!

Move on to the food and yes, we too thought the Antipasto Platter was a complete joke! I have never seen an Antipasto Platter served with….wait for it – pre-cooked sizzler sausage (we swear that’s what it looked and tasted like) and a salami that looked a lot like luncheon!! Top that off with a few cubes of standard cheese, 2 sundried tomatoes, some olives, a bit of green salad and 2 small bits of bread and there you have it – I checked their menu on the way out and they charge $24.50 for it – there is no way this can be what they serve on their “real” menu – it would simply be a total rip off for which I would refuse to pay.

To be fair, the mains were a surprise as they were of a good size and fairly tasty. Hubby had the smoked chicken pasta which was huge and tasted pretty good. The veal masala was tasty but not worth the $27.50 they charge on their menu in my opinion.

Waitress was hopeless – we were told the meat / chicken mains came with veges and “a baked potato”. When mine arrived I asked where the potato was – she asked me to “check underneath the meat – it’s probably there” – in fact the potatoes were sauteed in cubes, tasy but clearly she has no clue!

And that concludes our disappointing experience – we will not go back and I will be contacting Living Social to make sure the restaurant gets our feedback – they missed a great opportunity to impress and get some new local regulars – all in the name of being cheap!

Shame on you Athenia for using the Living Social vouchers as a way to rip your patrons off.
Poor service – antipasto platter a joke – Chicken dry – house wine expected.
Having gifted the voucher to a young couple with kiddies that don’t get out much and really look forward to a treat…I was embarrassed that they had such a bad experience. The vouchers are a great way to show case your food and service …sad you don’t get that ! Step up and make good on this they deserve another dinner

We headed along on a Tuesday night. There were a few full tables and the place was warm and welcoming. The young waiter was very helpful.

While the food is not cheap we really enjoyed the Pesce Del Giorno and Saltmbocca alla Rommana.

Rating says it all really. This placed used to have great food, friendly staff, and a rapid kitchen service. However, they have changed their menu – this was overdue – but the resulting options are at times not flash on the tastebuds. I suspect they have changed their chefs too
Even though this restaurant location is very convenient for us, alas we are looking for a new favorite Italian to eat at

My partner and I went here a couple of weeks ago as we live near here and thought we’d try somewhere local.
I have to say I was a little let down. The food was okay, nothing spectacular (I have to say I could probably do the same in my own kitchen at home).
The service well that was something that needed a lot of work.
The two waitresses that were working there. One looked like she was about 12 the other barely 17 years old. and the 12year must have been training as she was following the 17yr old around like a little lost puppy not even doing anything.
We got our entree and it was a little dry (we got the garlic bread) and then the mains. As I said before they were average and something I could easily do at home.
We also noticed that when we were at the restaurant there was another couple there. We’re not really sure what happened but soon after they got their entree they just got up and left the table without even touching the drinks they ordered or the entree. and reading most of the other reviews on this there seems to be a lot of problems with the service. One other thing we noticed is that we left and were paying there was a lady with a baby in the corner (we think she was the owners/chefs wife and she wasn’t with anyone else or eating but she was talking with the staff), which is nothing bad…but what was bad is the smell that was coming from the baby…lets just say it smelt like it needed to be changed (an hour ago) it was disgusting

6 of us went last night. It was chocker and although the staff were good there simply weren’t enough of them to cope. The kitchen was worse. One and a half hour wait for the main!! Not surprising as there were only two cooks!! BUT the food was superb. I had an eye fillet – cooked to perfection.
Impossible for them to cope. I will return but probably on a quiet night. JB

Food is fine but kitchen cannot cope in busy periods. Ridiculously long wait between courses. Management does not seem too concerned. Will not visit again.

Although we have been here before – this time the experience was completely disappointing. The food is very good – but the service is inexperienced and extremely slow. The restaurant was approximately 50% full and the kitchen was unable to handle the demand. The wait for our mains were extraordinarily long. All tables were experiencing this. The management acknowledged this, but didn’t really seem to understand they have lost a customer. Cannot recommend, despite the food being good.

Went there on a busy Friday with the kids and had an above average meal. The service was attentive, and the price not unreasonable. Should be a safe bet!

i had a wonderful night there.staff are friendly and happy.food was delicious and music was wonderful.i come back there soon.

We had a pleasant evening out (midweek, reasonably quiet). Staff pleasant. Meal tasty though not overly exceptional. Service friendly and efficient without either rushing or undue delay.
Prices were higher than on-line menu here indicated (we chose this over Lago Verde because of the apparent price difference though in the end prices were about the same).
We took our own wine. Corkage was a very reasonable $5 per bottle.

A friend booked a table for us in their “separated” area for a party of 13. Initially there were a couple of other tables occupied in this area, but once they left we had it to ourselves. It’s BYO so the wine was great plus food and service too. No problems with each couple paying their account either. An enjoyable evening.

THANK YOU

Hmmm. not often I can say I have been out and had my family be pushed by the owner. We had what I would call a medium sized group of 14 and booked well in advance. After waiting a long time and watching others get their mains / deserts etc we asked a couple of times when our meals will be ready. We were told once ‘In about 2 mins’ We asked again almost 30 mins laters. At this stage as we could not be given a time of arrival we advised we were leaving. we were advised by the owner “Nobody leaves my restaurant” and he placed his hand on one of our table. We went to leave and the owner pushed him into the table. After police arrived the waiter did in fact apologise for pushing in front of the police. I hope your staff enjoyed the 14 mains we didn’t pay for (or eat) if in fact you had even put them on!! By the way over half of our group would be between 40 – 60 so you are aware we are not a bunch of difficult teens. The owners Italian pride has been hurt and a lot of customers will no longer come back with your attitude! How dare you. We have been there a number of times with a bigger group than this and never had this issue before.

No desserts…what the hell?

Generally,the food and atmosphere were lovely. However, the parmesan was stuck to the bottom of the jar and when we asked for more parmesan the waitress just slammed the jar on the back of our chair and said “you just need to do this”. I don’t consider myself a picky person but to give the impression of an authentic Italian restaurant they should really offer fresh grated parmesan. Sounds like a silly thing but it did change our perception of the restaurant slightly which is a shame.

We went to this restaurant last night with a party of 40. We had a set menu. The food was yum, it took quite a long time before our order was cooked and there were some mix ups in the food bought out but over all i would recommend Athenia.

They ran out of two of the deserts, and the duty manager was seen pointing the finger at our party and telling the waitress that our party was not allowed to order any more food (as i gather the kitchen wanted to close up!) it was quite amusing. The atmosphere was lovely, i agree with the last comment left about the noise level, perhaps they need to get some windows open to allow the sound to dissapate?

Would definitely recommend Athenia to those wanting a reasonably priced meal out with some yummy food.

My family often go to Athenia. The staff are always super friendly. I find I am still wanting after some of the dishes but I love the fish!!! We will continue to visit.

Fantastic food and service all of the 5 times I have dined @ Athenia’s..