Taverna Trela - Restaurant Impossible Update

Photo - Twitter

Tonight on the season finale of Restaurant: Impossible, Robert Irvine and his crew are in Delray Beach, Florida to makeover Taverna Trela. Taverna Trela is a Greek restaurant owned by Bobby Orfanos who has neglected the restaurant since the loss of his parents.  He is supposedly $400,000 in debt and owes money to a lot of vendors.  Robert Irvine will need to inspire Bobby to fix the restaurant in order to succeed.



As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Taverna Trela to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant: Impossible):





Positive Reviews:

• "Greeted with a smile, excellent service (Bernie) and delicious food. Great job in the renovation. Keep it up guys"
• "My husband and I decided to try this place for lunch one day while grocery shopping in the area. We ordered from the lunch special menu, which included either a Greek salad, fries, and a soda. I ordered the steak wrap and my husband ordered the chicken souvlaki wrap. Both items arrived fresh, delicious, with ample portions. We have had Greek food before, and this restaurant is among the best in the area. The owner is Greek, and is very personable and attentive. He checked on us more than once, and made sure we were happy with our food and service. We will be sure to return in the future!"
• "We just finished dinner at Taverna Trela. We really enjoyed everything that we ate. The complimentary hummus, pita, and baklava for dessert was a nice touch. The portion sizes were very generous. The house glass of wine was only $6.00. The salads were really fresh, and the food was very tasty. The service was particularly friendly, attentive, and polite, thanks to Bernie our server. We felt that the prices were also very reasonable for the portions served. The newly renovated restaurant was very attractive. I would definitely return to this restaurant. It was a very enjoyable evening."
• "Went for dinner with friends a few weeks after the TV makeover. Nice decor. Great service. As a group we ordered Moussaka, and 2 different kabob dinners. Food was very good. Reasonable prices too. Service was excellent."
• "Ate here shortly after the remodel with Restaurant: Impossible. Ambiance and food was delicious! Owner is very kind and made sure everyone enjoyed their food. Overall a wonderful experience."

Negative Reviews:

• "Slow service, a nasty waitress and a nastier manager make for a poor dining experience. The chicken was raw, actually I am not sure it was chicken. It was exchanged for another item, lower priced, and I was charged for the higher priced meal. They even had the nerve to charge $.38 for a tzadiki sauce dipper. There was supposed to be a complimentary dessert, but it never arrived, even after a specific request. The food is poor quality and over priced. There are many other choices for Greek food in the area. I have been here many times before, but have noticed a definite decline in food and service. A "nice" touch were the earphones hanging around the managers neck."
• "I thought that after Robert Irvine showed up things would be a lot better. The food was not good, the service was bad and they messed up the orders so many times. There is a better Greek restaurant in Delray that is cheaper and wayyyy better! They kept saying the kitchen was so busy but the place barely had people. You can tell that they didn't take Robert Irvine's advice or maybe Robert gave some bad advice. All in all, I can tell you that I wouldn't come back here again."
• "Ordered a salad with shrimp to go. The tomatoes were not ripe and cut in quarters so I had to cut up when I got home. The cucumbers were only partially peeled. The dressing was all oil and I had to doctor when I got home. The shrimp were not seasoned at all. The bill was $19."
• "We wanted to give this restaurant another chance since it's recent renovation.... let's just say we will never go back. We waited for over 20 mins for them to "set our table" and there were like 3 other tables in the entire restaurant filled. So to say they were busy, well that weren't. I also found it rude that the owner, Bobby, started arguing and yelling at his hostess (she was arguing back) in front of us and other guests that were eating and then to not even come up to us and introduce himself and say "I'm sorry we appreciate your patience....". I can see why this place has gone down.""Everything was great but at 4:00 in the afternoon,a Greek restaurant is out of lamb chops??? Something wrong with that picture, wouldn't you say??"
• "Was not impressed. First when I walked in the guy at the counter was nice. Then things went a little sideways... Managers/Owners seems all lost and confused. They were out of grape leaves on a friday night. The servers were searching for things that they weren't even sure was ordered or in house. One guy even had an argument with a server in the dining room. The food.... The feta fries and almost no feta or flavor. My platter had no salad. The pita was so greasy i wouldn't even touch it. I can definitely say i will never go back."

*Reviews from Yelp, Google


Other News and Links:

• The Restaurant Impossible makeover happened in January 2020.
• Taverna Trela doesn't have a working website or Facebook page at the time the episode aired.
• A March 2019 inspection of the restaurant found 9 high priority violations which made them shut down.  The violations included live roaches and a lot of food temperature issues. (Link)
• Here are the more recent inspections which have improved. (Link)
• Here are the reviews for Taverna Trela from Yelp, Tripadvisor and Google.
• Taverna Trela is a Greek restaurant that also serves sushi.  They show up as a sushi restaurant on Yelp.
• The same family owned a restaurant a few doors down called Zorba's Taverna. They expanded and renamed the restaurant to Taverna Trela.
• The About section on Opentable states, "Taverna Trela is an upscale casual restaurant and bar that serves best authentic Greek cuisine is South Florida. The owners of Zorba's have taken their classic recipes and opened a much larger classic Greek taverna just a few doors down. Come taste the exciting flavors on our lunch menu during the day. Return at night for our music, atmosphere, and delicious dinner specials paired with the perfect wine or cocktail. We have regular belly dancing dinner shows by the Siren's Dance Collective. Come to have your taste buds and your senses amazed by our bold recipies and fascinating entertainment."

Conclusion:

The reviews for Taverna Trela since the Restaurant Impossible makeover have been somewhat negative with there being complaints about food, service, rude employees and menu items being unavailable.  The positive reviews compliment the food, service and decor/ambiance.  Taverna Trela does not currently have a working website or Facebook page as the links to them are no longer valid.  They may want to fix this after being on a national television show.


UPDATE - It appears that Taverna Trela closed in late 2020.  They are marked as closed on Yelp and Google and have not posted on Facebook since March 2020. 

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