Estia

I have visited Estia on several occasions with family and friends.Always found the staff welcoming and friendly. The fact that they use organic and free range meat is a plus. There is always a good vegetarian option. We had an exceptional New Years Eve dinner last year, very enjoyable. Hope to repeat it this year. Chocolate cheesecake made with Green and Black chocolate. Brilliant. For beer drinkers try the Keo. ANN.
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Friday, November 10, 2006

I have been to Estia several times now and it is always a delight. Delicate and tucked away.

The food is amazing, (especially the lamb kleftico) and very reasonable for the quality of food.

The atmosphere is lovely, frendly helpful waiteress with a family run feel to it.

I would highly recomend this place.
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rebecca
Thursday, November 02, 2006

We fancied ringing the changes with eating Greek. Hit the web and Estia was one of three.

Very warmly welcomed and we didn't book. Place filled up very quickly - clearly popular with all ages.

Very disappointed with the food. Their olives were of poor quality - not what you expect from a greek restaurant. We started with dips and pitta. Not much of it and again very poor quality. I had lamb for my main. Whilst the lamb was OK, I have to say it needed some seasoning - I've eaten better elsewhere and it has to be said chaper too. Inspite of the service and ambience being good, the quality of the food spoiled it for us. Sorry, but we'll not go back.
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Mandy
Tuesday, October 17, 2006

I am Greek Cypriot and I was hoping to have a taste of home. The staff were friendly, as other reviewers have said, but the restaurant was empty when we visited at lunchtime and consequently there was no atmosphere. The food was 'ok'. Portions were small (in some cases I would say 'stingy') and most dishes were over-priced. I could have stayed home and done better myself. Having said that, I would give them another go. Maybe in the evening when the place is (hopefully) a bit livlier!
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Friday, October 13, 2006

I recently booked Estia for a birthday lunch for a party of 14 of us and we had a really brilliant time. The service was efficient and friendly and the meze dishes came out at just the right intervals making it a long leisurely afternoon of drinking and eating. Highly recommended.
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Sue Lapwood
Wednesday, October 04, 2006

We visited this place on a Saturday in late August / early September. Pleasant enough atmosphere although nothing special. My pork meatball starters were big enough to have been a main course but they tasted a bit like fried sausagemeat and the fact a couple were pink inside put me off a bit. My wife had one of the squewered chicken dishes (can't remember the name). She thought it was authentic and tasty although I thought it was a touch bland. My lamb kleftiko was very disappointing and hard work. It basically consisted of two lamb shanks with a huge amount of luke warm and rather fatty meat on it. A thin gravy and a couple of spuds were the only accompaniment. There was simply too much meat here. They'd have done much better to serve up one (hot) lamb shank and provide more of a potato accompaniment. The menu warned that the greek coffees were strong. I found mine undrinkable but perhaps that's what an authentic greek black coffee is like so that's not necessarily a criticism. Service was quite good.
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chelston - View all reviews by this user
Saturday, September 30, 2006

Friendly service, excellent food great to have some delicious veggie options for me as am always so disappointed when eating out. Also my partner was delighted to learn that the meat is organic, reasonably priced considering! He ate the kleftiko and loved every mouthful from start to end. highly recommeneded for good food and good atmosphere.
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megan
Friday, September 22, 2006

I was looking for a quiet little place for an intimate family gathering and thought I’d give this place a try. I am so glad I did. From the moment we arrived we were treated superbly. The staff are adorable, very friendly and would do anything for you. For a Friday night I fully expected the restaurant to be overcrowded but that wasn't the case. I'm sure this isn't what the owners would like but for my party of four it was ideal; conversations could be had without shouting or straining to hear. Now to the food, the starters were excellent, calamari, prawns and feta cheese was the selection my table ordered and they all went down a treat. The main courses of lamb, swordfish and chicken were all cooked to perfection and delicious. The dessert of hot baklava and ice cream was melt in the mouth heaven. Throw in 2 bottles of wine and a bill that was very reasonable and we have ourselves a great evening. I will be back soon to sample more delights this lovely little eatery has to offer. I highly recommend you pay it a visit.
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James
Saturday, September 02, 2006

I went with my daughter to Estia last night, based entirely on the reviews on this site. The service was friendly and attentive, the decor and subsequent atmosphere somewhat non-descript but the food was very mediocre. For the starter we shared three dips with pitta bread. The dips themselves were quite good and we hoped were an omen of what was to come. Not so however. My daughter's Kleftiko was no more than an ordinary piece of roast lamb shoulder with an extremely small amount of a very bland and watery gravy and a couple of small, supposedly roasted, potatoes (she even added some salt herself to try and give the dish some flavour of seasoning). Although to be fair, the lamb was tender. The Chicken Souvlaki I had consisted of pieces of skewered chicken, with two or three small token pieces of dried out mushroom and one piece of red pepper. Judging by the squashed shape of the pieces of chicken, it been (over)cooked on a George Foreman type hot plate. They were seared (burned and crusty most of us would call it!) on the sides that had been in contact with the hot plate and there was no sign of any accompanying sauce which would have taken away some of the chicken's dryness. The small portion of rice on the plate was quite nice. Both dishes were served with an accompanying Greek salad, yet both main courses also came with a small salad dressing on the plate. We had to ask for some olive oil and vinegar to dress the salads ourselves. With so many good places to choose from in Brighton, I can't see either uf us returning.
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Alan Phillips
Sunday, August 27, 2006

I visited Estia with my other half in the evening in the middle of the week, so it was pretty quiet in there. I thought the resturant looked welcoming, clean, cost, fresh and the sort of place you could bring someone along to. We were made very welcome by the waitress, who was friendly, attentive and helpful. Though being a quiet night, she was never going be rushed off her feet looking after the diners.

As the other half isn't one to pig out in resturants, she decided to miss the starter and just have a main course. I decided to opt for some dips which turned out to be big enough for two of us to share, and they seemed to be tasty and of good quality. We ordered a bottle of red from the list and that also tasted pretty good, which is a good sign for the cheap end of the list.

For the mains, I opted for pork in a red wine and coriander sauce with rice. She chose the main salad on the menu, though I often feel these aren't a high priority for the chef so aren't always what they could be. My pork dish had plenty of flavour, and the rice was cooked with additional ingredients too, which also added to dish considerably. My only gripe with my plate of food was the pork pieces were a bit on the dry side. They were probably a bit overcooked for the lean cut used, so a fattier cut should have been used for this dish, or the pork cooked far quicker. However the sauce was good both in flavour and texture. The other half's salad was a bit of a dissapointment to be honest. The halloumi it was topped with was tasty enough, but the main bulk of the salad was a bit of a let down. There could have been more avocado in there, and the lettuce that seemed to be mainly used was iceburg. I've got a pet hate of this lettuce, as it has no flavour and just water and crunch; it might be fine for bulking out a burger, but not really featuring in a decent salad. My pork dish did have some other salad leaves served with it (along with a side salad with feta which was a good addition), and these were decent flavoursome leaves. I would have liked to have seen them feature strongly in the main salad. I would have also liked to have seen a bottle of olive oil for dressing the salads to be offered too, though I imagine the helpful waitress would have happily brought one over if we had asked.

We were too full to have a dessert, though the offerings on the menu looked very tempting.

Overall a nice setting with good friendly service (a rarity these days), but the food could have been executed a bit better with little extra effort or cost.
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fergus - View all reviews by this user
Wednesday, August 16, 2006