Loula's — Restaurant in Vancouver

i came here with 4 others to celebrate a friend and i's birthday. the first issue was drinks - it took about 20 minutes to receive our drinks - which is totally okay as they were busy and we are understanding people, most of us have BOH and FOH restaurant experience. when we finally received our drinks we ordered 3 appetizers to share, the zucchini chips, the watermelon salad and the saganaki - the saganaki was good but came with maybe a half tablespoon of compote, watermelon salad was good but for 22$ a plate of arugula, some watermelon, feta and onions is crazy overpriced. it took a really long time to get our appetizers, we had already been there for over an hour. they also didn't arrive at the same time. we had already finished the salad before the saganaki came out, and when we finally received the saganaki they told us they were out of zucchini chips so we decided to get spanokopita. by this point we were starting to get a bit frustrated as none of us were really able to eat together and we were really confused as to why it took them over an hour to realize they were out of zucchini and to let us know of this issue. the next issue was our mains - which, yet again, not a single item came out at the same time. my friend received her main and was finished it before the rest of us did. same thing for the rest. it's like they cook each item that comes in one at a time. it absolutely blew my mind that a restaurant would promote the culture of dining together yet would leave each person at a table of 5 to eat their meal while the rest sat there. the next issue was that we had pretty much all received our meals and finished (two of us whose meals arrived last were still eating) by the time our spanokopita was given to us. by this point we were approaching almost 2.5 hours being here and were quite frustrated as we had plans for after dinner but had spent so much time at loulas already. another issue we had was we received some raw meat. my friend ordered himself the lamb souvlaki and while he said his dish was alright, he noticed that the last chunk of lamb on his plate was undercooked and completely raw on the bottom half of the piece, almost like the grill cook had that part of the skewer improperly on the grill leaving it to remain raw as it was not on the grill. when we brought this up to our servers attantion, we simply wanted to tell her to let the grill cook know that maybe he has something wrong with his grill, as we were not expecting a discount or replacement as our friend was pretty much done all the food and purely wanted to inform the restaurant. however, the server (Imogen, i had to ask someone else for her name) simply said okay, and walked away to send the manager over. the manager came over and was kind of condescending and told us that lamb comes like that and it's normal, saying that my friend ate all his food so why are we asking for a discount now. it was really rude. the main issue with the managers response is the fact that 1. no where on the menu does it state the lamb souvlaki is cooked rare/med rare/red in the middle, leading guests to believe this will be a well done dish. 2. if the this dish is served to customers cooking preference, or if it's cooked to anything below well done, or if the restaurant cooks it to a specific standard (ex. steak houses recommending med rare) why isn't the server asking what cook temp we would like it or asking if we're okay with the cook temp the restaurant automatically serves? 3. restaurants are about consistency, in this case the rest of the souvalaki was cooked except for the final piece. that is not consistency. the chef sent out complementary mini desserts for the misunderstanding over the raw meat which was a nice touch however we had been at this restaurant for so long at this point that we simply wanted to go home. when it was time for us to pay they tried to charge us for the zucchini chips that we didn't receive. as a bartender this place...

Disappointing and overpriced !!

Busy Saturday evening and loud music greets you as you approach the restaurant. Our party of 4 had lots of issues at this place, starting from the restaurant design and spacing between tables. Even if it was not COVID, I would be uncomfortable sitting inside the restaurant. Tables are so close that your elbows will either touch the adjoining table or hit your server at least a couple times if not more. Music is so loud, that you can hardly hear anything. From the conversations with your friends to trying to talk to the restaurant staff, be prepared to yell and hope that someone will listen to you.

Tiniest bar counter where we were made to wait for over 45 min after having a confirmed reservation. We were told that the table will be ready in 10 min, while the manager was clearing the other room for a party that had not even arrived, but seemed to be very important for the restaurant to not honor bookings that were waiting.

Back to the bar counter, where the dishwasher’s steam starts to hit your face while you are seated and “enjoying” your $15 drink. Cocktails being served in warm glasses, Martini that’s so salty that the bartender says there is nothing they can do as it’s a salty drink….oops !!

After 45 min, we were finally seated. Another reminder that we had a confirmed booking for 9:30 that the restaurant staff didn’t seem too worried about. We ordered a bunch of dishes and our server said that they would be served as they are ready. It’s “Tapas” style Greek food, he added. Greek food and tapas are not really things that I put together looking at the menu.

After receiving our food, the “tapas” meant small, overpriced portions. The Greek salad was uninspiring and bland at $16. The fried cheese was ok, nothing unique or special. The lamb chops were good, but tiny. At $8 a piece, you really wished there was more meat and less bone. The star of the show, the Lamb souvla was a complete let down. The menu describes it as marinated for 48hours and made fresh everyday. You order it by weight and 50% of it is bones. I asked the server what cut of lamb is used. I was told a part of the leg with a little bone. I have never seen a leg of lamb butchered like this and cooked so poorly, if it was leg of lamb. Dry, chewy with unrendered fat, and full of bones….I am sure you get the point. The Greek potatoes, were decent but cold and almost mushy. No caramelization or crisp exterior, the least you would expect from a Greek taverna to get right. The desserts were slightly better than the rest of the meal. The kataifi in the Ekmek was not baked enough and was pale and mushy. The baclava was good.

With all these flaws, the restaurant was busy and full till very late. With over 80 reviews already and no response from the management, it’s quite clear that “listening” is an issue in this restaurant. Not worth the hype and definitely not worth...

If I could give ZERO stars, I would...

I went there for my birthday on Jan 20th with a group of 9 people. My friend called Loulas to organize the cake cutting and all, and found out that no outside food was allowed at all. They could store it for us but not bring it out. I called myself and was immediately handed to the manager. I politely requested if there was any way at all to accommodate the cake cutting, because I had friends flying in for my birthday dinner. The manager's tone was not apologetic at all, and quite stern even when he said "sorry about that." Seemed like he was annoyed and just wanted to get off the call. He suggested to treat me a slice of cheesecake but that didn't really solve my issue at all. There wasn't much I could do at this point because this was all an hour before my reservation.

When it came time to pay for the dinner, there was so much unnecessary disorganization. It seemed like they had never dealt with a group of 9 people. [Reminder: Throughout this entire payment process, my friends and I were perfectly polite when communicating issues with the bill].

Our initial server didn't even properly ask us how we wanted to split the bills, he wasn't even listening to my friends when they were explaining how they wanted the bills split and what they wanted on their tabs. He would listen to one sentence and then immediately rush away, not once smiling, not once apologizing for his continuous mistakes with the bill. He seemed very annoyed and was acting like it was our fault.

I have been to restaurants with similar loud ambiances, and bigger groups, and the servers are always polite and know the basic way of clarifying how the bill should be split. It was a simple fix if the server just listened. We had 3 bills printed because the server kept running away, not hearing us out, and just printing the wrong bills.

When my friend went up to talk about the mistake on splitting the bill, the MANAGER himself told him that "THEY DON'T USUALLY SPLIT BILLS"... what even. That is by far the stupidest thing I've heard. The manger's tone was also unapologetic and cold with my friend.

They then assigned us another server, who also was not smiling and unapologetic. NOT ONCE did any staff apologize for all the mix ups and for how they could not do the cake cutting. Mistakes happen all the time, I understand it is a very high stress environment, but the customer service was awful and so unwelcoming. They knew we were celebrating a birthday and after all these inconveniences, did not even offer the complementary cheesecake slice out of courtesy.

By the end, I just wanted to leave. It had really spoiled my mood. And it's a shame because the spot is so much fun and has great ambiance.

I am definitely never going back.

What a disappointment on my...