Nikos Taverna

Horribly disappointing!. Used to go to Nikos, regularly, for 16 years. Just moved back to Durham and couldn't wait to take friends out forfa special occasion on Friday night - 12/10/10. We went to Nikos and boy have things changed since I ate there last (2 years ago).

1) We were there when only 5 other tables were occupied at the restaurant, so they weren't busy. This is important to note, because we waited for 45 MINUTES from the time we were seated until our orders were taken. We kept asking where our waiter was. When he showed up, he said "I thought you might want to visit for awhile." HUH?

2) We were a party of five: Only four of our entrees came out to the table - we had to ask for the chicken entree to be brought to our friend (it was her birthday, no less), because our waiter never brought out her entree. Totally uncomfortable situation.

3) The Moussaka and the lasagna looked as thought it had been frozen and popped in a microwave to thaw. Definitely didn't taste very fresh.

4).We had to ask for my flaming cheese appetizer to be brought to our table, because our waiter never delivered it. When it came out, he dumped entirely to much liquor into the pan, before he ignited it - so it soaked the cheese and therefore it not only made the cheese soggy, but totally overpowered the cheese with a horrible alcohol taste. But who cared, anyway -- the best part was that the cheese was so burned on the bottom of the pan, you couldn't even pry a bite out of the pan!!!

5) The Nikos Salad was supposed to come to the table with olives and anchovies. We found 1 in the salad. and no anchovies! I think there was a tablesspoon of dressing on the salad - can't be sure, because it was so bad and dry

We won't be going back. Service was atrocious and food was sub-par. My favorite restaurant no more!.…

Run, Don't Walk, Away from this place!. We went to Nikos on a Friday evening. We had not been in a while but remembered that it used to be very good so we thought we would give it a try. We should have waited the 40 minutes to an hour to get a table elsewhere...

First of all, the waiter was very arrogant and was a little condescending. We ordered a round of Mythos, which were flat. After the first round of flat beer, we ordered a bottle of wine, appetizers, a village salad, and a main course (the chicken stifado - or chicken stew). The appetizers came out and the food was ok - nothing to write home about. The portion sizes, even for an appetizer, were small. The village salad was pathetic - a few tomatoes, some onion, maybe 3 cucumbers and a couple pieces of feta. The salad came out practically dry - we had to ask for more olive oil.

Now, let's move on to the wine. The waiter had a hard time getting the cork out and in the process it broke in two. When he finally got the remaining cork out of the bottle, he doubted the wine would be drinkable, so he took the open bottle away and walked back towards the kitchen, leaving the cork bits on the table. We thought he would bring out a new bottle. Much to our surprise, he brings the same bottle back and assures us the wine "was fine because he tasted it". Really - did that just happen? Isn't there some kind of health code violation here? And, doesn't that completely negate the reason for opening the bottle by the table? We couldn't even speak because we were all completely shocked.

Next comes the main course - the chicken stifado. I've had chicken stifado before - braised chicken and pearl onions in a wonderful tomato-based sauce. The stifado that showed up on our table was nothing like what we had expected. What showed up on our table was a tomato soup, there were no pearl onions, and a tough, over-cooked, piece of chicken. It looked like a microwavable meal and it was painfully obvious the sauce and chicken had not been cooked together. The potatoes that came with the meal had a horrible texture and were absolutely inedible. Perhaps comparing it to a microwavable meal was a little too generous.

To bring the "meal" to a fitting end, they charged our credit card twice.

I would not recommend this establishment to anyone. It was NOT good.…

Great location - horrible service. About 2 weeks ago I visited and the resturant was not busy at all . It was approximately 8:00 pm on a Saturday night. There was a band playing in Bright Leaf Square and very few people in the resturant. I was seated immediately, but it took near 20 minutes before a waitress came over. I had to got to the bar to get my drinks and the clown behind the bar was cluless and in the middle of serviing me, began serving patrons who came in from the outside to purchase beer only. The staff was calus and indifferent and I've never experienced that before at this location. ......I will never return nor will I recommended Niko's to business associates or friends. Went to Satisfactions afterwards and had a wonderful evening where the service and food was great !!…

Bad night at Nikos. I returned to Niko's after several years and was so disappointed. My friend and I had had many nice meals there before it closed. The gentleman who greeted us was gruff. I ordered the Mousaka, one of their specialities. The waitress came back and informed me that they were out if it. And, it was only 5:45. So, I ordered the marinaded chicken, only to be told me friend had ordered the last serving. I ordered the chicken stew. The chicken was tender, but was on the bone. We were seated in a dimmer part of the restaurant and I kept getting the bones as I could not see them given the lighting and the stew sauce. At one table, 2 different couples were seated, but left without ordering.…