Dimitri’s

[+]
— Generous (in excess) portions that are very well priced
— Great ambience
— Attentive service that brought four course meal perfectly in sync with drinks
— Tip; in a group get shared meal (family style)

Dimitri’s is an excellent mixed-​cuisines restaurant and bar a little outside Manchester city centre, but not far from the Museum of Industry. I hit upon Dimitri’s by pure luck. I had just left my fleabag hotel and was browsing the area for an early dinner opportunity — this place looked appealing immediately — and it turned out my restaurant radar is still working! Dimitri’s offers modern Spanish (Tapas), Greek and Turkish (Kebab) food in a very pleasant atmosphere — it does get busy by 5 p.m. already, when most restaurants that offer dinner are either still closed or empty.
And there’s a reason of course: Between 5 and 6 p.m., there’s «happy hour» at Dimitri’s. On all the dishes except those in the «From the Grill» section of the menu (see my photo) you will get a discount of 50%. That’s quite a lot, given that the original prices aren’t exactly outrageous. So for a first visit or a group visit it’s ideal to turn up at 5. Trust me, it’s worth it.
The restaurant is split into several dining areas, of which the alcove to the rear is the most pleasant. It comes with gas burners, so make sure you don’t sit *too* close to those. You want to enjoy the grills without getting barbecued yourself!
The waiters and waitresses are all *extremely* welcoming and helpful. The waiter who served me pointed out the discount option *after* I had already decided on a more expensive dish from the «From the Grill» section! How very nice! Of course, I canceled the expensive one and settled on the «Mixed Kebab» — a selection of your choice of three souvlakis (Greek style meat skewers) with tomato sauce, Greek fries (i.e. spiced fries) and a salad garnish. I chose fish, lamb and pork. For the reduced price, especially, that was one fine and generously portioned dish! The meat was a bit on the charcoal-​y side, but I like that.
There are several beers available on tap and from the bottle at slightly elevated prices.
Next time I visit Manchester I will certainly go there again and try the tapas: Almost everyone around me had those (they were experts, I was a noob), and they looked spectacularly good, and the portions were huge, too.
I DEFINITELY recommend this place around 5-​ish, and even for the regular price you will be happy and satisfied.

Everything was perfect, food was great, price was great, the waiter was one of the best we had in manchester, the music was fitting, and overall great and welcoming place. Would highly recommend.

Ate here last night. The place was buzzing but they squeezed us in as long as we left before the table was booked by someone else. Very good shared dippy starter and good service.

I haven’t been to Dimitris in years and thought I’d go with a friend to see how it was doing. Average at best. Garlic bread starters was almost half a loaf with garlic butter that was waaaaay to big for a starter and relatively tasteless, albeit cheap.
The main we had was a lot of food on a small plate — kebabs. It comes with rice and potatoes of your choice, with a sauce for dipping. It was ok but for the price, just under £20, we both expected more.
Personally, I prefer the days of old when you paid £2 for a «substantial» meal of meatballs and humous with pitta and more of an honest approach.

I have always seen this place and it always looks really busy but never got a chance to go in. Me and my partner and some friends went a couple of weeks ago it was packed and a band playing it was a great atmosphere, we got seated to are table and it felt like you was outside but it was all under cover. You got could have been anywhere it didn’t feel like you was in manchester city center. We ordered some dips and shared them they were delicious and plenty for the four of us. I ordered chicken suflaki with chips and salad it was really nice send the sauces with it was great too. The only down side was I though it was a little over priced for what you got, I would definitely go back though it was great food and a great atmosphere and the staff were really friendly and helpfull overall a great night

Visited Dimitris on a Friday evening and the place was buzzing with people mingling in the bar area along with the live music which they had playing. We had a table booked but actually struggled to find a member of staff to see where our table was… After a few minutes we managed to grab the attention of who I assume was the manager and he was very friendly and apologised about our wait even though we hadn’t mentioned it which was good. Decided to order wine which was reasonably priced a d tasted pretty decent for a house wine — I’ll admit I’m no wine connersiur though! We ordered the ‘dippy’ starter which is anyb4 dips with warm bread which was excellent. My favourite was the hummus. We all then had kebabs and I decided on chicken, lamb and fish (salmon and tuna if I remember correctly) along with rice which was very tasty… For the price though I think it is quite expensive for what it is though. I was still hungry after it! For desert I had baklava which was excellent and just the right amount of sweetness. I wish we were seated nearer to the music though so we could listen to it between courses but will return in the future and request a table for this.

I’ve found it very hard to decide on the star rating for my experience at Dimiti’s: on the one hand the food was brilliant, on the other hand the service was downright poor.
The food highlights: We stumbled across an early bird offer where selected dishes are 50% before 18.00. Tiropitakia (Deep-​fried Feta cheese filo pastry triangles), Gigantes (Giant Butter Beans in a spicy Tomato Sauce and Feta) and Revithia (Chickpeas cooked in Tomato Sauce with Spiced Spinach) were just three of the tasty & authentic dishes that we sampled. Great sized portions that tasted really fresh.
The service downside: To begin with service was friendly & efficient. Of the 8 dishes we ordered we ate everything but the whitebait, which we thought a bit bitter. At the end the waitress queried the reason why we’d left it; we explained why and said we weren’t bothered as we were really happy with all the other dishes. She then had a discussion with another waitress next to our table, rolling her eyes & looking clearly disgusted that we’d not eaten her whitebait. Second waitress then comes over and queries our ‘complaint’ and why we didn’t mention it earlier. Again we had to explain that there was no complaint, we just hadn’t liked the taste so we’d left it. We were then given a lecture on restaurant etiquette & the making of whitebait — did you know that if something isn’t right you must always tell the waitress, who knew?! She also said that because we hadn’t mentioned it earlier there was now nothing she could do. We hadn’t asked her to do anything. Never before have I been told off at a restaurant for not complaining. It ended the meal on a pretty sour note, creating a very uncomfortable situation for my friends & I (all who have worked in hospitality for the past 10 years)… I was quite tempted to complain…

Feeling peckish I followed the likes of Mr Moss to this place.
Upon entry the waiter spotted us immediately and pleasantly seated us at a table. There is quite a nice vibe here, with Greek paintings .and murals, I was just confused if this places was a Greek/​Spanish or Italian restaurant.
To drink they offered a good variety of beer and a wine list starting from £15 a bottle. Considering it was £5 a glass it made sense to just grab a bottle of red.
Opening the laminate yellow menu I found this a little bit confusing, you could choose mezes, tapas, mains, appetisisers, I honestly thought it was quite a mismash of food.
I think if you decided to come here purelyt for the tapas, it would cost you a great deal, each dish was around the £5−6+ mark. But I could not resist trying a couple to share,
The butterbeans enriched in a tomato sauce with cheese were very tasty, and has to be one of my favourite Greek dishes anyway. The camabert tasted and looked freshly made, which contained the perfect gooeyness within.
The mains were also a little pricey for what they were, but I do not mind spending that kind of money if it tasted amazing. Looking at the fish section I selected the prawns in ouzo cream sauce in pasta. Ian chose a classic mousakka, which I find personally too auberginey.
I have to say mine did taste better than it looked. The ouzo brought a nice sweet interesting flavour to the dish, however I find it off putting when there is excess grease/​oil on the plate. It was nice but, not £16 worth. Ironically I wish I went for the moussaka.
After half way wading through the pasta I got bored and admitted defeat. So I looked to fill my dessert stomach instead.
Eventually we settled on a banoffee tart thingy … which failed to deliver in banana toffee goodness and did not taste completely homemade.
Overall this place offers a great atmosphere, and service however the price for the standard of food is too high. I think if they change the menu so it is a simpler read, lower the prices a tad and increase the food quality a smidge it would easily be a 4 star… still worth a visit though!

Is it Greek or Spanish? It’s Greek, Ian. I’ve made this mistake before a few times — I blame the fact they have tapas on the menu, as well as meze!
So we had a couple of lovely cheese based tapas starters; SPANISH?
I had a lamb mousaka as a main; GREEK?
See, I’m constantly confused.
You can’t go wrong with camabert in breadcrumbs in my opinion.
Tasty selection of red wine.
Lovely meal. Great company. Great service.
If it’s busy, you end up having to sit outside — they have heaters, but on this occasion we were very happy to be sat inside with an outlook onto Deansgate. If it’s a Friday/​Saturday I’d book ahead, though on a Wednesday we didn’t find we had to. Luckily.
Good to revisit and be assured that Dimitri’s is still of a good standard. Spent a bit more than we imagined, but given the location and good quality this is to be expected. Will revisit.

Love this place!
I have come here several times with my boyfriend and friends and it’s been fab everytime! Always a great atmosphere, friendly staff, cold beers and tasty tapas!
This most recent time I came with a friend and a 50% January voucher! Ice cold modelos all round then shown swiftly to a lovely table in the fairy light covered back area complete with patio heaters!
We had the baked Camembert, fries, stuffed vine leaves, patatas bravas and garlic bread. They were all v tasty particularly the stuffed vine leaves– amazing!!!
To top it all off, the lovely waiter came back with a free pudding of Greek yoghurt and plum jam! What a nice surprise– a place that really looks after it’s customers.
Will always return here– such a pleasure :)

I’ve been to Dimitri’s a few times in the past, albeit at least 3 years ago, so I gave in to Greek cravings and decided to swing by.
For a Thursday night the restaurant wasn’t overly busy — although the bar was packed full of people having after work drinks. They found us a table and we were seated quickly.
I ordered some Sangria — which was very good — and started looking trough the menu.
Our waitress explained that if you’re having tapas then 2 or 3 dishes are enough for one person and she was right. She also told us that they do 5 tapas for £25, 8 for £35 and 10 for £40, which I would imagine would save you a fortune if you were in a big group. We opted for 5 tapas between two of us as well as some warm pitta bread, serviced with a choice of 4 dips and some marinated mixed olives.
For tapas we went for;
Stifado — Beef in a Red Wine, Tomatoes, Onions and Herb sauce
Lamb Chops — 3 Char-​grilled Mediterranean Style Lamb Chops
Chorizo Bravas — Chorizo and Fried Potatoes in Salsa
Whitebait — Tiny, Whole and Deep-​fried
Halloumi — Grilled Cypriot Cheese with salad
The food was, overall, very nice. The Whitebait (one of my favourite dishes of all time) were slightly over cooked — but still tasty. The Lamb Chops were very good and the Halloumi… was perfect.
The ambiance in the restaurant was lively throughout, plenty of people chatting and laughing as they shared food and had a good time. Greek music also played, making it feel even more like an authentic Greek taverna. There’s a heated patio area at the back, which is like an ‘outside — in’ feature situated in an alley way. I can imagine that’s nice in the summer.

Growing up armed with a Greek-​Cypriot friend really was a major blow for my Greek dining out habits. Home cooked Greek food had been the order of the day for a large portion of my life and needless to say I was more than happy with the arrangement.
Alas life goes on and the aforementioned friend now resides in London, and I have no choice but to get my Greek foodie on at restaurants. And as far as Greek restaurants in Manchester go, I think this one is bloody fantastic!
Seated in the magnificent outdoor open plan area is as close to a holiday restaurant feel you’re likely to get in Manchester, period. Come rain or snow, the shimmering lights bouncing off the glass ceiling and the uplifting vibes of the Mediterranean music will have you transported (spiritually if not physically) to warmer climbs of Santorini in no time.
Just when you’ve finished bathing in the breezy atmosphere sipping on arguably the best sangria in town the food arrives. Tapaspectacular is the word you’ll look for upon conclusion. The blue funghi (mushrooms pan fried in blue cheese sauce), Yemistes (stuffed green peppers topped with a béchamel sauce), Mariscos (mixed seafood in tomato and wine sauce), chargrilled Mediterranean style lamb chops and Chicken Souvlakia (chicken kebabs with a Turkish dip) were all sensational. Had this not been a spur of the moment visit and the fact that I was only semi-​hungry it might have been an even more fun evening. As it was I was forced to eat in mere appreciation rather than necessity. None the less it was totally worth it.
This restaurant is a must for ALL foodies. The atmosphere and the décor is exemplary and the food is just fantastic. I for one will be returning very soon to give the rest of the menu a bloody good hiding… As they say in Greece… I think. Well probably not. but they should. By «they» I obviously mean me… and by «should» I mean I felt like I should. obviously.

Oh wow. Looking for somewhere new and non-​burgery for our frequently regular post-​work wine and food, a colleague of mine suggested we headed to Dimitri’s on the recommendation of another colleague.
Inside is decorated in a slightly garish way, but it’s nicely (read dimly) lit, which makes it the perfect place to be able to hide away if you’ve had a rough day!
We were greeted straight away and our drink order taken before we headed to our table, cutting out needless non-​wine time. The menu looked delicious, with lots of tapas or small plate or large plate or meze platters available — but, already having read it over our lunch hour, we were straight in for the meaty meze. With a side of fried halloumi, because why not?
The food came and the table could barely hold it. Greek salad, hummus, tatziki, pitta upon pitta, and then just all the meats. With some fried potato and rice. We’re talking chicken in white wine sauce, the best chorizo I have personally ever had, meatballs, chicken skewer, a lamb stew type offering, beef with baby onions — see where the wow came from now?
A few of the meats were slightly dry, hence the 4 stars, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up back here within the month.

Dimitris it’s taken a long time, over 10 years infact maybe 12 it’s a long time my mind gets hazey that far back. But that’s how long I’ve wanted to sit at one of your tables.
I have no idea why it’s taken so long, plans to visit have just always seemed to fall apart last minute, but no longer. It’s done, conquered, sat there, eaten, come away to Unilocal another day.
My first point of note, Dimitris is waaaaaaay bigger than I realised, it’s a labyrinthial warren of nooks n crannies hiding groups of tables, and just when you think there can’t be anymore you go downstairs and see a vaulted cellar with yet more places to dine.
The food is great, starting with the Calamarakia (Calamari) followed by Lamb Mousaka (basically replace the pasta in lasagne with aubergine and thats a pretty close idea of what it is) wonderfully washed down with some bottles of Red Vino.
Food gets a definite tick from me, and I’m very keen to go back at some point and try the Meze options going on.
Service was polite and attentive, marvelous especially when it was a friday night so they were very busy.
The layout is of the place is well done, there are lots of tables but I never felt wedged in with the high ceilings and large windows it gives off an air of space.
The bill worked out about £35 a head, and I definitely think the price fits with what you receive, now I just need to sort out getting one of those 25% off cards.

Ahh Dimitri’s — a place where I can combine my love of Greek food with my obsession for Weissbier (they have Erdinger on tap!)
We popped down on Wednesday evening and it was the first time I’d been in a while. My other half isn’t a huge fan of Greek food but the availability of Erdinger sold it for him.
We decided to just have mains — swordfish for me and chicken kebab with extra pittas for him. The swordfish was fantastic and it had this amazing sauce with it which I absolutely loved. The kebab went down well with my boyfriend too and we were both full, but not uncomfortably, at the end of it.
If you sign up on their website you can get a loyalty card. They gave me a decent 25% off with the card which made a good meal even better!

I went here for some drinks with my sister and needed up having the meaty meze for 2 they also do a seafood meze or a veggie meze. We had the choice of taking a table in the bar area or going through to the restaurant. Bar area did look pretty with candles on all the tables and good buzz about it but we opted for the restaurant as it was a bit quieter through there and we wanted to catch up
£16.95 per person got us a Greek salad with lovely chunks of feta cheese, hummus, tatziki, basket of pitta breads. After we have given that lot a good go they brought over the meat dishes which contained lamb, beef, chicken, chorizo, and pork (all meat bases covered really!) my favourite was the chicken which came in a lovely white sauce with pepper– could have easily has this for main with rice or veg.
Other dishes were pretty good too. They do tea-​time specials before 7pm and if you just fancy a few picky bits with drinks you can get a mini selection of meze and breads for £8. Do like it here and enjoyed my food and the atmosphere

Nice food, and the atmosphere was great, buzzing an relaxed. I would say it’s probably a tad on the pricey side for the quality of food on offer, for example £9.95 for dips and pitta bread to share for a starter that was enough for 2 – 3. Seems like they’ve based their pricing on their Deansgate location rather than the food on offer.

Greek, and somewhat wider inspired, tapas menu is varied and good. Perhaps ironically for a Greek tapas place my favorite dish of the night, by far, was the mjedara (which definitely arise from across the Bosphorus. This was subtly spiced and perfectly balanced. By contrast, the halloumi was not executed quite right and tended to slightly rubbery. And, I prefer a rather smokier baba ghanoush.
Service was excellent and attentive in this very busy venue on a Friday night. Very nice spot.

Dimitri’s is a restaurant with one giant USP (that’s ‘unique selling point’ for those of you unfamiliar with business speak). That USP is its outdoor area, an area that makes you feel as if you could be on holiday even when the Manchester streets are grey and drizzly — and let’s face it, we’re England’s Seattle… they often are, aren’t they. This covered arcade area has the most gently warming patio heaters imaginable dotted around, making for a veritable tropical climate. In fact the area would probably still be usable in the dead of winter. Impressive, Dimitri’s. I doff my hat to you.
This is one of those places I’ve been meaning to visit for absolutely ever, so when the opportunity arose I grabbed it with both my little fists. Mezze was the order of the day and the great thing about Dimitri’s is that you can order small plates of pretty much anything you like, be it halloumi (options for deep fried or grilled), falafel, dips and pitta breads which is what we went for. If you’re in the mood for a picky, light evening meal it’s the perfect place to come. With bread and dips you get a pretty giant amount of freshly warmed pitta bread and four generous dollops of dips of your choice, the fresh falafel comes with a delightful pool of houmous (more appetising than I just made it sound actually) and the halloumi was grilled to perfection and came with a lovely little bit of salad. Oh yeah, we *both* went totally veggie, that includes Chris ‘Steak Please’ M.
The portions are more than enough to share and the flavours are rich enough to keep you satiated, plus the service is friendly and breezy and ever so quick. We weren’t drinking but their wine list looked tip top, and they serve Lavazza coffee which is always rather nice. Dimitri’s, I’ll be back further into the summer months to soak up those holiday vibes…