Athena Restaurant

Love the patio. Very friendly and authentic servers and an overall great date spot. I'd recommend checking out any of the lamb dishes.

I always loved eating at Athena in the summer because of their awesome patio. Only just this weekend did I discover they've covered the patio so it can be awesome in the winter too! The covered patio gets tons of natural light so you feel warm and summery even when it's 20 degrees out. They splurged on some really comfy tables and chairs too. Good food, good service, but the patio is the year-round reason to choose Athena over other options on Halsted.

I need to start off by saying that I am a great fan of Greek food -- street food, high end, Greek Church festival food, the whole ball of wax.  Although I have had good and bad Greek food, I really have never left a Greek restaurant hungry.

My first trip to Athena was this week and I was with a group of friends that I really enjoy.  Over all our evening was great, and a considerable part of that was the location.  This restaurant is a step above the over-crowded elbow to elbow environment that can happen in the neighborhood, and their glass walled atrium/patio is a wonderful feature.  The server was efficient, if a little askance at some of my friends' questions, ie., Q: Do you have a cabernet?  A: You will like the Greek wine - it is just the same; Q: Are there any pasta side dishes? A: Everyone gets rice with a potato;  Q: Can I have the broiled lamb chops medium to rare? A:  They are better medium . . . you get the idea.

The thing that surprised me about the food, though, was that the specials of the day were very tasty but most of the traditional Greek dishes (which we shared as appetizers) left a lot to be desired.  We had a selection of dips and spreads, and to my surprise the taramosalata, tzatziki. hummus and the skordalia all tasted very much the same!  The dolmades were hard and dry and vaguely sour tasting and the saganaki was hard and somehow dry -- how can flamed cheese not be at least a little soft?

But the fried zucchini was outstanding, and the Kalamari was good.  The entrees really saved the day -- juicy broiled loin pork chops, baked fish, chicken riganati, kebobs -- every plate was empty.  And, as I said, overall a good time was had by all.

Would I go there for traditional Greek comfort food . . . maybe not, but I think I will be drawn back to that beautiful patio in good weather.