Review: Great eats, empty glasses

The Arkadia House has a great menu and even better food, but the time spent waiting for the food to arrive overshadows even the best of meals. Try this restaurant and find out for yourself.

Arkadia House is located in Scarborough’s north end, but it brings flavours to your mouth which are reminiscent of a Greek island.

The food is great, but the same cannot be said about the service we received.

Arkadia House brings flavours to your mouth which are reminiscent of a Greek island.

—Ali Dar

It’s about six on a Friday evening and my guest and I pull into Arkadia House’s full parking lot.

We walk inside and the place is packed to the brim. We wait for about two minutes before we are welcomed by a greeter and are told that our reservation will be ready in about five minutes . After 10 minutes, we are told it shouldn’t be too much longer, which turns out to be true. In no time, we are taken to our table and told our server will be with us shortly.

Ali’s Assessment

Food: 4/5
Service: 1/5
Décor: 3.5/5
Overall: 2.5/5

Address: 2007 Eglinton Ave. E.

Monday to Friday—11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Take-out available

The atmosphere is quieter than your average Greek restaurant. Soon, our server comes over and tells us about specials.

We decide to get the smoked salmon and the spanakotiropita. The smoked salmon is served with cream cheese on rye bread with onions and capers and the spankotiropita is a pastry stuffed with cheese and spinach.

I expect the appetizers to come out within 10-12 minutes. It took about 18 minutes before we received our food. The worst part was that we did not receive an appolgy for the long wait. A simple “sorry” can fix so many problems. I’m not a huge fan of smoked salmon, but it tasted so fresh that it was very enjoyable. The spankotiropita was very flaky on the outside and the filling was perfectly seasoned.

We ordered our entrees after eating our appetizers, which turned out to be a big mistake.

The chicken breast and pan-fried tilapia took an agonizing 25 minutes. Once again, no apology. But, much like the appetizers, the food was great.

The chicken breast was lightly marinated and expertly cooked. It was served with vegetables and rice and it tasted lovely. The marinade worked so well with the chicken’s natural flavours. The rice and vegetables were typical of what you would expect.

The pan fried tilapia was served with vegetables and rice, much like the chicken breast. The tilapia is my favourite fish and Arkadia illustrates why. The fish was perfectly fried with a nice golden coating with a hint of seasoning. The only downside was that it seemed to be just a little too oily.

After finishing our food, we waited much too long before our server came to clear our dishes. Not to mention that our glasses were only refilled when we had to ask. We were asked whether we wanted dessert, I passed. It just wouldn’t be worth the wait.

The bill came out to $60.79, which would have been a great deal had the service not been so disappointing.

It may have been the full house or the simple negligence on the part of the server, but in the end, I couldn’t envision ever going back.

About this article

By: Ali Dar
Posted: Mar 23 2012 9:54 pm
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Filed under: Food