Tony's Pita Swiss Cottage

London's Authentic Culinary Greek Experience

Now and then, one stumbles upon a restaurant that paints an ironic tableau of gastronomic expectation versus reality. Enter Tony’s Pita in Swiss Cottage—a theater where you're served mystery and delight, punctuated with the rhythmic swing of a missing sauce or misdirected order. The place presents an intriguing Greek culinary melody, often enchanting you into believing you're whisked away to the Aegean for a twilight supper—until, of course, the rather lobotomized service brings you firmly back to Finchley Road as it temporarily forgets your table altogether. Despite these hiccups, brace yourself as the kitchen, led by meat-smoking avengers, heroically delivers Greek staples: savoury gyros robust enough to battle the London chill, and what other zealous reviewers dubbed "the best lamb ribs" this side of Mount Olympus.

Despite the occasional cold dish and a sprinkling of errors bordering on culinary Homeric epic, Tony's Pita doesn’t entirely fall into the Greek tragedy category. What's there is good—and sometimes more: portions are joyous affairs accompanied by lashings of that zesty Greek welcome, should you catch them off their moody day schedule. If Mustafa, the charmer at the service helm, attends your table, prepare to raise a toast to genuinely hospitable dining and likely feel apologetic for initially considering the doomed expedition. Occasionally, every note combines into delightful symphony—best savoured with their falafel wrap by the cloves of forty stations and flamboyantly charming cm plates. Certainly imperfect, but flawed dreams are somehow endearing, aren’t they? — Penelope Savory