Athens Riverside Cafe

Permanently closed; see sign in photo. It had far too quixotic a name to live long in this sweet world of ours, did it not?

I took my wife & daughter to the Athens Riverside Café for Mothers’ Day. It was the WORST experience. The help was indifferent at first. We had two out of three place settings. Food arrived, asked for another place setting. Waiter went into kitchen. After about 5 minutes, I got up to ask the woman at the counter for a place setting– saw the waiter in the kitchen on a cell phone. Woman at counter shoved the place setting at me, tho I had asked politely. Ordered fish, waiter asked if we wanted tartar sauce. Way into the meal, still no sauce. Wife got up, asked the woman behind the counter for the tartar sauce. Waiter came out with the tartar sauce a few minutes later, shoved it at my wife, no «sorry for the delay». My daughter specifically ordered a fried shrim dinner off the menu. She got this microscopic shrimp you’d need a tweezer to pick up, and no fries. We asked the waiter about the fries, and he went into kitchen. After a long while, he came out with the fries, no «I’m sorry for the delay or the mixup». The Menu said there were refills on «tea and coffee». We ordered iced tea (place did not have license to serve beer or wine). Waiter did come by and asked if we wanted refills on the iced teas. We said we did, got refills on our iced tea.
Check came, and we were charged full price for the refills on the iced teas. Asked about it, got told the «free refill only was for coffee and tea», not iced tea or soda. Woman behind counter (owner) and the waiter then asked me to name anyplace that gave free refills on iced tea. I named a few. No apology for misunderstanding or much else. I paid the check and we left. We took a walk around the waterfront, and on returning, this one man who was eating outside of the Riverside Café’ asked what had gone on, etc. Wife explained to him. As she was doing so, the waiter came out, asking if there was a problem, was everything cool. The waiter was now confrontational. I was waiting for him to get a bit mouthier and throw the first punch as he seemed dumb enough to do it. These people do not know the first thing about how to treat customers. «The Customer is Always Right» and any semblance of respectful treatment or manners is off the table at the Athens Riverside Café.
The owner and her waitstaff at the Riverside Café are rude, confrontational, and the food is barely mediocre. Any person needing a meal in Athens would do better with a sandwich and a bottle of iced tea up the street at the Stewart’s convenience store. Avoid this place like the plague.

I grew up in Athens, and this is one of my favorite restaurants. I have been there several times over the years and it’s at the point that the waitresses know me by name.
The food is always really good as well as cheap, and you get really big portions for your money — I always want to order desserts because they all sound so good, but I never have room for dessert.
The service is always fast and friendly. The atmosphere is very informal and homey, but without being dirty/​run-​down. The only thing that bothered me (and this is probably just me) is that the entrances to the toilets were behind the counter.

we came here for a st patty’s day dinner but for some reason we add ordered something other than corned beef and cabbage.
the steak was perfectly cooked and juicy, the shepherds pie was very flavorful and thick and the salads had a Ton of arugula (that actually makes it deserve 4 starts in my opinion but the poor wine selection knocks it back down a star). they also have a pretty nice selection for kids menu items including homemade mac n cheese (i wanted to pretend i was 12 and order some myself).
the service was very friendly and warm. i would definitely come back, especially in the summer when you can sit outside on the river.