Elaia Cafe Restaurant

Just about to hit the road back to Hobart but I was hanging out for a great coffee and something to eat. I am so glad I stopped here, the coffee and the egg and bacon sandwich was definitely beyond expectations.

Awesome service and food was nice. I ordered the Periklis plate and the only let down is the salad. You’re a Greek restaurant you need to be serving it with a Greek salad. That means no lettuce, add feta and olives with a generous amount of olive oil. Would’ve taken you to 5 stars! Beside that, everything else was delicious.

Like stepping into a little corner of Greece 🤩 Good authentic food through & through, great servings and totally delicious 🤤 Don’t go past the cocktail list, very enjoyable. The owner has their own version of ouzo, delightful, smooth but not overpowering. Staff could not fault, service spot on. I witnessed such patience and tolerance with a large table in our proximity - well done. Just go here, you will enjoy yourself thoroughly

What a wonderful find. Quick brunch with dog in tow.. good coffee, good food, great service and so nice to hear they’ve been there for 27+ years. Must be doing something right…. Try the pancakes, they are delicious!! Thank you for a lovely morning

Spectacular Greek food. The lamb souvlaki wrap was delicious and the marinated chicken was equally as tasty. Highly recommend!

We enjoyed lamb cutlets, haloumi and chili squid - the food was top notch and the wines were lovely. The price was also very reasonable. Doing everything right ;)

Walked in on. Friday evening and had a delicious Greek meal, with a terrific tiramissu as desert! Can't put in words how good it was! Well done!

Excellent food and service with a nice ambience Tried the Saganaki, Moussaka and the 6 1/2 hour lamb with lemon potatoes. Delicious Greek food! Definitely recommend when in Launceston.

Popped in here for a quick nibble and a wine on a Thursday after. Service was great, food well my calamari melted in my mouth. All in all a pleasant place to stop

This place is absurdly over priced for mediocre plain food and dirty dishes. Upon looking at the menu, one of the items on the breakfast was $13 for 2 eggs, with or without toast. What?!? Unlike the US, you can't substitute the toast for something else of equal price. I ordered a shot of espresso with my breakfast. The shot glass was dirty all along the rim, and there was a small spider that came along with my napkin. Simple eggs and bacon breakfast for 2 plus an espresso and an orange juice was around $45.

I had the Elaia breakfast and it was very disappointing. The sausages tasted like the cheapest ones you've ever had, the hash browns were worse than McDonalds (not house made - you can tell they are frozen pre-made ones), the mushrooms were rubbery like ones out of a can. The eggs were poached well, the bacon was average, the toast was fine. Smashed avo and feta on toast was good but the amount was small. Considering the quality - it is way overpriced.

Lovely cafe on Charles St with big windows that open out onto the street for warm summer days. I had good service and a really tasty BLT for lunch. Pretty good menu selection and all the food looked good. Possibly a little over-priced for the type of meals, but compensated somewhat by the quality.

The food tastes great, menu is well planned with a large selection and the coffee is good also. Inside is comfortable and quite busy. A good place for lunch though not really intimate enough for just coffee. The menu is expensive however and the service is extremely slow. Took about 10-15 mins to get a bottle of water bought to the table AFTER we asked for it and even longer for the food - about 30-45 mins. Unfortunately it won't be my first choice on Charles St due to this.

These guys totally rock, they make a awesome chicken caesar salad! I love popping in for a takeaway coffee too, great smooth taste A+

I don't think I've ever been able to say that I've thoroughly enjoyed a dining experience. That is until I dined at Elaia. It was my girlfriend's Birthday and the owner of Elaia had personally invited us back to her restaurant for dinner. Upon Ritsa, to my delight she was one of the nicest and most honest people I believe I've met in my life. My girlfriend and I dined with 3 of her family members (we were a party of 5). We were greeted by a lovely young waitress who seemed genuinely happy to have us dining at their restaurant. She was very excited to be serving us and quite easy to approach and talk to. The night was off to a great start already (since she offered us tap water and I LOVE tap water). She took our order and we were ready to eat. To start, we had a share of garlic bread at our table which took about 7 minutes to arrive. Garlic bread is never anything overly fancy but still a favourite of mine from memories of numerous pizza nights of my childhood. The crust was crispy and the inside was beautiful and moist (and still slightly crispy). This was a perfect garlic bread and perhaps the best I've had in my life. The main came about 20 minutes later which was fine. The young waitress kept us occupied and refreshed with drinks so we felt valued and tended to. For the main I had a Speciale Carne Pizza with Greek Yoghurt and an additional serving of Tiramisu. The pizza was great. Crispy base, great strong flavours and very moreish and easy to eat. It was good. The Tiramisu however is a different story. I believe at this point in time I have never had a better Tiramisu. The slice came on top of a nice drizzle of chocolate sauce with a scoop of cream on the side. It was seriously to die for. My girlfriend had steak with a side of what appeared to be fried potatoes and green beans. The steak was very tender, the potatoes very crispy. I don't particularly like beans but I do understand they were quite good. The rest of our party had the Market Fish Special, the Salt and Pepper Squid Cos Salad and the Crispy Battered Elaia Catch. From the comments around the table. The food was amazing and everybody was quite happy. To finish the night off, everyone at the table had a glass of port which was a great end to the experience. In my opinion, the atmosphere was very relaxing and enjoyable and the experience was to be remembered. The food was well cooked and thoroughly enjoyable. For 5 people with large, delicious meals and lots of drinks (including port, this needs emphasis) the total came to $220. This is not only a reasonable price but I believe to be quite a deal considering the quality of food and experience on the night. I would highly recommend Elaia to anybody looking for a good meal and dining experience in Launceston. We will be back as regular customers. Please also ignore "Andy H.'s" review. He votes 1 Star on everything. I believe this to be a fraudulent account.

Just had the twice cooked pork at Elaia, this is the second time I've been to have the pork because it's so nice. I was looking forward to it all day, again it was delicious however during the first few bites I came across a 2cm piece of twine, kind of like fishing line, having worked in hospitality myself I wasn't too concerned, these things happen, I pulled it out and placed it on the side of my plate, within a minute a staff member walked passed and asked how our meals were, discreetly I told her what I'd found, she left the table returned with a little plate, leaned over me and removed it from my plate and went to then remove my plate, I said it was fine and didn't need replacing. We finished our meals and I paid. There was no sorry, no explanation, so I said "what was it?" She said "oh it was sinew", I knew it would be a cop out because they now had the item and had brushed over ever apologising... I said "it wasn't at all it was twine and the least you could have done is acknowledge it and say sorry". At that stage she said "you're right, sorry, sorry" in a dismissive nature which came across as condescending because she just wants me out the door. What a shame such a nice meal becomes putrid to the palette due to poor customer service, if there is an error just apologise and try to move on, don't sweep it under the carpet as if nothing's happened because I've been nice about it in the first place. At $29 a plate, I'd say it's not worth it now.

Appalling all round, take my advice and don't go here. Breakfast took 45 minutes to arrive and was pretty disgusting and missing items (which I didn't bother correct because I didn't want to wait another 30 mins). Service was slow, coffees took 15 mins to come out. Not even an apology.