Neighbour's Restaurant & Pizza House — Restaurant in Vancouver

A returning customer who's been coming back since 2014. I remembered the place when they were featured on a TV series "You Gotta Eat Here" and the mom & pop run restaurant was memorable, for both their warm comfort foods and family style service. My go to is usually their famous lasagna and calamari, you cannot go wrong with real mozzarella cheese! Not too sure if they use frozen squid or not, but I wouldn't be surprised as it is relatively cheap. Whatever they did with it though, tasted great.

Writing a thorough review after 5 years because I felt like the quality and essence of this family run restaurant is deteriorating. The owners and family were the glue to the family service, and now that the usual servers are gone the restaurant is in great need of staff training to support their long years of business in the Victoria Drive neighbourhood.

As a family run business, it was a good sign to still see the old owners face as he greeted us, after an inexperienced server pointed at a table and told us "sit there." We were not served water by her, but instead another inexperienced waitress who did not say a word to greet us. Being here since 2014 I can say the service is getting worst and worst. The family essence is completely gone, and the waitresses and servers can be seen in a group behind the counter just chatting away when cups need to be filled and customers inquiries aren't being met.

After we've been seated, we quickly knew what we wanted and closed the menu. The servers were still behind the counter chatting away as I was trying to interlock eyes with the inexperienced server who poorly seated us down. We ordered our food. Calamari, famous lasagna with the side Caesar salad.

The calamari came about 5 minutes after we ordered. No lemon wedges like before, instead an orange slice? Do people squeeze oranges instead of lemon now? 5 minutes of cooking time was alarming to me, but upon tasting the calamari it was cold and dried. Must be prepared earlier.

Our lasagna-salad combo came 10 minutes after. My favorite part is the cheese, I'm happy it still has the same memorable impression of a home made lasagna I've had here in the past, however not only the waitresses and servers were different, even the chefs. The lasagna noodle was El dente, not to my liking but the meat sauce and cheese made up for any lack of quality. I love Caesar salad so of course you can't mess up the essence of a good Caesar salad can you! The Caesar salad was my favourite out of the meal, since I couldn't chew through most of the lasagna. It came out pretty quick so I wasn't surprised.

Throughout the experience we were never asked once how the food tasted, therefore no feedback could be relayed to the chef, the owner, nor the servers. There were 6 servers working in a semi-empty restaurant on a Sunday evening. Not one cared to see if we needed anything or even asked us how the food was. I am writing this review to reflect my experience here at Neighbours Restaurant, as a returning customer since 2014 who will not be spending anymore money here.

Upon paying, our inexperienced server did not check us out but instead she called someone else to. The inexperienced server was named Eva, who is need of training for better people skills. A smile goes a long way!

I would not be coming back to this long loved restaurant after how the food had changed and the service leaves a bitter taste...

We have given this place a few chances for takeout, mainly because we live just a block away. Maybe our luck but it’s nothing great, especially for the prices they charge. Always subpar.

Last night we ordered 2 chicken souvlaki, 1 spanakopita dinner and 1 medium vegetarian special pizza. My husband picked it up. We didn’t get to eat right away because we got busy with our toddler, maybe 20 mins later after he brought it home. My husband starts opening the containers/plating the dinners. One of the chicken souvlaki turned out to be beef souvlaki. He called the restaurant (it was on speaker so I heard the entire conversation) to tell them there was a mistake. The first thing said by the lady on the phone was “can you not eat beef?” How is that the first thing you say to the customer who you gave the wrong order to? If we ate beef and we wanted to eat beef we would’ve ordered beef souvlaki. My husband said no we wanted chicken souvlaki. She said she can send it out to us, which was nice, but also followed it up with “we’re not refunding it by the way”. He didn’t say anything about a refund, just wanted what we ordered.

Chicken souvlaki - the first one that was picked up was dry. The second that got delivered was good. Rice is good, not too garlicky like other places. Side potato is good. They were able to sub the Greek side salad with Caesar salad, it was appreciated. Dressing is bad though.

Spanakopita dinner was liked. The pastry shell is very flaky. Overall good.

Vegetarian pizza was good. Crust tasted buttery. Lots of toppings and cheese. Good but not great.

Based on the taste of the food/not worth the prices they charge…and the attitude from the staff we won’t be ordering...

This was the first time my fiance and I tried this place, and I'm afraid it will be the last. We decided to order pick up. First time I called, whoever answered said something inaudible, perhaps "Can you hold please?". It was said too quickly for me to even respond. I sat there listening to her taking other calls and orders. I had to try to call back 5 times to get through.

When I went to there to pick my order, I said hello when I entered, the only response I got back was "What is your name?". To try to be polite I said to the server "How are you doing today?", she ignored the question, was rude and didn't say a word to me at all. Really inexcusable customer service. Especially if I was trying to be friendly and polite.

The food was awful. The steak I had was overcooked, the butter mushroom sauce was just mushrooms from a can. The salad was Rabbit food. The dressing was just oil with pepper in it. The spaghetti and meat sauce tasted like chef boyardee canned pasta. My fiance's fish was burned and over cooked. The only thing that was reasonably good was the french fries. Perhaps they are having difficulty sourcing out fresh ingredients due o COVID 19, or maybe both servers were having a really bad day. I understand, especially working in the food industry during a global pandemic. It really sucks, but that is no excuse to ignore me and be rude. The food was not worth the money paid. It's really too bad. Such high ratings here on google, and yet my experience...