Vancouver | Stepho's Souvlaki Greek Taverna

When ever I ask the question, where should I go for some good Greek food?  I always get the same answer. Stepho's on Davie.  So on that, I have been meaning to check it out for some time, but I have always been put off by the massive line up that is always trailing down Davie Street.  That is until I discovered that on a rainy cold evening, Vancouverites don't like to wait in the rain and by chance, I noticed that there was no line up when we drove past.  Great, I suddenly felt like a Greek feast.

We had a 5 minute wait inside and then we were seated.  The service was pretty good for a restaurant with such a high customer turnover.  Our wine never ran low and we didn't have to wait long at all to receive our meals.  Our waiter for the evening had a lovely persona, had recommended a great greek wine that I wouldn't normally have tried and he was very attentive.

Not wanting to miss out on all the hype of Stepho's, it was hard to decide on what to order.  We wanted to try everything, but we settled on a few starters to share, plus a main each (which we also shared amongst the two of us).  Ordering big was a mistake.  The servings were huge and we hardly had room for our mains, let alone dessert.  Although they were quite tasty, you could easily share one between two people.

Onto the mains.  I ordered to Mousaka and my BF ordered the Roast Lamb.  Again, very large portions and packed full of flavour.  I don't know if it was because I was so full from the starters or because the Mousaka was so rich, but I could only eat a few bites.  The large slab of bechamel on top was creamy with a nice flavour.  It was definitely needed to counteract the intense flavours of the dish.  I opted to nibble on my salad, which was nice and fresh but nothing too exciting.

At that stage I wasn't too worried because I was looking forward to taking a doggy bag and having the Mousaka for lunch the next day, when I wasn't so full.  The flavour seemed to intensify overnight and again after a few bites, I couldn't eat anymore.  The saltiness seemed to have doubled and I couldn't finish it.

The roast lamb was actually quite dry when compared to how tender and moist I have had at other greek restaurants.  It was a little disappointing to say the least.

Every dish had one common factor, they were all overly salty.

In summary, the success of Stepho's is a nod to it's reputation as a cheap eat with over the top larger than life portion sizes.  The quality I'm not so sure about though.  The actual presentation of the food needs some work, but then again it's not exactly a fine dining establishment.  It's more about quantity over quality, although not too bad for the price you are paying.  I give it a 6/10.