Restaurant Souvlaki Village Grec — Restaurant in Laval (administrative region)

OK - this is now the reigning king in Laval - inside and take out . Its 5 stars - once a week - less if they are out - they are out less often and we get really honest telephone advice when we ask for our favorite dishes.

I still have not asked for my volume discount.

Once again Le Vieux Grec ran out of doner - we were really in the mood for a doner pita platter.

We looked over the recent reviews of Le Village Grec and it seems like the tides were turning and so we decided to give Village Grec another chance.

Things are looking up - not exactly like it once was - but its a very big improvement. You need to tweek the rice flavouring and fry those huge fries just a little longer til the edges get crispy otherwise they steam up and get soggy during takeout.

The sandwiches where the biggest improvement.

Keep it up guys - nice come back. We will be returning

A year before:

I only went back because Le Vieux Grec ran out of doner. I had not been at Village Grec since Covid started - boy was I let down.

I wont get specific but Great things do not last forever.

If you want what you had, go to Le Vieux Grec on Souvenir. They were trained by the son of the own of the Village Grec - its great.

People buy a thriving business - I see it all the time. They dont have to do anything but repeat what was happening before they bought it.

The price they paid for the restaurant is relative to the amount of business it was generating. Now its no where close and diminishing once they get through all the old regulars - it will be ready to shut down.

Unless - they smarten up and stop thinking that their way is better- trust me its not. I wont go back till I see many great reviews not from people that are associated with the restaurant trying to cancel out the recent wave of bad reviews.

Restaurants are mainly run by hard working uneducated people- not stupid people but mostly people who do not have university degrees - but the good ones have street smarts. The new owners seem to have neither.

So take my advice - go back and copy exactly what the old owners used to do - do not cut corners and you will save your business.

You need to work hard to turn around customer sentiment. Understand why you have bad reviews. Read and do not ignore the reviews, use them to make you better. Or just call up one of the old owners and have them help and show you how.

Play smart...

I went to a Greek restaurant in Canada for the first time. My wife is an employee, and I used to work in my home country, but I don't currently. Please correct me if I'm wrong: Do employers pay their employees based on tips, especially for restaurant employees? So, do they deduct wages assuming the tips will cover the rest?

When it was time to pay the bill, a slim young woman with light skin and light eyes approached our table. We paid by card, and I noticed that there were predetermined percentages for the tip—a percentage of the bill. We chose "No, thank you." If tipping is mandatory, why is there such an option? We then tipped $5 because at my wife's job, she sometimes delivers orders to customers' doors, and people usually don't even pay that much. However, she didn't seem happy and explained that the tip was calculated as a percentage of the bill. We then offered $20, but she dismissed it with a rude attitude and left. After we left the restaurant, he followed us out and told my brother we hadn't tipped him because we didn't like or appreciate his service. He even said, "If I'd known you wouldn't tip, I wouldn't have served you like this." Actually, not every service was special to our table. He forgot some of our orders, but we didn't mind.

I don't think it's appropriate for a staff member to follow customers outside and confront them. If he hadn't been satisfied, he could have politely asked, "Was there something wrong with my service? Were you unhappy with anything?" But it was quite odd for him to refuse to tip at the table and then insist we leave it there. He even said, "Maybe I didn't take it, but you should have left it on the table anyway," which struck me as unusual.

With all due respect to the chef, the calamari was delicious. However, I can't say the same for the burgers and steaks. Frankly, I hadn't planned on writing this out of respect for people's hard work, but the waiter's attitude...

I have been to this restaurant many times, however tonight was certainly my last. Their staff are disrespectful and inconsiderate. We where two couples, with two children a few months old and we waited over an hour in a heat infested cocoon. We simply wanted to be seated, at the least to feed our hungry children. What’s frustrating is that there’s no hostess to coordinate customers. Therefore the waiters are the hostess and this creates a climate of self-interest; which essentially promtes profit over service. They prefer to seat their friends or small groups of 2 in order to encourage turnover, profit and more tips. Our children were starving and we just wanted to feed them. They kept passing their Greek friends in front of us too which made it equally frustrating. They simply didn’t care that we where respectfully waiting. We asked them a few times if they had space yet and they showed us some nonsense paper they took out of the recycling bin with our name on it - a terrible joke of an excuse for a guest list - all while they were passing people in front of us. After an hour we decided to leave and go elsewhere. We are never going back. These guys have clearly been in business for way too long and lost touch with their customers. They obviously just care about money. The people in the kitchen are equally at fault for submiting to this behaviour. I’m sure one of those cooks behind the counter is the owner, and he just lets this happen. It’s so insulting and disgusting - like their service. They could have simply told us « were sorry, but we have no space for you » and even that would have been fine. It’s a shame because my wife and I were trying to introduce the friends we were with to the restaurant....