ELLAS GRILL — Restaurant in Township of Langley

I wanted to love this place as I love supporting all local business, especially ones just starting out and the reviews had me hopeful. Our party of 4 arrived for dinner around 7pm, it was busy, all tables were full, which we loved to see. After a 10 min wait we were seated with no menus, a jug of water but no glasses and nobody came back for another 10 mins. We finally got our menus and had lots of time to look over them because nobody came back again for another 10 mins. While taking our order, we discovered they were out of 3 major things on the menu, 2 of the entrees we wanted and they had no potatoes at all, just fries, rice or veggies were the sides options. It would’ve been nice to know about the food shortage when we were seated, not as we were ordering. 3 of us got the chicken souvlaki, which was good, probably the best item from everything we ordered, and one of us got the spanakopita. We also ordered the calamari appetizer. After waiting about 30 mins, our appetizer arrived and 2 mins later our entrees arrived, would’ve been nice to have some time to enjoy the appy. We were very disappointed to see that the calamari is not like anything I’ve had at a restaurant before, it’s just large rings and about 10 pieces on a plate, they’re exactly the same as the ones they sell in the freezer section at Costco, they were also rubbery and had zero flavour and the crispy coating was mostly fallen off. When my spanakopita arrived, I was expecting one pastry as I’ve seen in many other Greek restaurants, but what I received were the exact spanakopita’s I’ve bought before from Costco, there were 6 or so of them, the appetizer-sized ones. Even though there weren’t any potatoes we thought the veggies and rice should be good. The veggies, which I thought would’ve been steamed veggies, were just a pile of stir fry that mostly contained onions with a few mushrooms, bell peppers and carrots, we picked out a few things but I don’t enjoy fried onions with my Greek food. The rice was basmati rice with carrots and peas, it didn’t resemble Greek rice to us at all, more of an Indian style, which we like but not when we’re having Greek. All the dinner entrees come with pita bread and salad, ours was forgotten so we didn’t get it until the very end of our meal when someone finally returned to check on us. Overall, the service, albeit friendly, needs some major improvement, I realize they are new and busy so this is more of constructive feedback than a complaint. The food, it would be nice to see some authenticity, we didn’t taste any real Greek flavours in anything we had, no lemon, no Greek seasoning, it wasn’t disgusting just not great. When dining out I don’t want to be eating from the freezer section at Costco. This place has a lot of potential to be great, and to survive in a small town it has to be, I am hopeful...

Cute decor, cozy atmosphere, portion size was plentiful for price, and food was adequate.

Unfortunately, there was an issue with our service and I will include that information below, as I think it would be useful for management.

After our dinner plates were cleared, our server disappeared on us. We were not offered another drink, a dessert, or even the bill. We were not in a hurry, so we continued to wait patiently, thinking she'd check in with us at some point. She didn't. We noticed that the restaurant was almost empty, as it was getting later into the evening and the server was doing general cleaning duties. After almost an entire hour of waiting, we concluded she was not going to check in on us, so we called her over to ask if we could order a dessert. She walked away to retrieve a menu, which we did not need or ask for, as we already knew what we wanted to order. When she returned, she promptly walked away from the table again, without taking our dessert order and left for another significant amount of time. Eventually she did return to take our order.

When we paid the bill at the end of the night, she asked us how the service was. We told her the food was good, but when I mentioned that we were confused about why she disappeared after our plates were cleared, she quickly started going into elaborate detail about why there was no creme brulee available. She kept on and on about it, so I interjected and let her know there was some miscommunication, as we were NOT concerned about the lack of dessert. We were confused about the lack of service and why she disappeared and left us alone for an hour with no drink refills or offer of dessert, when the restaurant was almost empty.

When I re-stated our concern to clarify, she dismissed my remarks by changing the subject back to the creme brulee again, then quickly hurried away, without acknowledging the lack of service that occurred. It felt like she went off to hide? I had been careful to speak kindly to her, as I recognized that this may have occurred simply due to lack of training.

It is possible that she was a new server, but it would be helpful if in the future, the servers are trained to ask customers something along the lines "Can I offer you anything else? Or just the bill?" when the plates are cleared. Additionally, if a customer voices a concern about the service, it is not helpful for the server to change the subject to discuss elaborate dessert details. An acknowledgment of the problem with the lack of service would have left us feeling like there was some accountability, and that perhaps we would want to return again in the future.

Unfortunately, there was no acknowledgement or...

Best Greek food we have eaten in a long time. Let's talk first about the portions of different items on the plate. Over 95% of restaurants, mall food courts, takeout places and other eating establishments will fill your meal (plate, gyro, sandwich, wrap etc.) with fillers. This takes the form of all the cheaper items such as rice, pasta, hashbrowns, bread and other simple carbs. This place does not! It is the first restaurant in years where we did not have to request "easy on the carbs" and "more meat please". The portions on our plates where perfectly balanced with rice, salad and lots of meat (see photos for details).

The before-meal Greek salad was very tasty with was not overloaded with onions. The Bruschetta was wonderful with light perfectly toasted bread. The Mixed Grill was an excellent way to experience three meats: chicken, beef and lamb. All meats were moist. The chicken and beef were tastier than the lamb. Please note that the lamb is not the same as Roast Lamb and instead is the lamb likely used for Gyros. If we're being picky, this lamb could have used a bit more flavour. The rice and mixed vegetables were perfectly sized and with tons of flavour. Even the pita slices were warm with drizzle of oil.

Service was excellent even with a slight language barrier. Do not be deterred by South Asian staff and chef in a Greek restaurant. The Chef has over 10 years experience in cooking this type of food and it shows! It appears to be a family-run business. There was adequate street parking directly in front of the restaurant and a free parking lot across the street (which was mostly empty during the lunch hour). We felt that our meal was very reasonable given the portion sizes and taste. We shared an appetizer and ordered two meals (one from lunch menu and one from dinner menu). We did not have any drinks other than water. With taxes, the total meal was $52 not including a tip.

The restaurant has been open for 9 months. They have over 500 Google reviews. We hope they stay. It is simply outstanding and you should...