Asteras — Restaurant in Nanaimo

Every time we mention Greek food to people, we get told that Asteras is the absolute best and we need to go there, so tonight, being my birthday, we thought we would give it a shot.

I did call ahead for a reservation, which turned out to be the right move, as even for a later Tuesday it was super busy when we showed up.

Perhaps it was because they were busy, but it was almost 10 minutes after we were seated before anyone acknowledged us to take our drink order.

As their menu is very traditionally Greek, we were excited to share a bowl of the Avgolemono soup, and naturally, some saganaki, because who doesn't love cheese? (The answer is no one.)

The saganaki came with a generous helping of pita, but the cheese itself was anything but. The small serving size wasn't helped by the fact that the cheese seemed very bland and uninteresting.

The bowl of Avgolemono was a decent size and had lots of rice and chicken in it, but lacked both the creaminess/richness and lemon flavour I expect. It ended up being more like a very boring bowl of chicken and rice soup, which is fine, but isn't Avgolemono.

We both had the platters, lamb for myself and chicken souvlaki for her, and they were both pretty average Greek plates. Meat, Greek potatoes, rice, salad (we both swapped our Greek for Caesar), carrots, and tzatziki.

The lamb portion was huge (which you know is a plus for me), and was pretty tasty. Their Greek potatoes are great, and I wish there was more of them. Next time I'd definitely swap out the rice as it was super plain and had a funny aftertaste. My carrots were all straightforward and fine. My partner's were a bit underdone and firm.

The Caesar salad was good, definitely one of the better Caesars we've had in the city. The tzatziki was exactly what you want if tzatziki is your thing.

Partner felt her chicken souvlaki was quite good. Appeared to use thigh rather than breast, so definitely moist and flavourful. More than enough in the portion to take home leftovers for lunch. Sadly, we did find a small piece of bone amongst the chicken, which was kind of a bummer.

For dessert, we shared an order of the ekmek (delivered by a cadre of singing staff, as my partner let slip it was my birthday), and it was absolutely terrific. They use what appears to be baklavesque (that is a great word.) Pastry shreds for their bottom layer, and the spicing and layering of the ingredients is top shelf. As they say in some circles, "I could eat my way out of a room full of that!", And it is very likely we'll go back there strictly for dessert sometime.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience at Asteras, as it's a nice place, but some of the dishes just fell really flat, especially at the higher price point they charge. I would definitely go back (I'm gonna dream about that ekmek), but I think I would try a number of other menu items before I go back to my usuals, because I can get those better for less elsewhere.

Dinner for 2 with sodas came to $73 before tax and tip (and the ekmek was comped for...

Hard to find enough glorious words to say to describe our experience at Asteras...We were in Nanaimo for a conference last weekend staying at the Bastion Hotel which was a great stay as well and when the Reception gent, Derek asked what we like to dine, we mentioned Greek and he recommended Asteras, so we made a reservations for Friday night to celebrate my wifes birthday. A 'shortish' walk from the hotel but an uphill grade, we arrived at this lovely 'home' of a restaurant. Was greeted by Emily and had a great table inside their alcove..a cozy area. Emily was fantastic. She did everything right. The menus where presented and the wine list, followed with water. A bit later, she took our wine order and followed with a long narrative of their Specials for the evening including what was involved and included in the Special..A long list of items, ingredients and preparation. We were impressed on how she could remember all that info... We started with sharing their Saganaki as we often do, which was very good and decided to share a couple of appetizers... Their fresh grilled oysters were awesome and then their mussels and clams in a red tomato based sauce was excellent. The sause could've been a great pasta sause too...then a Caesar salad and pita to finish things off. When the oysters came the owner brought them out saying she had Good news and Bad news...the good news was she had 2 of the 4 oystets we ordered but the other 2 met the floor...so we all had a chuckle over that..then Emily rought out the other 2 when they were ready. She was great, uplifting spirit with her friendly, courteous service, always with a smile and a little quip here and there and we all hit it off splendidly. We saw that they had Creme caramel, our favorite so we had to have some. That was one of the Best we ever had..light in texture and full of flavor. Perfect with our Cuppacinos. Emily was so sweet in presenting flan with a candle in it...along with a couple of shots of Ouzo.. Really made the evening. Even the other patrons chimed in to singing Happy Birthday..We had a great time and fabulous dinner out.. If you're ever in Nanaimo, you must go to Asteras. Reservations recommended. You won't be...

I love asteras and always have since my first experience there in 2013!

I want to acknowledge the last 7 one star reviews as I was there to witness the interaction between the owner and the two people who had an issue with the reservation system. As they showed up late, without calling to let the business know, they were upset their table was ready and claimed that internally a reservation means the table is set ready for them. The owner let them know people were eating slowly and the table would be ready shortly. When he said do you understand, it was in no way racist, but reiterating that people were eating slowly, and he could not kick someone out due to that, and that everyone had a reservation so they would need to wait a few more minutes. It is a very busy, and SMALL, restaurant. People are late, early, slow and fast, please have some patience as they try their best to accommodate people as they come. There have been plenty of 5 star reviews where people have to wait a little while for their table to be ready and still have an amazing meal, great service and enjoy the bustling ambiance. Their table was ready minutes after they stormed off.

I would also like to say that I know Peter personally, and as an immigrant himself he is not at all racist towards asians or anyone, maybe something was lost in translation with their conversation- but as an onlooker the couple who left the review, and their many friends they asked to also leave 1 star reviews within a 12 hour time span, this only shows poor character of them.

Many restaurants internationally will give your table away if you are late, even...