Restaurant "Customering" in Greece

All About Greece 3: Restaurant "Customering" and Culture

When we were walking in Greece, one thing we found is that there would always be someone standing in front or at the door side of the restaurant, and trying to get some customers into their restaurant, or at least look at their menus.

Remember on the first night at Rethymno, when there was a man trying to convince us to try their Greek dishes, we were just being polite and said we have eaten, at the end we picked another one. The next day we passed by it again, the same guy, recognizing us, saying that we should really visit him this day, as we sort of lied the day before, and he saw us dining in another restaurant etc etc.

What do you think about this? For me, we were just trying to reject him in a polite way (as our apartment receptionist recommended us some restaurants already), and he was being very rude to say that to us. We're the ones paying, shouldn't we get to choose what we want? =S

Just be aware of this, and if you're not going to eat anything, just try not to walk pass one whole row of restaurants.. you'd probably get tired saying no!

The other thing is about tips. On our first night in Athens, after finished dining, we asked for the bills and paid the total. One first man came by our table and "reminded" us that service charge wasn't included. When we were still discussing whether to pay tips and how much to pay, a second man came and collected the money on the table, counting, before leaving our table, he said "put the tips on the table! put the tips on the table" Imagine our expressions. =.= I was a bit pissed off and said we shouldn't be paying tips to people like this! How can he ORDERED us to pay him tips?! And guess what, at the end we left €0.10 on the table!

Just remember this restaurant.. it's close to Athens Monastiraki metro station..

More:

All about Greece 1: Airport taxi/cab in Crete

All about Greece 2: Athens or Islands?