Tenen Restaurant — Restaurant in Burnaby

I want to be fair but I have to honest. I made an appointment for a sunday evening and was seated right away even though we were15 minutes late. I was glad they didn't give away our seat. The place was about 3/4 full, behind us was a table of 8 and 2 other tables had 2 persons. The waiter took our order after 15 minutes. We got our drinks. Now here's the bad. We sat there for 1 whole hour until past 8 pm, and were served absolutely nothing, not even our salad. I was tempted to ask them if they forgot our order. We were actually thinking of leaving. How can they not serve the salad. That's the first thing restaurants do and buys them time to prepare the entree. Well 1 hour and 15 minutes they served everything, salad and entrees, but got one order wrong which that had to take back . We got the chicken schnitzel which was dry , very dry. We doggy bagged the schnitzel for my dog. I noticed they also put salt in the green salad, and I was surprised to taste it now and then, not every bite but several times which i thought was a bit odd. I don't think you need to salt green leafy salad as they dressing they had was good enough. And another bad, is that there were two men sitting in some chairs right outside (obvious regular Serbian customers) and I noticed one of them was a chain smoker. The restaurant had left the front glass door open so the smoke just continuously wafted in. I noticed they had air conditioning, so not sure why they needed to leave the door open? not sure if the air con was working or not, or maybe they wanted to save some money so left the door open? I almost wanted to get up and close the door myself. I would, of course, ask for permission and complained /explained to the staff first. My friend said Serbian men smoke a lot. The roast veal was delicious. salad was very good, fries were very good. We were too full for dessert. From what I understood, they also had this other seating area at the back of the restaurant which was outside and that's where their regular smoking customers can eat and smoke cigarettes....apparently customers in that eating area made them ultra busy so much so that they could not get food served for the front dining area. Later in the evening, we noticed there were some musician(s) and one brought a cello...I was curious what kind of music they would play but we left before it started around 9 pm and not sure when the music would have started. My friend said we better leave because as soon as the music starts, probably all the smokers would come inside. We decided it was enough experience for the night. The wait staff was friendly and apologetic but, unfortunately, for them, I am not leaving a good review. I wouldn't return because of the fact they did not obey the city's smoking bylaw and the service was very slow service. I only tried them because I wanted to check out...

It's been a long time since I went to Tenen and surprisingly the pricing hasn't changed much. They have shown up frequently on Groupon, however, and with their clever pricing, the $20-towards-lunch adds up to either a cheap yet huge-portioned lunch for one person, or approximately a half-priced lunch for two persons. They do have nearly-$20 main dishes so going solo with the groupon is fine (and it's one groupon per table) but most items are $16.95.

Overall the food is comfort homestyle food. Actually on the mediocre side except the portion per plate is probably good enough for up to two persons depending on what you get and your appetite. Tenen does feed you well and isn't skimpy on portions. Even though they have the usual fillers of bread and potatoes, they aren't stingy with the meat.

Gourmet Burger ($16.95) 10 oz. patty with bacon and cheese mixed in -Looks like the bread used is a pita sliced in half and pan fried in drippings from the burger. -The seared-on-the-outside patty itself is really heavy and filling, but it's also really kind of rubbery-firm from maybe having ground the meat too finely. It has the feel of an overdone burger patty. -The burger has some cheese, bacon, and chili mixed in for a slight bit of bite to the flavour. -The plate has fries, coleslaw, and a scoop of rich chili-flavoured spreading cheese which you can certainly slather inside the burger. The patty is big enough for this burger to count as two regular burgers that might each cost you $10-$12 elsewhere. It's a very plain burger (bread and patty) but the plate is not skimpy on portions even if you discount the complimentary thick pita that comes to the table.

Cabbage Rolls (16.95) seasoned ground beef and pork with rice, stuffed in sauerkraut leaves, served with mashed potato -Looks like a small portion at just two rolls, but the amount of rice in the filling is token, so you're getting basically two burgers worth of meat here. If you're still not feeling full enough you can work in the pita bread that comes to the table. -Overall tasted fine, nothing superlative here. The slight sourness of the sauerkraut really helps with how filling this plate is.

OK food with bonus points for generous portions -- something that is steadily harder to find nowadays, especially with newer...

Our family has eaten at Tenen on many occasions over the past several years. Owners have done a great job decorating the restaurant with memorabilia from ex-Yugoslavia and Yugoslav soundtrack in the background adds to the ambiance. Smaller restaurant size provides an intimate dining experience. There’s also a nice patio in the back of the restaurant.

The food is generally great. Recently we ordered the MVP platter, which is deceivingly small in the picture and contains great amount of food, including varieties of meat, couple salads, spreads and amazing crispy potatoes. There’s a mix of spicy and mild options. Other favourites include Karadjordeva Schnitzel, fried smelt (brings back childhood memories), Zlatiborski Goulash, and cabbage rolls. Of deserts, would highly recommend chocolate rhapsody (delicious, rich flavour and very generous serving). Sometimes a dish may be a bit more salty than we’re used to but quality of food and flavours are great.

The service is not amazing by Canadian standards when it comes to attentiveness and wait time. During a recent visit we had to wait a while to get water refills (after asking). After waiting a while again for the waitresses to take our dessert order, I just got up and ordered at the bar.

During the most recent visit, we were seated nearby the entry doors and could smell the cigar smoke from outside. My partner got up to ask the person to move further away from the doors. It turned out that it was the waitress that was smoking so he chose not to say anything out of concern that she may be offended (and after already experiencing a long wait time for our water). This dampened the atmosphere.

Overall, we very much enjoy eating at Tenen and will be back again. If the service was better and there was adherence to public smoking laws, I would be happy to rate the...