Stepho's Souvlaki Greek Taverna : Robson Location

Back in high school, my sister raved about a restaurant on Davie Street and dragged my parents and I out there. My sister could not stop yapping about Dad's Root Beer and the large portions of food at Stepho's Souvlaki Greek Taverna. I do not remember much about that dinner other than my father being mad because he received a chipped plate along with dirty cutlery, and everyone excluding my sister found the food mediocre. But Stepho's must be doing something right because they have opened a second location on Robson Street.

The layout of the restaurant resembles a home and there are different rooms to be seated in. I do not understand why we were seated along the wall in a busy hallway though, despite that there were window seats available. I also do not understand how considering the gorgeous sunny and warm weather, why none of the windows were open. The restaurant was poorly ventilated and stuffy. What I do enjoy however, is the plentiful amount of natural lighting during our lunch.

KALAMARI, DEEP FRIED SQUID ($8.95).

Rating: 1/5.

The calamari is served on a small plate and after trying to pierce through a piece, other pieces would fall onto the table. This is not a big deal though because the calamari tastes very rubbery and is hard to chew, so the wasted food is not considered a loss. Moreover, the batter tastes like just "seasoning salt" and majority of the calamari are not even crispy.

I mean, there are a couple of crispy pieces of calamari, but the ones on the bottom are the worst. These taste dry, rubbery and oily. As for the greek salad, it tastes fairly fresh and is well seasoned. But the tzatziki on the other hand, lacks zing along with flavour and is served warm.

STEPHO'S STEAMED MUSSELS ($9.95).

Rating: 3.5/5.

Thankfully we ordered the mussels because these are delicious! The large mussels are just cooked and not a second over, tasting juicy along with plump and well rinsed. The broth tastes fairly good as well; buttery, garlicky and exhibiting a kick from the dried pepper. It could have tasted more flavourful and rich, but it is good enough for Stepho's.

PITA BREAD.

Rating: 2.5/5.

The pita bread is served warm and tastes fluffy, but I would have liked some more char.

ROAST LAMB, TAVERNAS SPECIALITY ($13.95).

Rating: 2/5.
My friend and I remember having the roast lamb before at Stepho's on Davie Street and the meat tasted dry along with stringy, so we asked how the roast lamb was before ordering. Our server reassured us their roast lamb is amazing, guaranteeing that "you'll love it" and it is the "most tender".

She was right about one thing and the roast lamb is indeed tender (although not fork tender), but we do not love it. The roast lamb tastes extremely salty and it is the bland kind of salty, not even the flavourful kind of salty. The meat also lacks seasoning and despite being tender, it is neither juicy nor comparable to Dallas Souvlaki's (which serves the best roast lamb in my opinion). If I wanted to nitpick, I would have liked a crisp crust as well.

VEGETABLE BRIAMI, ROASTED POTATOES AND RICE PILAF.

Rating: 2.5/5.

As for the sides, the potatoes lack a crisp exterior and only have a mild tartness. The vegetable briami however, I like. The briami tastes "clean" as in healthy and does not taste too tomatoey. There are carrots which taste tender while remaining a nice bite, along with green beans and celery. The plentiful amount of rice pilaf is also average, including generic frozen vegetables and lacking flavour.

LAMB CHOPS, CHARBROILED ($14.95).

Rating: 3/5.

I like how our server was 100% honest with us because before ordering the lamb chops, I asked if the meat tastes dry and she said, "they can be". 

The chops are cooked to a medium rare as requested but some of them are creeping towards medium well, which is fine because the lamb does not taste dry nor chewy one bit. The meat tastes tender and the quality is surprisingly not bad, better than Simba's Grill for sure. The chops are a touch salty however, but not as bad as the roast lamb. There is also a lack of seasoning but the lamb does not taste too gamey one bit. Our server also mentioned it was my lucky day because the chops are usually a lot smaller.

TOTAL: $54.10 + TIP $7.90 = $62.00.

Stepho's on Robson Street surprised me because the food tasted better than I expected, excluding the calamari. But the food overall lacks seasoning and tastes salty rather than flavourful. The greek salads are very fresh however and the mussels are pretty good! With regards to the service, the staff were not friendly when we arrived or after we seated and we had a crappy seat, but our server was friendly after we ordered. I like how she mentioned there is an extra charge for drink refills too. The bartender who also delivered our appetizers had no problems asking the kitchen to delay our entrees. We were not planning to ask if the entrees can be delayed but considering that Stepho's is a casual restaurant, we can only blame ourselves if I have to complain that our table was too small to fit all the dishes.

POSITIVES

- Great mussels

- Friendly staff

- Better food than we expected

- Food is better than the location on Davie street

NEGATIVES

- Stuffy restaurant

- Rubbery calamari

- Food needs less salt and more seasoning

- Price to portion ratio is not much cheaper or larger than other Greek restaurants

Food: 2.5/5

Service: 3/5

STEPHO'S SOUVLAKI GREEN TAVERNA
1359 Robson Street Vancouver, BC V6E 1C6
Telephone(604) 685-9977