Summer In Greece

Spiros is gone! Closed. Anyone know where he went?
A new Greek place will be opening soon…

Since we moved to an apartment two blocks from Summer in Greece in mid-​September, we’ve gotten takeout from Spiros two or three times a month and thought it was the best Greek food we’d ever had. Then two or three days ago I walked past the restaurant and found it closed, windows papered over with brown paper, and no information posted to say what has happened. We are so disappointed. Spiros was happy and charming and friendly, and a very enthusiastic cook. The telephone message still gives the opening hours as if it’s business as usual. Has anybody heard anything about this?

I wish I didn’t wait so long to come here! I don’t live in this area, but since I was heading to Kits, I decided to stop by after reading the Unilocal reviews.
This feels like a family place. The food was so delicious. No complaints. It also helps that I LOVE greek food!
He even gave us more tzazitki sauce free of charge!
I like supporting ‘ma and pop‘type of places so I will definitely be back here. Prices are quite affordable too!

I went there to take-​out for lunch. The place is a bit old fashioned but the owner there was friendly. I chose the chicken souvlaki and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was ! The Mediterranean salad that comes with was fantastic and so was the rice. It’s a bit on the pricy side (14 $) but it’s completely worth it for this level of food. Fresh ingredients and really tasty food !

Found this place walking by on our way to the 5^th ave cinemas. We ordered the daily specials and spinach pie. The service was great and the chef is very friendly. All prices include tax. There is no liquor license, so keep that in mind.

This is a gem, the owner is the real deal. Best chicken lemon soup in town! Spiros’ kalamari is very good. Roast lamb is super but only available Thursday or Friday for dinner. A little place that should not be missed!

We went there for dinner. The restaurant is quite small. The lamb was delicious but my friend wasn’t a fan of the chicken souvlaki. Unfortunately they don’t have a liquor license and we couldn’t enjoy a nice glass of wine with our dinner. I would suggest this place more for a lunch or takeout. I was a bit disappointed.

I walked into this place feeling adventurous, and it left me speechless. The restaurant doesn’t look like anything special, but the food and the service was extraordinary. While I picked up on some mildly racist comments from Spiros e.g. «you’re oriental, so I know you guys love the rice,» but that’s fine. He was trying to be nice about it, but didn’t really know how to communicate that effectively.
Prices are high, but I feel that it’s worth what you pay. I was upset that they ran out of lamb when I got there, considering how everyone was raving about it, but their Chicken Souvlaki was great too! So soft and tender! This man also makes the most amazing lemon potatoes. While the starches that come with your meal typically aren’t that big a deal, this was definitely noteworthy. The potatoes were sour, but not to the point that it was offputting.
I love the Tzatziki here, it’s so smooth and I can really taste the cucumber and garlic in it! Their calamari is great too! It was so tender and juicy!
I had a great experience here and I look forward to coming again!

The best calamari I’ve ever tasted. My wife said the best Greek meatballs she has ever eaten, and she’s a bit of an expert. The owner was welcoming and justifiably proud of his cooking. Can’t wait to go back and have another tender, juicy souvlaki. Nice surprise that tax was included.

Best Greek food I have ever had!
I had the calamari dish, and you could tell that everything was made fresh. Even the tzatziki and Worcestershire sauce were home made.
So delicious!
I would recoment to everyone.

My first time eating at a Greek restaurant with some friends. Here’s a summary of the experience!
Food:
–decent, really good Mediterranean salad, pita with tsaziki and lamb shoulder!
–didn’t like their potatoes, too sour for me
–large portions
–water and other drinks are overpriced
–seems authentic
Service:
–the owner is very nice and hard-​working but at times I found him overly familiar with my friends and I, so I was slightly uncomfortable (but that because he was pushing us to order more food, which is expected because he owns a business)
–the waitress was nice, but she didn’t like to strike up a conversation with us like the owner
–fast service (but that’s probably because we were the only ones there at the time)
Pricing:
–on the pricier side, but the portions were large so it wasn’t too bad
Other notes:
–seats at most a group of 4
–does take out
–I would stop by if I’m in the area.

I’m going to do this one scientifically. Starting with a base neutral of 3.
Above average lamb shoulder +1
Above average Tsaziki +1
Very large portions +1
No forks in our take-​out picnic bag only to discover that in the middle of nowhere (I’l let it slide) 0
The room itself is neutral, feels more like a lunch place 0
High prices –1
Over the top personality of owner, and not in the good way making us feel uncomfortable (even just to get take-​out) –1
Semi-​racist comments about «no Chinese cooks» just like another reviewer mentioned! –2
Summarized, good food, but we actually did take-​away because of a number of well worded Unilocal reviews and were glad we did to avoid being a captive audience. For Greek, I think I’d rather have the festive atmosphere and stay a while so next time, we’ll try somewhere else, Vancouver has no shortage of other Greek.

My husband and I ate dinner here last week. The roast lamb shoulder was awesome. And this restaurant has possibly best tzatziki ever. The restaurant owner is super friendy. This is a TINY restaurant though, so there’s not much seating, and you can’t help but overhear the people at the next table have the world’s most stupid argument.

I have no idea how to rate this place. The food was very good — heavy for local Greek food — but very good either way. Now on to the experience review…
I read the excellent reviews here, and made a point to try Summer In Greece. I was really looking forward to it. My friend and I came in at a slow time, and during our dinner, we were the only guests there. We were already prepared for Spiro to be a character. Which was fine by us!
Instead of being a sweet charming character, as I sort of gathered from the reviews, he hovered over us the whole time (really, we barely got a word in edge-​wise), incessantly repeating two sentiments: The lesser one being «Isn’t the food good? Fresh? Homemade? Have you ever had better Greek food? I think no!!!» which was a bit tedious, but fine… But the second one ruined our experience. He kept repeating, over and over, that «No Chinese cooks!» make his food, and other local Greek restaurants have «Chinese cooks!» which apparently makes them ‘inauthentic and awful.’ I cannot honestly say how many times he repeated, «No Chinese cooks!» My god man, give it a rest. Is he mentally unstable? Maybe, in which case this might just be crazy talk. Either way, it left a bad taste in our mouths. By the way my friend and I are clearly not Asian. Would he say this to Asian patrons? I doubt it. All in all how depressing.

A strong 3.5 stars, perhaps I expected to be floored from all the 4.5 stars, so let’s bring some sense of reality.
For a casual ambience, it’s there, or for that matter, a pure takeout place as you won’t be able to host any party bigger than 5, nor is it their aim. Good greek food, yes…
but compared to Vassili’s, Cavo, and even Characters, it’s a notch below, and so’s the pricing.
Ordered the Roast lamb, and as pic shows, for $ 20, you’ll certainly have leftovers or have to be super hungry to finish all the rice and 2 big pieces of tomato, and the greek salad, AND the pita bread with the nice dipping sauce.
For the area, it’s a good choice.
Just not sure if I’ll be rushing back anytime soon.

If you are looking for fresh, homemade, and authentic greek food– come here! My friend and I each had the lunch special which included a gyro wrap with delicious in-​house soup. We were also lucky enough to try the hummus with a killer jalapeño. We stuffed ourselves because we couldn’t stop eating– it was so delicious!
Spiros, the owner is hard-​working, friendly, and a talented cook.
We will be back for sure!

I went here a couple of days ago based on the rating here at Unilocal and I was not disappointed. I was there for take out and got fed while I waited! Spiro, the owner and cook, gave me samples of the hummous, tzatziki, rice and a bowl of avgolemono soup. All were very flavourful and, unlike some places I’ve been, the rice was not oily. I brought home the beef souvlaki and it was tender with a nice spice to it. I’ll definitely be returning. Spiro is absolutely charming too, and the crowning jewel in this little gem of a restaurant.

Fabulous food. Greek restaurants are not known for their décor, which is fine with me. That’s not why I went. I’m half Greek and was looking for some home cooked food and was not disappointed. I ordered the roast lamb shoulder. Spiros the owner waited on me and the food was quick, fresh, hot and savory. I was pleasantly surprised by the presentation, too. The dinner included a Greek salad, roast potatoes, rice, tzatziki sauce and a generous portion of very tender, moist lamb. The price was very reasonable for the quality and serving size. I’d go again. I wish we had a place like this close to home.

Spiros was such a treat! We has crispy calamari, escarot,.hummus and pita and it was the best in Vancouver.)

Taxes included! Note, they only take debit or cash.
Excellent, crispy, seasoned calamari — completely non-​greasy, I was impressed. The roast lamb dinner was juicy and tasty.
Heavenly soft pita bread and hummous with a generous drizzle of good quality olive oil.
The friendly, chatty Greek owner offered us a sample of his baba ganoush (not on the menu) it was really garlicky but I appreciated the gesture. He takes a lot of pride in his food and restaurant, which is always nice to see.
Tiny place, about 4 or 5 tables but I can imagine they do a brisk lunch take-​out business.