Pleasantly surprised! Finally tried this spot--mainly drawn to the outdoor seating. The patio is perfect this time of year (although we had an initial problem when the reservation we booked for one night showed up on the books as the next night; we were repeatedly informed that an outdoor table was therefore "impossible," but upon further questioning, a miraculous change occurred! And we ended up outside).

Ordered fried eggplant with tzatziki (sp?), feta cheese with pitas, a large Greek salad, and "filet mignon" souvlaki (again, sp?).

Pretty basic fare and perhaps hard to get wrong, but all excellent. Everything seemed fresh; cold food was cold, hot food was hot. And decently priced.

I like a lot the ambience of this restaurant. Very simple but enchanting place. The terrace is beautiful and the owner friendly and always attentive to his customers. I was impressed the first time we were there at the end of our meal he offered to us a plate of mix dessert, absolutely kind of him. Prices on the average and food delicious.

We heard of this place, but never had the opportunity to try it. That changed this weekend when our first plan was El Patio. Which was closed! WTF? So we spend our lunch money at this place.

The laoban greeted us cordially at the door, even walking us to our seats and getting us settled. Nice touch, it felt genuine. Needless to point out (ok, now you can argue I did) that the staff does not measure up to that and offers the much expected 'service' but they do try, and do shows signs of getting training.

Menus are not really handy. Tall and clumsy things. For a moment we thought it had only 4 pages! Our starter was a bit disappointing = the spinach feta cheese came without the cheese. Yes, you guessed it; they ran out and told us after they served it. But they made a comeback with the grilled swordfish. It's easy to overdo this and serve a dry leather like chunk of meat, but ours was done just right. Chewy but good. The flavoring was excellent. Our moussaka came hot and tasty as well, the bechamel was dense and creamy. Could have had some stronger spices but I understand for this market you want to make it easy-entry. They gyros did have the flavoring to make you think Mediterranean so it was a give and take thing.

Decor is the expected (cliché) white and azur with the terra cotta details. But why fret; even if it is a dime a dozen, would you expect a Greek restaurant to go fusion? The added amusement we had were the scenes outside. We counted two fender benders, and half a dozen couples and your parents with hired photographers, posing at the windows. Never gets old :-)

Have been here a couple of times now and they are consistent in a few areas - poor service, average food, and the menu still claims "Dishes Coming Soon" which has been on the menu since it opened. I'm not sure how long it takes to get some of their staple dishes at this location given they have a branch in Pudong, but it seems like these dishes are more of a "here's what we have on the other side of the river."

The good thing about Taverna is the patio, even though this time of year can be horrible for outdoor seating. The atmosphere is good, and the view of the street below provides some good entertainment. I would suggest coming here to sit on the patio and have some cocktails. I wouldn't even order appetizers since when we ordered hummus for 4 people, they brought out a good size portion of hummus, but one pita cut in four little triangles...the ratio is just a tad off. Of course, trying to get more bread from an unattentive staff (worse than the average staff experiences) is nearly impossible.

Stop in, have a drink, then move on to a better place.

This nice looking restaurant turned out to be a disappointment. On the arrival we were told that our reservation of a table on the outdoor terrace was no longer available, even though we booked it more than 24 hours in advance. After a while, the problem was solved by a nice, young lady by moving our table outside.
Finally seated, we waited for the staffs’ attention for far too long. Our first drink order was finally taken after a few minutes of fruitless hand-waving and calling. The food service was equally slow, not to mention the rather ignorant waiters looking at the floor to avoid guests’ requests. Other diners were also visibly annoyed with the lack of interests. The staff that finally managed to make it to our table was very nice. My feeling is that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the staff; they were just a bit understaffed for a Friday night.
The food was not too bad, although my main course needed to be reheated and they failed to replace the fries with a baked potato which I requested earlier..
In other reviews, diners are saying that it comes down to expectations as "it’s China”. I do not agree with this as there are numerous examples of restaurants in China (both western and Chinese) with lower prices and much better service.
Conclusion: great outdoor space, friendly staff but far too few of them, leaving room for improvement!

So I've become a new fan of that place... what a nice little change from the oily Chinese food I eat every lunch (yeah work area with nothing around) !

The place is cute, but mostly it's very conveniently located, right in the middle of the French concession. The decoration is what you'd expect of a Greek restaurant, but the terrace is a really nice surprise with nice music, nice lighting, and plants everywhere... all it misses is a turquoise sea, but for some people the Villa is just as enjoyable :)

Now on to the food; tasty, healthy and good value for money. I had mostly mezze like dish, like hummous, eggplant dip, meatballs, amazing fried cheese (ok not so healthy but oh so good); the food really is good, portions are good for sharing, and even though some dishes can take a little time to arrive, I think it's worth the wait.

As for the things they need to improve: the service time. The staff is nice and for China the service is totally acceptable, but it's true sometimes an order gets a little lost or takes a little time to find its way to our table, but if the atmosphere is nice, I usually don't mind.

All in all, a very good place that I recommend !

I stop there as i sen the renovation doing there

let s be simple, the service is very bad for a western restaurant, very slow and it look like they didn t trained the staff about the food

no way for them to answer our question regarding the food

when food came, no one to ensure evrything are ok, no one to even propose another drinks, have to call waiters all the time so for those who are looking for service ...

food taste ok but not amazing

will just go another greek restaurant next time

Walked by the place a few times and decided to try it out with a couple of friends on a rainy saturday night. Lets talk about service for a second. In Shanghai its all about expectations, and you have to go into a restaurant with minimal expectation. Did they seat you promptly, were they prompt in taking and delivery your order. Did they bring you condiments and refills at least once during the dinner. If they did all that then thats more than average in China already. Greek Tavern satisfied the basic requirements in service.
The food is good, its a simple fare but done very well. I had the Dolma which was the best thing I had. The lamb was a bit on the plain side but still done well. They have this whole roasted pig thing I think I will organize a few friend together to try out in the near future.

Killer Terrace. Upstairs...with the white walls... Greek music... plants... and trees.. you feel like you're on a little vacation to Mykonos.

The food was a little slow... but great tasting. Ambiance and food really is what this place is about. I asked and was told they have a chef from Greece in the kitchen, which if true...really makes a difference.

Hopefully the food gets quicker and the wine list improves. But all in all... good experience. Definitely will be back.

Firs time in this restaurant and i had really a good time eating good food.
The tatziki were delicious and the greek salad (you can choose large or small one) too even though i would have like more feta :)
the decoration of the place is pretty classical for a greek restaurant (white walls, blue shutters) but well, the spirit is here and makes you wanna fly to Greece for some summer holidays.

Only negative point was the techno music at the end of the night (around 10.30). Ok it was Saturday night but still, the greek music at the beginning was perfect, i still wonder why they change.
But they agreed to lower the sound a bit so was nice from them.

Will be back for sure.