PROS: fantastic food, drinks, atmosphere, hospitality, location, good value

CONS: disorganized event reservation process

My wife and I hosted our wedding rehearsal dinner at the downtown location. The day of the event went quite well, and I have nothing but praise for the amazing food and hospitality. The staff is incredibly accommodating and generous and treated us like family. However, leading up to that day, we did have to contend with quite a bit of disorganization and confusion to schedule the event.

We originally booked an event at George’s (for spring 2020) back in late 2019, but unfortunately had to reschedule multiple times due to COVID, and the restaurant was quite accommodating to our circumstances. However, due to some changes in staffing, there were some lapses in communication that led to confusion. We originally had spoken with the lead event coordinator back in 2019, but she had to step away on leave in winter of 2020, and the handoff to her successor(s) may not have been particularly organized. When we called the original phone number to follow up on our reservation, we found that it was disconnected. We proceeded to contact specific branches of the restaurant, but those had answering machines that redirected back to the out-of-service number. We eventually did get verbal confirmation of our reservation (now at the downtown branch) for August of 2021, but no written confirmation.

When outdoor dining had reopened in Long Beach in spring 2021, my wife and I visited the downtown location for dinner. After discussing with the staff, we learned that they were unaware of any event scheduled at our proposed event date, which caused us some alarm. However, they expressed a great deal of excitement for hosting a future event for us and were extremely hospitable. After a wonderful evening of dining on fantastic food (including some complimentary tastes of some of the event menu options for planning our event), they noted that they’d be in touch with us—but unfortunately, we did not receive a call in the weeks that followed.

We did eventually follow up by contacting George’s, and eventually they managed to locate a reservation, though there was still some confusion (they had the incorrect email, date, and location on file). We did eventually sort everything out though after a few more calls and emails.
The day of the event proceeded smoothly, and the food (the “basic” buffet menu without any substitutions) was absolutely top-notch. George’s really does have the best Greek food in Long Beach, and our guests were blown away by the tzatziki, hummus, pastitso, gyro, chicken slovakia, baklava, etc. The atmosphere is festive, with the servers lighting up saganaki (the flaming cheese) and my wife and I even toasted the occasion with ouzo (traditional Greek liquor). The drink menu has a variety of good wines, and they carry beer selections from neighboring Trademark Brewing (though sadly, they were out of stock on the IPA, the groom’s personal favorite). They also had a roll-out TV, which was provided for viewing a slideshow made by the parents of the groom.

Overall, we’re extremely happy with the way things turned out, and all our guests were blown away by the food, drink, and atmosphere. The only difficulty was in the initial planning. We’ll definitely continue to visit George’s in the future.