Ithaka Greek Restaurant - Victoria

Ithaka and specifically our server, Dave provided us with an absolutely exquisite dining experience. Amazing food, extensive wine list, super friendly and helpful staff, and a terrific atmosphere that really reminded us of the fun and boisterous but not out of control places at which we dined in Greece. We were actually sad when we finally had to leave and get some rest for our busy following day. If you're staying at one of the local hotels, definitely make sure you enjoy a meal at Ithaka.

Taste, smells and atmosphere transported me to Greece. So nice to find a restaurant that didn’t have tv’s on the wall. The only thing missing was the complimentary ouzo shot at the end of the meal. We’ll be back and leave room for dessert next time.

I really can 't rate Ithaka any higher than a 2*. While the service was just fine, the price and food was not acceptable. Despite this, I note that even on a weekday, the restaurant was quite busy, and so many seem to be just fine with what is offered. As the location is just out of the core, it did look like it was mostly locals, not cruise ship visitors. I did go over the ratings prior to going there (as I usually do when selecting a restaurant, as TA rarely steers me wrong . In this case, I have to disagree with the overall rating. My issues started with our seating location, which I heard the front manager direct the hostess to place us in the family section. So rather than being in the nice patio or enclosed central location, we were kind of in food-court seating with families with fussy kids. We 've spent years eating with our kids in that kind of area, but hopefully reached the point where we could possibly avoid this, and noticed the better areas were not full (and others requested a move out of the family area during our seating . Normally, I ask to move, but in this case decided to see how things panned out. We had recently spent 3 weeks eating our way across Greece, so had some kind of reasonable base-line as to what Greek food should offer. In this case, the Greek salad had limited seasonings and instead of a large chunk of tasty feta, the not-so-great feta was shredded and lightly spread across a small salad. (So you can say, not only was the food not good, the portions were small! -sarcasm alert... . The pita wrap was essentially what you would get in a food court for less than $10 (but this was, with salad, $22 . The ribs, according to my wife, quite obviously pre-cooked and frozen, then heated up with a salamander broiler. This was due to the extremely short time it took to serve them and the dryness of the meat. They at least had some good Greek beer and a mixed drink was rated highly. So I would say if you are knowledgable/picky about Greek food, this is not the place for you, but if you like a nice attractive location and atmosphere, and expensive food court food is what you are satisfied with, then it will be a fine experience.

The food at Ithaka is plentiful and delicious. If you have a large enough party be sure to try the tree dips offered with pita bread. Especially the olive dip. The shoulder of pork on mashed potatoes with seasonal vegetables was moist, tender and very filling. The service provided by Caitlyn was superb. Her knowledge of the food, drinks, and possible pairings made the dinner lovely.

We were comparing Ithaca to the restaurant preceding it. Service was great but we were disappointed with our food. We had the moussaka. It was barely warm and the potato topping was not fluffy and light but appeared like plaster. It was tasty but not great. Every other thing on the plate was stone cold (vegetables and rice). Veggies should be crunchy but not hard as rocks. Creme caramel was very nice but the way it was served could be more appealing. We had coffee lattes which were terrible. The coffee was so bitter we did not finish our cups and would not order coffee there again. The chef and cooking staff need to pay more attention to the temperature of the food. We felt as if our dishes came from an assembly line type of kitchen.