Estia

Have been meaning to try estias for a while now as we live nearby. Took our friends from Belgium here and we all loved it. Big portions (although we were so tempted by the menu that the four of us decided share a mix of starters and five mains between us - our waitress warned us we might have over ordered but we just about managed to polish the whole lot off.) The chicken skewers were particularly good as was the starter mezze plate- a mixture of lots of picky dippy things. Friendly staff - our waitress made a fuss of my friend with some tough dietary requirements to make sure she could find some things on the menu to try. They ran out of the wine we were drinking but let us try some more reds until we found one we liked. Best of all the bill was really reasonable. We will be returning!
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Saturday, July 23, 2011

I HAD TO WRITE THIS FOR EVERYONE ELSE ON THIS SITE...

This is not the best restaurant in Brighton. I doubt its even the best greek in Brighton. This site seems to be flawed (as is the london version). I wanted to check out Brighton's no.1 restaurant. When I rang at 8:30 and asked for a table a lady eventually answered and said "we don't usually serve people after 9 on a tuesday" so we hurried there and got there before 9. When we got there we walked in and waited ten minutes for a member of staff to appear. We just stood there perplexed in front of the diners. In the end I rang their telephone and someone appeared.

Service was hit and miss (forgot our water)

Kefdedakia were very good as were the dolmades. Pork souviakis were a bit too dry and the moussaka had no aubergine.

The prices were extremely reasonable though. Maybe thats why this restaurant scores so highly?

We were pretty gutted after the high standard of due south the night before and seeing as it was our last night in Brighton I'd rather we had gone somewhere else. If you get to this page and are wanting a top romantic summery meal then head to due south instead
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nathan - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Greek at it's best ! Well done will be back with more friends.
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George georgiou
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, May 23, 2011

5 of us for a birthday treat..couldn't fault it, and we know our greek food.

Saturday night very busy, good job we booked. Staff were excellent, food fresh, prices fair, what more could you ask?
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, January 31, 2011

Every year I go for a Christmas Meal with my friends, this year we choose Estia. I was looking for a local restaurant that wasn’t part of a chain which would be an enjoyable evening with good food. The restaurant is a family run affair and is quite small but nicely laid out, there was 11 of us in the end and we opted for the Christmas Menu which had a good and varied choice of food on it, the majority of the meat dishes were either organic or free range. When we arrived the table had been setup for us with Christmas Crackers. The food was very good we all had Meze for starter which in itself was almost a meal, plenty of food and nicely prepared. I went for KLEFTIKO With Roasted Veg for main and the lamb fell off the bone and was very tasty indeed, for dessert I had Baklava which was once again very good. My friends had various different other dishes and all said they were very good, and tasty.

Service through the whole night was faultless, at the start of the night I even asked for cider, which they didn’t have any of but even offered to go out and get some, I politely declined and went for the local beer. If I was to make any criticism of the restaurant which would be a very minor one it would be that they only have one bottled beer. It would be nice to have a couple available, but the one they did have which was a Cypriot beer was pretty good, so no complaints with that.

We all had a very enjoyable time in our group, but one of my friends did comment that if he was going to go on a date then he would probably go back there as in the main it was couples there, we did feel quite welcome as a group though. If you are looking to take someone out I’d have a look and see if you like the menu. All in all it was an excellent evening out and I have no hesitation in recommending Estia to my fellow Brightonians.
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Gavin - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, January 06, 2011

my new favourite restaurant in brighton! although i thought estia was quite new the (very friendly) waitress told me they have been there for 7 years- a good sign in this town where restaurants are opening and closing within months. The service in here is fantastic perhaps because they are small and family run you get the feeling that the staff actually care unlike when you walk into a pizza chain with miserable waiters. My boyfriend and i shared a cyprus mezze- a big meat and fish feast which should come with a warning because there is SO MUCH food. Every course was as delicious as the last but the mussels where a real high light. We couldn't fit in any pudding so we're going back soon and leaving room... Hopefully!
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sarah
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Having had a few nice meals here, we decided to book the whole restaurant for my oh's 60th birthday party on 26th June 2010, and organized a meze buffet for our guests. What a great decision! Andrea , Andy and everyone looked after us from start to finish. I visited early afternoon with a good friend to drop off balloons, decorations etc, which Andrea kindly offered to set out for us later. On arrival, the restaurant was beautifully set out, all decorated as we would wish and a warm welcome from the family. From the outset, as people arrived, everyone was well looked after, efficiently and always with a smile. Throughout the evening, Andrea consulted with me to ensure all ran smoothly. After a while, I asked if we could start the nibbles - well, I didn't know what I had started! FIrst of all, warm pitta bread, olives, taramasalata, tzatziki and huumus arrived. Later, out came meatballs with rice - then came an avalanche of food! Fried halloumi cheese was produced, followed by greek salad (with incidentally, the nicest feta cheese I have ever eaten), dolmades, chicken, swordfish, greek sausages (Kefalia?), beef stifado, moussaka and two different types of potato! I think I can safely say that everybody (about 40 people) were astonished at and commented on the variety and truly high quality of every dish. This must have been a great sacrifice on Andy's part, being the chef, as he is an Arsenal fan and 95% of the party are avid Chelsea fans. The whole evening was a roaring success, My brother made a speech which was barracked throughout and my oh responded also being warmly welcomed! Then, on request or demand, my oh did his party trick on request, singing Alouette whilst being pelted by celery from his good friends and family. Luckily, we had warned Andrea that this was likely to happen, and she had even checked with us to ensure that we had brought the celery!!! Some baklava and candles were then produced to a chorus of Happy Birthday. Some time later, having thanked Andrea & co for a wonderful evening, we wended a tired but very happy (some extremely merry) way home. Cannot recommend too highly - thank you Estia for making Bill's 60th such a wonderful night.
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Anne Bond
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, June 27, 2010

Great news, found a great greek restuarant in Brighton. Run buy a greek family with a greek chef felt like i was back in Cyprus. And even better prices extremely frendly, well done .
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George Georgiou
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, June 17, 2010

After reading all the good reviews we went along to Estia the other night and I have to say the food was disappointing. Yes, the atmosphere was good. Yes, the service was good. But the food was just average and that's not really good enough.

My calamari batter tasted like it hadn't been seasoned at all. My Kleftico was OK but the other three diners were all uninspired by their mains.

I felt I should post this review in case anyone else reads this page and expects too much as did we.
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- View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Tuesday, March 23, 2010

My husband and I popped in without a reservation last Saturday night, 26/9, and were greeted with open arms.

The staff were all very cheerful and nothing was too much trouble for them even though the restaurant filled up very quickly.

We ordered the vegetarian mezze and the food just kept coming. It was excellent and the salad was so fresh I am sure it was just picked!

Thoroughly recommend this restaurant for the atmosphere, staff, wine and food.

We will go back more often.
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Mary Bishop
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, September 30, 2009