Pasparos Taverna

My spouse and I went to Pasparos for dinner last night, and, I have to admit, I was disappointed. I’ve heard people say that it’s a great restaurant, and the place was packed, but I thought the whole experience was way under par. The food was overpriced for what it actually was, which was average — and their Greek rice was flavourless.
We ordered one appy, 2 drinks, and 2 entrées. We both asked to have the rest of our meals wrapped up, and they threw everything — chicken, rice, potatoes, Greek salad, pita bread, and big globs of tzatziki — all in the same box. So, as you can imagine, the pita bread was completely soggy, and basically everything was glued to the tzatziki.
When a gentleman (I’m assuming he’s an owner) came over to our table, we asked for our bill, and he said our waitress would be right with us. After waiting for 10 – 15 minutes, I ended up walking up to the bar to ask for my bill (again) and to pay, as the rest of the staff seemed to be busy watching the ‘entertainment’ (a belly dancer with finger cymbals) that was parading around the restaurant.
Anyway, maybe my expectations were too high, but I don’t think I’d go back. I will, however, give them 2 stars, only because the chicken was tasty and cooked perfectly.
Side note: For great food and service, I would highly recommend Mythos Taverna at 1811 Lonsdale Ave in North Vancouver.

This place is incredible! I especially love the chicken lemon soup with rice (Avgo lemono) and their dessert (ekmek). If you have never tried their dessert you have to! It’s a huge portion of honey and nuts and whip cream kind of like a light cake. Like nothing I have ever tasted before! Julie the owner always serves us and she is so wonderful. Can’t recommend this place higher if your looking for a nice, traditional Greek meal. Belly dancers on the weekend too!

My very favourite!!! The food, the staff, all incredible. You MUST eat here. No wait, please don’t as then it will get to busy! :)

This got to be a joke on North Americans. Greek restaurants on this continent are awful. Like an effigy of the real deal.
Bland, over salted, cheap ingredients, unimaginative, outdated and overpriced.
Like so often, I ended up at Pasparos with a group of friends who insisted I had to eat there because the food was so good.
Reluctantly I ordered the halibut dinner which was one of the most expensive items on the menu.
The halibut was DONE. As in well well done. As in imagine eating gum boots with a lot of salt. Or 3 day old chicken reheated.
Major disappointment.
I am done with greek.
This review is getting 2 stars because the roast potatoes were good.

Very cute place, super friendly staff, the food is good but a little overpriced, and last time I ordered calamari dinner for take out, the cook burned it. I am being a little generous with my four star review, but that’s only because I absolutely love the owner, and how friendly and caring she is.

AWFUL!!! got diarrhea from the Roast Lamb, it was absolutely disgusting… wasn’t fresh at all… cooked days ago and just re-​heated!!!

I gotta be honest about the food despite the fact that my friend and I didn’t have to pay for our meals because I complained that no one had come by to take our order for almost 45 minutes after we finally got seated. Yeah a truly busy night but still. Everyone around us were being attended to.
The food at this restaurant reads like authentic well prepared Greek food but none of it had any flavour.
I have eaten in most of the Greek places on the North Shore and a few in Vancouver and Chicago. And while the calamari, rice, pita, dips, etc looked good at this restaurant. everything on my plate lacked seasoning.
The owner, a very lovely and lively lady, tried desperately to make up for the terrible service that night. For the oversight. By comping our meals but I have yet to return to Pasparos Taverna.

Fantastic Greek dining experience all round! Everything we ordered was delicious and plentiful. The servers were extremely pleasant and attentive. The ambiance was delightful, with lovely décor, plants and sun pouring into the atrium. We will most definitely return to this gem of a restaurant!

I was totally blown away by their food & service last night! my S/​O suggested this place as it was in the neighbourhood but I hadn’t been there before. We decided on take out. So I called in our order, and the gentlemen who answered the phone was SO friendly and attentive (which is not the case sometimes at other restaurants when you call to place an order) and told me about 10 — 15 minutes. When I went to pick up the order I was greeted very politely by the staff, and told it would be just a moment and offered a drink while I waited. Every interaction I had with a staff member was done politely, professional, and welcoming. The place was bustling for a Friday night… but everyone seemed to be on their A-​game and happy to be there.
I got my food and took it home.
We ordered a prawn souvlaki and a chicken souvlaki. the food was carefully packaged and divided. They have a unique take-​a-​way tray that has individual portioned areas for the rice, vegetables, protein/​potatoes. they had a separate container for the Greek salad, and another one for the tzakiki. Let me just say this… everything was awesome but the roasted potatoes blew me away. I have NEVER tasted roasted potatoes that were so good in my life. I don’t know what your secret is but they were phenomenal (and I don’t even usually like potatoes too much). Over all it was delicious. Portion sizes were fabulous (I have a little leftover for lunch today. excited!), and the food was yummy!
Will definitely be back!

The owner and Chef Katia, is your typical older Greek woman. Loud and plump, she was not a woman to trifle with. She cooed and caa-​ed over her loyal customers, and was not above serving tables and seating patrons. She lead her team of young male servers with great directness. You could tell she was a main reason locals came back. She greeted familiar faces as, «darling». And gave the place personality, and a certain pizzaz only a big character could.
The menu listed all the familiar Greek classics, as well as a section for Katia’s own specialities. Each entrée comes with the usual Greek accompaniments: Greek salad, rice pilaf, roasted potatoes, and tzatziki sauce. Expect here there were no pita to dip your sauce into. But they were generous with the feta cheese. And you got more than one piece of roasted potato, which gave you a great meat to potato ratio. The rice was well seasoned but had no extra veggies in it, it was just flavoured yellow rice. Each entrée is more expensive than your usual Greek dinner found else where. $ 20 compared to the more commonly seen $ 16.95. Unique dishes aside, I don’t really see any increase in value parallel to the increase in price.
Would I come back? — No. As great as the food was, for $ 3 more than at any other Greek place, without pita bread; I do not really see any value. Plus if you live further away, a drive to North Vancouver for Greek food may not be convenient.
Would I recommend it? Yes, if you live in North Van and are looking for a great neighborhood Greek place, this is the one. «Pasparos» is run by an owner who truly cares and takes the time to learn your name. You will enjoy the culturally rich décor and inviting staff. Don’t deny your cravings.

I was taking these 2 guys I know out for a Christmas Dinner and I would say that the food there was not too bad or at least somewhat good.
A good thing about this place was it seems like a pretty quaint local place and the portions weren’t terribly bad.
Another thing I was relatively impressed about was the service was pretty fast but that probably had something to do with how we were the only 3 people there at the time and when we got there, there weren’t anyone around for another good 15 minutes.
And I was pretty impressed with the waitress’s interpersonal skills with the customers there, because she originally works in the kitchen and was still kind of new at being a waitress at the time.
But there’s actually a lot of things about that place I wasn’t entirely too impressed about.
The first thing was that the waiter that greeted us at the beginning seemed pretty average but had a unpleasant tone and vibe from him when I mistakenly thought he was talking to me when he was actually talking to the waitress assisting him.
Second, the prices was kind of high for it’s portions. All I had was a SMALL Greek salad, appetizer calamari and 1 glass of soda, and after the taxes and tip, it rounded up to $ 28.34! I will admit, that price isn’t too bad considering the food wasn’t terrible but it was kind of steep.
Lastly, it was kind of dark there, so for anyone who wanted to go out but never heard of this place before might miss it by accident if they don’t pay close attention to where it is.

Good Greek food and beautiful patio to eat in. On a warm day it feels like you are in Greece! Food always nice and fresh. Calamari is the best… lightly battered, not greasy!

Insanely SLOW SERVICE!!! Food alright.
I walk by Pasparos all the time… it’s immaculately decorated and detailed. Clearly a place for high end greek food. I made the mistake of stopping in for lunch during noon.
I was one of 3 customers eating out of probably 80 or more tables. The food prices for lunch were ASTRONOMICAL. $ 17 for beef souvlaki!!! That’s what I ordered and proceeded to wait nearly 40 minutes for it to come. Again absolutely no customers and an eternity for food to arrive. It felt like I could of flown to Greece and back!!! The food was alright — Generous portions of beef and a mediocre salad and rice. I asked for pita bread and I was told it was extra. What a joke!!!
This beautiful, cavernous restaurant completely empty during lunch. Why not offer a more reasonable menu $ 9 – 12 and at least have pita bread with it!!!

This place is fantastic. I don’t know how or why it tastes just a little bit better than other greek restaurants, and I’ve tried a lot in Vancouver. Give this place a try for sure.

We were there with a large group (30+), which could have been part of the problem, but I was not overly impressed.
The service was impossibly slow, the food was pretty standard (although the portions were on the large side), and the cheque was a little more than I thought reasonable.
Maybe it’s better with a smaller party, but I’m not keen on heading back anytime soon.

A very solid 4 stars.
I could even give it a 5, but somehow old school restaurants just don’t give me that WOW dining experience that I expect for that rating.
We ate in the atrium, which was quieter than the other side of the restaurant. It was a bit chilly or a bit hot, since we sat near the window and the overhead heaters did their job.
The décor is basically the same as when I went there 30 years ago. plants everywhere. but so what! The food is awesome and so is the service.
We had the entrée platter for two. it had everything on it I wanted. greek salad, spanakopita, moussaka, lamb shoulder roast, calamari, dolmades, broccoli, rice and potato. $ 60ish for the platter and way too much food to devour.
The freshness and quality of ingredients was top notch. Just delicious!
We ordered coffee at the end of the meal and even though we said no to desert, were delighted to be served 4 little pieces of their baklava. a nice little sweet treat to pair with the delicious coffee.
We’ll be back!

Not much to say that hasn’t been said … except nom nom nom nom.

For years Pasparos was my favourte Greek restaurant. I took people there for birthdays and drooled at the thought of a good Greek meal. No more. The menu changed… the specials changed and my favourite dish was no longer there! I took 2 high profile guests to Pasparos because they’d heard me rave about how great the food was… The meal was a disaster on all fronts. The taramasalat was doughy and tasteless. The lamb was very, very fatty, the potatoes were soggy. Each of our dishes was an pretty awful.
To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. because I was with well known guests I sent a complaint to the owner. I was told that nothing had changed and that the kitchen hadn’t changed a thing in years… well, maybe a new cook here and there. They invited me back only if I brought the same two guests. No thanks, I’ll go elsewhere. My guests wouldn’t go near the place. too bad… it used to be great.

When I moved to North Vancouver the very first place that was recommended to me was Pasparos Taverna. I am a huge fan of Greek food and was eager to see if the place could live up to the hype.
I can safely say it met and exceeded that hype. The quality of the food and the service is impeccable. It can be a little on the pricey side but what you get makes up for that. If you love Greek food I cannot possibly recommend this place higher.
Your average souvlakii dish will run you around $ 16 and other entrees range from $ 14 to $ 23 dollars.

When in Rome… well, okay, North Vancouver…
We’ve been hitting this wonderful family run restaurant for almost 20 years, I kid you not! The Mrs. and I came up here with her Mom, while we were still dating!
The food, atmosphere and service have not changed, they are all good and ready to roll. Flavors are full bodied as are the wine and liquor selections!
Friday and weekends can get busy, heavy on the late night crowd drink’n it up, that’s how Canadians roll! Eh!
Worth the short ferry ride from downtown Vancouver to the north-​side and the views on the ferry are not to be missed!
OPA!!!