Pilos Restaurant — Restaurant in Ottawa

In order to give an establishment a fair chance, I always like to try a place twice before giving a review. The first time I tried Pilos (last year), I was horribly disappointed. But last Saturday, we gave it another try. We arrived early - about 4 pm, and were one of 3 tables with customers. I first noticed that our table cloth was dirty - full of crumbs and food from the night before! Looking around, I realized that the carpets had not been vacuumed either, the windows had weeks of built up dirt on them, and there seemed to be dust bunnies everywhere. Not a good sign. I've always believed that if a restaurant can't take care of the visible stuff, then there's a good chance that they're not taking care of the invisible stuff either (ie: the kitchen). In any event, we ordered calamari ($12.95) as an appetizer. It arrived so quickly (30 seconds), that I questioned the server about whether or not it had been pre-made. She assured me it hadn't. Where do I begin to describe this dish? It was a utter mess! Rubbery and chewy with such a strong fishy taste that it was completely inedible. To make matters worse, it was served with a slice of lemon that looked like it had a bite taken out of it - which I sent back. We decided to keep the rest simple. Two plates of chicken souvlaki (served with greek salad, tzatziki, rice and potatoes $17.95 ea.). The only thing I could bare to eat was the chicken (which was pretty bland and overcooked) and rice. The potatoes looked like they were a week old! Brown, wrinkly and hard as a rock. The "salad" was sliced tomatoes and onions, with not a drip of dressing, and the tzatziki was runny, like it had been watered down. All this for $60.00 + tax + gratuity. Save yourself the trouble, you can get a better meal at Mr. Greek in the mall for less than half the money. What I don't understand is that this place always seems to be busy. Why??? For those of you who are used to decent greek food (a la Toronto's Greek town) - you'll hate this place! I struggled to give it...

Visited Pilos Restaurant with my wife for lunch. Our visit was started off with garlic bread, which we found very strange considering we thought we were at a Greek restaurant. Usually a Greek restaurant will start with a side of pita bread and some tzatziki.

I was going to get souvlaki on a pita ($7.95) but it did not come with any sides. I eat a lot of Greek food and I found that the price was pretty high for only a souvlaki pita considering how cheap chicken and pork is these days. I asked how much a side of fries were (not listed on their menu) and the cost was $5 (one size only). I was even more shocked at how much a side of fries cost.

We decided to order of the lunch special menu and we both got the souvlaki platter special ($13.95 each). The special came with a single stick of pork or chicken souvlaki, potatoes, rice, Greek salad, and a small side of tzatziki. The souvlaki, rice, potatoes, and tzatziki were all good however the Greek salad (lettuce version) was actually served with Italian dressing and came with no feta cheese (which is also usually a Greek salad standard).

Overall the found was fairly good but the prices were pretty high for a walk-in lunch and there were a few interesting quirks which left us feeling like we weren’t actually at a Greek restaurant. By the time we left for lunch it was about $40 for two people. Recommendations:

Offer reasonable lunch pricing Drop the complimentary garlic bread and serve pita bread Use feta and Greek dressing on all Greek salads Offer Souvlaki pitas with a side for lunch specials as an alternative to a full...

I went to pilos for supper on New Year’s Eve , my boyfriend and I decided to order a lamb brochette plate with an extra pita on the side , and their soup (had almost no chicken/vegetable in it) there was about 1/3 cup of rice.. 3 small half of a potato and a bit of salad (had no feta or olives on salad) we also had to pay for the plate was about 40$ so it’s very disappointing how small the portions are. The lamb was undercooked (we did ask for medium rare but it was so full of fat and wasn’t even seared properly… as well as it was one of the lowest quality lamb I’ve had. We had stomach problems all night after) , the waitress also doesn’t understand that just because we wanted an extra pita - doesn’t mean we don’t want the bread they give to everyone when you first order. So we had to remind her we wanted both breads and she said “I thought you wanted nann” we said yes . We want both . So then she brings us one small slice cut in half …. Needless to say I left there still hungry . I also want to mention the waitress asked us 4 times if it’s one or two bills after we made our order. We kept having to tell her. Honestly every time I go there and see her , we always hope she isn’t our waitress and for some odd reason she ends up always coming to serve us.

After this last time we won’t be returning here. There are other Greek spots you can find that are better , and more...