| rev:text
| - Decorated and presented in an upscale style, I looked forward to a tasty Greek meal with a group of friends. The location was one of few that stood out to the one of us picking restaurants, and allowed us to make a reservation at the advertised Summerlicious price. (A number of places we called would not take a party of 12 without a special group menu.) The decor did not disappoint and at first all was well. Our server was friendly and patient, and we were comfortably seated. Even Monday night, there was a fairly full round of tables right at 7:30pm dinner time - a promising sign.
I hate to say it but I felt their location near the hotels made them accustomed to one-time visiting tourists that didn't care for much and had no expectations, making it easy for them to be trapped into a sub-par quality-for-money kind of meal. Perhaps my table also got profiled quickly as a group of young adults that probably couldn't otherwise afford to be there, so our simple menu choices and lack of drink orders convinced the waiter we weren't worth the effort. Things started out great but as the night went on the meal just didn't stand up to the upscale restaurant experience I expected.
The Summerlicious menu made decision-making much simpler which was very ideal for my group. I went with the octopus appetizer, lobster kritharoto pasta main, and chocolate mousse dessert. I would have ordered a cocktail or glass of wine to go with my drink, however there was no drinks menu readily available.
The appetizers came out after a short wait and we were all delighted to dig in. The octopus was tender and juicy, and the accompanying olives and greens added texture and dimension to the flavours. The portion was just right to stave off the initial hunger due to the late dinner for me.
Things only went downhill from here, as mains came out a full hour after the appetizers. We watched through the window as the restaurant across the street filled up and emptied, and all the tables around us went through all their three courses and paid their bills. There was no particular reason to keep us waiting save for the fact we were a large party, but keeping us for so long was unacceptable. During the hour wait there was minimal service as our waiter went off to attend to many different tables and sometimes just disappeared somewhere completely. It would've been an opportunity to refill some glasses or put in an extra drink order, but none of that took place as we were left to entertaining ourselves completely.
When the food finally came we were all overly hungry and not very interested in taste anymore. My lobster kritharoto pasta was a rice-shaped pasta tossed in lobster sauce with shrimp. Mostly it tasted like shrimp on pasta with lobster bisque as sauce. The more popular Summerlicious option was the lamb shank, which looked quite appealing, it was very tender and many were very happy with it - unfortunately I do not enjoy lamb. The portions for mains was just right - no leftovers, but still sufficiently filling. If only it had come sooner I wouldn't have felt as unsatisfied.
Finally it was dessert time - by now we'd mostly lost our patience and we're looking anxiously at the time. Desserts came out after another fifteen minute wait after mains were cleared away. The chocolate mousse looked like two scoops of ice cream that were halfway to melting into a puddle, and the presentation of two brown melty orbs in a white curvy oval bowl reminded me of something very opposite of food...the dollop of whip sitting in the middle didn't erase that imagery. The flavour profile was flat - it was all one commercialized chocolate flavour throughout as if a box of Baker's semi-sweet chocolate was casually blended into the mixture of cream before it was scooped and served. The other popular choice for dessert was baklava - pastry with syrup and nuts. I could see the composition of the three main ingredients but I was uncertain about the proportion of them. There was a lot of puff pastry sitting on top, and the syrup and nut base was a smaller bottom half of the piece. There seemed to be a lack of syrup on top to put the pastry and nuts together, and it tasted the way it looked too from the sample I got from my friend. I don't know my baklava well, but the particular piece I got at Volos did not make me crave more at all.
Overall my impression of Volos was poor - for the $48 (highest price point on the Summerlicious menus) I paid I did not feel like I was getting the expected quality of food or restaurant experience. Nothing about the menu presented Volos as an option worth revisiting in the future to see what the chef has in store, and that negative impression was only aggravated by the slow, inattentive service. The atmosphere suggested to me I would not have to flag for service but I was proven wrong.
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