Telly's Taverna

I heard that this restaurant was popular and authentic. Very excited - we walked in, and the atmosphere was like I was sea side. Beautiful Unfortunately, that's it. The service was not the best. The drinks - not great Appetizers We had the fried zucchini {delicious}, octopus {good and gummy} and fried meatballs {No flavor}. The mains - No flavor at all Salmon - 2 orders. Both were very overcooked. I was able to pick the whole piece up w a fork. Grilled chicken was so white, I was afraid for my son to eat it. It was also overcooked. The whole time, at every corner, we had a staff member hovering and listening to our conversation. It was very odd. They offered a complimentary dessert that was covered in sugar. The whole experience was really bad. It was unfortunate and VERY expensive. 200+

I’m so upset and so so saddened to the point I want to cry as I type this review. I’m 44yrs old from NYC, I’ve lived in Miami, Puerto Rico, Atlanta GA and I’ve literally have traveled all over the world I say this to say that in all my year of travel and dining I’ve never in my life have felt so humiliated and discriminated against. Today my BF and I decided to try Telly’s Taverna in Portchester because he lives in the area and I was visiting. We walked in the hostess was super nice and the place is absolutely beautiful so I exited to try the food as I love everything Greek, the hostess let us now that it was happy hour but we could only sit at the bar for it so we said cool. As we walk in we noticed it was empty only a group of 3 people caucasian people were sitting at the bar (My BF and I are Latin POC) we proceeded to sit the bartender proceeded to throw the menus on the bar we didn’t think much of it we just thought he was a bit rushing. But as time went on and we asked for drinks and appetizers we noticed his attitude towards us but when he was dealing with his party of 3 his attitude and demeanor changed drastically in a pleasant way. I brought it to my BF attention and he told me not to let it ruin my evening, so I decided to ignore it. As our appetizer approaches I hand the bartender our menu to make room so he can place the mat on the bar and he snatches the menu from my hand at this point I’m too uncomfortable and want to say something but my BF ask me to just let it go, so I do. Our drinks come and my BF ask the bartender if he can mix his drink better the bartender proceeded to snatch the drink back up with an attitude and as he pours it back in the glass he did it in such a nasty way that the drink spilled. At this point Im completely livid. So we decided to just move to a table at we had already spend $124 on 2 shots, 1 appetizer, 4 happy hour drinks and 1 Spinach Pie (still in the process because it take 20 minutes to cook). The sit us at the SMALLEST table they have and when I ask if we could sit at a booth they tell us they are fully booked which I found completely and absolutely comical as the restaurant was EMPTY at this point I’m shaking from how upsetting I was ready to cry because how is it 2023 and restaurants are still treating people in this manner?! My BF saw how upset I was and we decided to just leave one of the waitress try to ask what was wrong and if there was anything she can do to fix our situation but I was too disgusted to stay. Places like this should be ashamed of themselves as US THE MINORITY spend the most in this economy. I can honestly say this was my first time in my 44yrs to encounter and experience any type of racial discrimination and it absolutely sucked and it felt degrading. Management should really do something about how they treat everyone that spends their hard earned money at their establishments. JUST HORRIBLE!!!!