Panos Rivalios

27th September

"I have eaten at the Greek Affair several times now, and have enjoyed the experiences. The staff are very friendly, and the manageress, although not subtle, is very professional.

I have had the privilege of being served by the owner, who appears to walk the floor during service at times. For those who do not know, he is a restaurateur of over 35 years, coming straight from the heart of Athens. The head chef is also an Athenian gentleman who has been in the industry for over 30 years.

Needless to say, the food in this restaurant is as genuine as you will find in London. Anybody who really knows about real Greek food, must have eaten in a taverna and experienced the plethora of flavours being introduced to your table in a one-by-one fashion. I have tried almost all of the meze, and have found it most enjoyable, particularly with a complementing wine - of which there is an interesting selection to entertain the palette. I have not found many places out of Athens, which have replicated this experience as well as the Greek Affair.

Without being rude, any comparisons to tinned/supermarket food, is simply just ignorant. The food in this restaurant is homemade, I will leave you to decide how much you value the opinion of people who cannot appreciate the difference. In addition, I'd also like to put the bread issue to bed, in genuine Athenian tavernas you will not find pitta bread. If you are truly after an authentic experience, it isn't even a main feature. However having said this, many people are not aware, so it is excusable to make this mistake. But, what is not excusable, is having a dig at the service staff who are, at the end of the day, correct. Again how much you value this is entirely upto you :-)

I would recommend this restaurant to anybody looking for a pleasant gastronomic Greek experience in the centre of London. It can get busy in the evenings so I would also recommend you book ahead. "

alex

18th March

"This is the 2nd time I have had the misfortune to find myself in this restaurant, both times it has been solely due to the fact that the other Greek place down the street is closed on a Sunday. As a knowledgeable Greek and Londoner, WHY did I make the same mistake twice? Greek Affair is awful, so ungenuine and so embarrassingly bad, that I'm worried I might forget to mention something.
Uncomfortable seats and small cramped tables means that you will be rubbing elbows with the other unfortunate people, who have yet to find out how bad their meal is about to be. The basement section, a stale and smelly pit where they allow smoking, is next to the kitchen, and dark enough that you cannot spot the filthy cutlery and table linen. Upstairs is certainly no better: a pathetic heater on the half-heat setting and a door that doesn't even close, will keep you nice and cold until the unfriendly and unwelcoming manageress comes to finish you off.
Now to the food: the tzatziki was too runny, had too much mint, not enough garlic, and not enough olive oil. The keftedes (meatballs) were dry and tiny, slighty larger than a Malteser, and cost over £1.00 each. The saganaki (fried cheese) was so salty that it made my lips stick together, and it cost about £5.00 for 2 small slices of 25g each. The gigantes (beans in a tomato sauce) were cold, hard and straight out of a tin, but of such a poor quality that I promise you, you couldn't even find that make of tinned food in the cheapest of corner shops in Hackney.
I spotted a newspaper article framed on the wall, which had given their taramosalata a good review, so I thought: why not? It can't get any worse. Oh dear, it was horrible, really. Just go to Waitrose, the standard taramosalata they sell in mass-produced packets tastes far better, more genuine and is better value.
The bread? Oh my god, the bread!!!! Cold, stale and bland, just the way bread tastes when it has been defrosted. They claim to be a Greek restaurant, but they don't even have pitta bread. The rude manageress even got offended when I enquired about why they didn't have pitta bread, incorrectly saying that she could only get Arabic pitta, not Greek. Actually, my dear, Greek pitta is only used for souvlaki. OBVIOUSLY I meant the pitta you can buy in any supermarket, just like they serve in every other Greek restaurant. When I asked for the bread to be toasted, they simply refused.
The main courses: rubbery, cheap and tasteless chicken, whether you choose it roasted or in the white wine sauce, is atrocious. Moussaka and pastitsio are standard, basic Greek dishes, both ruined by a horrible bechamel sauce, and by the quality of minced beef, so course that you wouldn't even find it in Value range at Asda. I dread to think what the poor, unsuspecting diner at the neighbouring table received when he ordered the fish.........The only 2 dishes that were even approaching an acceptable quality and taste were the kleftiko, and the (undercooked) loukaniko: a "traditonal" Greek sausage, except that it wasn't, because it was actually a Cypriot sausage. I know this because we buy them at Green Lanes market every week.
All in all, this was an unforgettable experience; so traumatic, so disappointing, so un-Greek in every possible way.
Oh yes, I nearly forgot..........and the water wasn't even cold, no ice, with a horrid slice of lemon.
"

Joel

29th June

"I was glad to see this little gem pop up on here.
It's a great place, lovely staff - should be supported.
It's rare in W-Hell to find small family run restaurants - we'll miss them if they go and complain about the chains so support your LOCAL businesses!!!"

Crystal

18th June

"My husband and I visited this little restaurant yesterday while looking for somewhere to eat before heading off to The Gate cinema.

We were impressed by the wide range of vegetarian items on the menu, I would say the majority of it had V symbol. The only thing to watch out for is that this restaurant considers fish as vegetarian! Also note, they don't have a license to sell alcohol so bring your own.

We decided to go for the grand mezze at £15.50 and we were not dissapointed! I told the waiter we were lacto/ovo veggies and she said this was not a problem. We had loads of delicious hot and cold starters with greek bread. We thought this was going to be all of the food but no, we still had our main course to come! We were so stuffed with nice food that our bellies hurt.

And at only £15.50 - what value!

If you like good Greek food and are in Notting Hill area, go here! It's cute, waiters are very

friendly and the food is delicious and authentic."