Piato Estiatorio

I can’t understand why this place isn’t packed more often. Best Greek food in Vancouver by a mile in my opinion.

this place was pretty great. tasty (albeit pretty salty) greek tapas and a clean sexy atmosphere.
we ordered the meze plate, the grillied haloumi and the gyros.
the haloumi was a bit dry but very tasty.
the meze plate was filled with loads of baked and deep fried greek treats like calamari, spinach pie, prawn popsicles and a feta pie. delish.
the standout were the gyros. they come in mini size (you get 4) and they are made with pulled short rib. they have SOOO much flavor. so good.
we left feeling satisfied and ready to return.

been here a few times now
i think it definitely impresses people if they’ve never been. i brought a group of 7 in on sat nite and i think everyone was pleasantly surprised
its greek food but in a jazzed up, clean cut, trendy kits spot. across from trattoria. same side as Pinkys close to 4^th and burrard
they don’t have just the typical souvlaki type dishes. they have a variety of fish dishes and lamb. oh lamb. they have lamb cheeks, lamb chops and lamb shank. i really think you can’t go wrong with any of the above. all great. i ordered the cod last time and it wasn’t anything special altho it came with a sweet potato mash which was deelish. the arctic char didn’t look great either but the halibut looked pretty good (they lose a star for some of those fish entrees)
the appies are awesome. great prices. great portion size. and most importantly great quality! i’d recommend the tiropita, the calamari and the mini gyros. once we got full just from appies and didn’t even go to the entrees so thats definitely a satisfying option
i really enjoyed the Malbec blend from Argentina. about $ 12 for a 9oz glass. the service is really good too and attentive
never really too busy any of the times I’ve been which is great but i think as people catch on about this place it will be booming!

This place deserves much more attention than it’s been getting. Atmosphere is great, the service is excellent and the food is good for the price. I recommend trying the three course dinner they offer from Sun to Thur which is an excellent value. Piato is a higher end Greek restaurant but very reasonably price. They’re also not shy on the booze (silver margaritas are my favourite). It took us a while to try this place in the beginning, but once we went there, we become a regulars.

I went on a Sunday night and sampled the Fixed Price Menu which is available between Sunday to Thursday. $ 22 for appy, entrée and dessert. Great deal! I had a beet salad to start, very tasty, could’ve had more greens and less beets but still very good. For my main I had the salty cod and it came with a mashed sweet potato. Very nice. Loved the baklava. I’m not an expert, but it tasted wonderful and I forced myself to eat it all even though I was stuffed! We were also lucky enough to hear live music. Two guys with a mandolin and guitar performing Greek music, but quiet enouch so we were still able to converse while they played. The restaurant is a very elegant, bright space. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and would go back again.

It took some convincing to drag my husband out of downtown to this restaurant. We have a bad track record with Greek food, pretty much everywhere we’ve ever been besides Kypriakis in Whistler has fed us really low quality food (and in one case even argued with us that the fish was supposed to taste & smell fishy).
He’d had ample time to study the menu before I arrived (Vancouver transit hates me), and between that and the pleasant open air room he was much more enthusiastic.
I ordered an Italian white ($ 9) from their short but unique wine list while he had an overpriced beer ($ 6.50 for a bottle). We started with the trio of dips, the highlight of which was the spicy feta, there were a couple drops of aged balsamic on the plate which was a nice touch. The flat bread was proper, but they also gave us some thicker toast which seemed really out of place.
I was excited to try the Stafili Salata (Grape & Haloumi salad), I love Haloumi and it sounded like an interesting combination. Overall it was a good combination, but the Haloumi seemed like it was lightly seasoned and then just pan warmed — I would have preferred it plain & seared. When the cheese was gone the salad was way too vinegary for me to finish.
I also had the Saitia (griddled spinach pie) as I was intrigued by Dana W.‘s review mentioning that they were different from your «traditional spanakopita» (I make spanakopita at home so I won’t usually order it out). The tzatziki they came with was really thick and lovely, but the Saitia themselves were bland and disappointing. My husband had the citrus crusted Ahi which was perfect for the warm evening but otherwise not terribly interesting.
The service throughout was excellent.
Overall, I’d like to come back and try a couple of the other dishes on the menu, but I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to find the time to do that before we move.

Highly recommended for those tired of cheaper but distractingly ugly or sloppy Greek joints that dominate the West End especially. I went with a couple of friends visiting from out of town. The service was all right, and although the server admitted not knowing much about Greek food, she tried to be helpful. Clean, updated décor, and the food was all very good.
The food was mostly very good but mixed. We started off with the excellent trio of dips which included roasted eggplant, white bean hummus and spicy feta with basil (see photo), so-​so Greek fries (see photo), tasty two cheese saganaki which includes fried kefalotiri and haloumi (see photo), overcooked grilled swordfish, and fantastic meat mousaka (highly recommended). The baklava was the worst I’ve ever had — stale, chewy and cardboard-​like. But the hot, freshly fried Greek donuts glazed in honey and sprinkled with pistachio (see photo) were worth the wait. A little too long of a wait, but still worth it.
I loved the Greek vanilla paste in water. My friends disliked the pine taste (yes, like the pine tree) but I found it refreshing.

Prologue:
**Why is this restaurant empty on a Saturday night?!**
The logical answer would be because of the fireworks and lantern festival. But it started to rain so heavily, which is what steered us towards dining in. I’m glad we chose Piato. I’ve been wanting to try it for a while but never had the opportunity. Once when I aimed to go there, they were closed for a private function! However, it was well worth the wait.
The Review:
For this level of classiness, the price is excellent! The flavour is totally there in everything. This evening they had a surf ‘n turf special with a lamb steak and prawns with fresh rosemary basil mashed potatoes for $ 20. We got that, but with the pikil – something meze platter (appetizer) to share. The meze platter was $ 25 for some tiropita, calamari, zucchini croquettes, and some small spanakopita type thing with tzatziki. Their tzatziki is delicious! Actually everything was quite delicious in the meze plate. Only complain was that the tiropita quite possibly had too much cheese in it.
The surf ‘n turf was quite nice. I ordered the lamb steak medium though, and it seemed medium well, but I’m not complaining. I’m also assuming that medium usually has some pink inside? (I’m not a huge beef eater). The lamb was perfectly tender for my liking, and not chewy at all. It also came with some peppery sauce on top. I also loved the freshness of the mashed potatoes. It only came with 2 prawns though… I would have thought for a proper «surf ‘n turf» there would be atleast 5.
They also had Mythonos Mojitos on special for only $ 5.25. Such a good deal! I got 3. They even threw some raspberries in the last one on my request. Oh, and they’ve got white cranberry juice – so exciting!
I ordered the chocolate cheesecake for dessert which was nice, but do share with someone. It’s too rich. Actually a bit too rich for me. but that’s what you get when you combine chocolate and cheese. However, in retrospect, I should’ve gone for Marc D.‘s suggestion of the galaktoboureko.
Our server was super friendly and very accomodating. The only complaint I have with the service was that it took a little while to get the main meal after the appetizer. But we didn’t mind too much.
Epilogue:
I highly recommend this place.
In total, with 3 alcoholic drinks and 1 non alcoholic drink it came out to be $ 88.
5 stars for being cheap (read: relatively inexpensive), classy, and tasty!

My friends and I ordered a little of everything and shared. The food here is very good.

I only had a few mezes here, so I can’t vouch for a full meal, but what I had was delicious. First off, talk about a hip lounge-​esque venue for Kits. Modern decore with the bar wall lined with bottles of wine and Greek booze.
We arrive on a Friday night after catching a flick at 5^th Avenue to be promplty seated and greeted by our waitress. Good selection of drinks with an unusual offering of Greek wines by the glass. We ordered the dip trio, southern spinach pies, and fried zucchini cakes. The dips came promptly with a basket of warm grilled pita and olive bread. The feta dip was quite delicious, as was the white bean hummus and tzatiki. If I had to order again, I would probably just order the white bean hummus and feta dip since all our other dishes came with tzatiki as well. The southern spinach pies were really good and different from your traditional spanikopita — not as much filo and the filling seemed lighter somehow. The zucchini cakes were tasty as well, but I’ve had better.
I would definitely return to try the mains, or with a larger group to try more mezes.

Walked in on a Friday night with no reservations — seated promptly and got a good look at the space. Lovely bar area and very refreshing upscale environment for a Greek restaurant — felt more like a nice lounge or wine bar.
I didn’t have the biggest expectations for the food, but I’m happy to say I was pleasantly surprised. Started off with a nice, warm complimentary basket of pita and toasted bread, generously served with an olive tapenade instead of the usual tzatziki dip.
Really enjoyed the appetizer tiropita — 3 Greek cheese phyllo roll, served with a teaspoon of reduced balsamic vinegar. Very tasty and surprisingly light. Also the fried calamari was probably the best I’ve had in Vancouver — fresh, large, tender rings with a light batter and served with a roasted lemon to squeeze overtop.
For the main, I had the meat moussaka made with short ribs, eggplant, bechamel and potatoes. It’s like a really good shepherd’s pie: P The lamb shank with rosemary sauce was nice, but not particularly memorable. I also didn’t really enjoy the custard phyllo dessert — the custard was creamy & subtle, but the phyllo was just too soggy. Also, the portion size of the dessert wasn’t in line with the other sensibly sized courses — way too much to end off the evening!
Overall though, I was quite happy with the food, service and environment. I hope this is a new trend for «modern» takes on cuisine. I’ll be returning soon to try out the other tempting items.

Ok, I think that perhaps they have gotten their act together since some of the earlier reviews. Ate there today, and really really liked it.
The sleek modern space is a welcome change from the majority of other Greek places around town that could do with a good updating. Very clean lines that have a comfortable yet slightly upscale feel.
Started off with their trio of soup — they give you a generous sampler of each of the 3 soups on the menu which included fasolada (vegetable tomato white bean), avgolemono (lemon & egg chicken), and fakes (lentils in a rich tomato purée). The fasolada was the winner of the trio, but the others were very good as well. I love the idea of giving a trio like this — or a large bowl of your favourite. Lovely.
They also served a generous basket of freshly grilled pita that was piping hot and gave a choice of side dips (humous or tzatziki). The humous came in a very nice olive oil and made the perfect dip.
For my main I had the mousaka. I love mousaka, and was extremely happy with this modern twist on it. Instead of ground meat they used a ragu of short ribs, which was fork tender and perfectly seasoned. There was also a layer of potatoes, eggplant, and a superbly cheesy bechamel. It came with a side of fennel salad which had that same lovely olive oil as a base of the light dressing.
Dessert was galaktoboureko which was perfectly prepared — unlike many other varieties I’ve had in Vancouver. The custard was not overbaked, firm yet still creamy. The phyllo soaked in a very pleasant honey. It was even plated with sliced dried apricots and honey soaked figs. Beautiful and delicious!
They also brought over a complimentary spoonful of greek vanilla paste served in a shot glass of water, as is tradition in Greek homes. Nice finish!
Service was extremely on top of things, and very friendly. Lovely!
Overall while the portions are smaller than at many of the Greek places around town that really pile on the food, the quality was much higher, and I was extremely satisfied. When the food is good, who needs huge quantities to be satisfied?
What a welcome addition to Vancouver! I look forward to returning and working my way through the rest of their menu offerings which include ortikia (quail marinated in tzatziki), bacalao (pan fried salted cod), lamb manestra (roasted lamb shank with rosemary sauce), soutsoukakia (free form beef sausages in tomato sauce), and loukoumades (Greek doughnuts glazed in honey).

My friend and I went to Piato after a friend told us we had to try this Greek place that really turns Greek cuisine on its head. The menu is filled with the ususals with some innovative items, but really it’s the room and the smaller sizes that I really liked. Not your typical blue, white and very Greek looking resto with white pillars etc., the sleek, black-​and-​white room with funky flower arrangements and chandeliers really makes it chic to be Greek. The share plates of the Greek Fries and the Piato Dip with hummus, tzatziki and the zucchini and eggplant chips were really good. We made sure to save room for dessert, the honey puff cakes were crispy and moist.