The Greek Islands Restaurant — Restaurant in Chilliwack

After recently being provided a tip on where to get the best Greek food in the Fraser Valley, I decided to check out all the buzz and head on over to the Greek Islands Restaurant, Chilliwack BC It's important to note, The Greek Islands restaurant is following and adhering to all provincial Covid-19 mandates, which includes masks and providing a copy of your BC Vaccination Card (Digital/Card) prior to being seating. Entrance for my reservation was seamless and trouble free with no delays.

I visited during the dinner time rush hour, and as busy as the service was, our waitress (Ashley) was absolutely impeccable and never skipped a beat. Ashley was present, tentative and had amazing knowledge of the menu which helped us decide on which menu items were signatures of what The Greek Islands restaurant were known for.

Appies arrived first and in record time, and they did not disappoint the pallet one single bit. Greek Style chicken wings, Calamari (traditional) and scallops wrapped in bacon. As a matter of personal preference, I prefer my Calamari with heads on, and wished the menu had described what their version of Traditional Calamari was in a little bit more detail. However the ring style calamari served did not disappoint. Perfectly seasoned and lightly coated and deep fried, they were tender and juicy. The accompanying in-house made tzatziki sauce was amazing. Greek style chicken wings? Crisp, boiler baked, these wings didn't disappoint. The charing from broiler process definitely infused these bad boys with a smokey flavour you wouldn't come to expect. Great tweak! Bacon wrapped scallops? Also well made, but really lacking the Digby Sea Scallop (U10-20) size. These fell a little flat in the size department, but still scored high in the garlic butter bath they were served in. Bacon makes everything taste better. Price points for these appies were on point and certainly encouraged the dinner to explore the appy menu a little closer.

The "pièce de ré·sis·tance"which is the classic signature to any Greek restaurant, is how well do they prepare their "Rack of Lamb"? Best served medium rare, The Greek Islands restaurant nailed it. There is no doubt, that the years of authentic and traditional Greek style cooking and recipes this family has in their arsenal, their rack of lamb is hands down going to have me returning time and time again. This prized dish had all the signature elements of perfectly prepared lamb with hints of garlic lemon, Greek oregano and olive oil drizzled perfectly all over. This was made fresh to order, cooked to perfection and left you rolling your eyes, sighing and begging for the next piece. The team preparing this dish knew exactly what they were doing and how delicate this cut of meat is and the attention it deserves.

The owner, who I had the pleasure of meeting table side, demonstrated some old school traits, not commonly seen anymore in the restaurant industry, by visiting and introducing himself to patrons and dinners. This is a gentleman's tradition of mingling and connecting with clients. Seeking feedback, complementing dinners on choice of dishes, and rubbing elbows, Yanni is quite approachable and friendly and you can tell he loves his role. It's all part and parcel of providing a great dining experience. We also provided our appreciation to the entire back of house team, the chefs while during our chat, and just how awesome our server Ashley was.

If Greek food is up your alley, this is the place you want to check out. You don't need to drive to the big city. You don't need to hop on a airplane. The Greek Islands restaurant is more than capable of feeding any mediterranean cravings you might be having.

Menu Item Wish List: Fire Grilled Lamb Souvlaki Wrap!

Service and wait times: Amazing Knowledgeable staff: Excellent Noise levels (peak times): Comfortable Food portions: Humongous portions/ Great value Freshness: Daily Returning client: Definitely Parking: Challenging Reservations: Recommended (Peak...

Although some of the items may be hit or miss I was already enjoying myself when I went up to the restaurant. Where doorman Chester greeted my boyfriend and I. The service was immediate and quite observing. As both of us couldn't finish our big plate the server had already asked us if we needed a box each. Possibly knowing that we were slowing down. For appetizers we got their escargots and cauliflower pandasia. Escargot was super tasty, with stretchy cheese and good earthy mushrooms paired with the slightly salty escargot. Dipping the pita bread in it was a nice change in texture. The pandasia though wasn't as much of a wow factor as it was fried in the same way as calamari but with softer vegetables that had too much moisture content in them. So the first few bites were of crispy texture but not enough flavour and as the few remaining bits we were left with sad, limp vegetables and leftover fried bits.

On to the main course, since we both got Greek entrees which included a soup of the day or salad of our choosing. My partner chose the tossed salad with the waitress's recommendation of their house Greek dressing. I'm not going to lie but she was right, the dressing was nice and zingy and it paired well with the fresh cut vegetables. I chose their soup of the day which was a tomato-based ham soup. It was nice a creamy but felt like it was lacking something. As well as the dill was a bit overpowering in presence but I'm sure others would enjoy. As the entrees arrived, we were met with large plates filled from end-to-end with food. Each cooked with much care as I tasted. One thing that perhaps my partner and I weren't used was the roasted potatoes. I tasted as though it was brined in a tzatziki based sauce before roasting so there was this slight off-putting sourness to the soft potato.

The moussaka was beautifully displayed with clear layers of meat, vegetables,and sauce with a good helping of rice and veggies. My partner pointed out that he didn't quite enjoy how the dish was plated as he likes to be able to enjoy perfect well-rounded bites. But that's just his nitpicking talking.

For my tegania, I found that serving was quite plentiful with saucy mushrooms and meat. It was quite a lot but I was able to finish a good half before packing. One thing for the restaurant to consider is the cut of meat, both the chicken and the beef. For the meat since some of the medallions were cut bigger than others some of the cook time went over while others were just right. A good thing to consider for a dish that will be finished in the sauce!

Overall, my experience in the family owned restaurant was really nice, from friendly staff and well made food. I would go there again if I'm ever...

I recently came again to this place and honestly I just had to change the review due to the fact I was extremely disappointed with my return. When I had first came with my mother the food and service was fantastic and my first impression was that this place was amazing. Boy was I wrong. I had a bit of money to spend so I decided to come again on my own since I really liked the food at first. The quality and quantity of my food was just a complete downgrade and a waste of time and money. It took forever to the waitress to notice me, her first priority was the groups and the older men who ate alone like I had. Since my food and drink took a while to come I took a chance to look at how nice everyone else’s plates look while mine looked like they just shoved everything last minute. I didn’t even finish a fourth of my Kalamari (which was extremely salty) and I had already finished my rice. To top it all off I had even gotten food poisoning! There were 4 other older gentlemen who ate alone had lemons on their ice tea, those special bowls for pita bread. My iced tea was 80% ice and the rest was what they considered “iced tea.” I’m still a young adult so I’m assuming they thought they could slack off with me and because of that I was extremely offended. I came in very casual-like wear compared to others since it was raining so I guess they assumed I don’t tip well. This place needs to treat every customer the same. Worst $28 I ever spent for a meal. If you really want to try this place out, bring a friend at the very least just to guarantee you won’t get the same...