Kisamos Greek Taverna (Steveston)

I haven't been back to Kisamos for quite some time now so when my mom decided on Greek food the other day, the first thing that came to my mind was to go to Kisamos. Located at 3420 Moncton st, Kisamos Greek Taverna is a restaurant that serves authentic Greek food right at the heart of Steveston. We were fortunate enough that the weather was super nice that day so walking around Steveston was a nice way to spend the day with the family. However, our recent visit there was quite a disappointment for me service and cleanliness wise. Why? Because when we arrived, there was only one server that was doing all the work in the restaurant. People were starting to come in and accumulate quite a bit at the door area but the server couldn't escort them to a table because she was busy serving hot food to other customers or taking other people's order. The server herself was actually not bad and even with load of stuff to do her attitude was still very positive, but since she was all by herself, she could not get to other customers immediately (I would imagine that she would be having quite a stressful day ahead of her). So when we were trying to get her attention, it took a while before she was able to take our orders, give us refills on water and other things. I was just really disappointed at how she was the only one at the front of the house doing all the work when they could have had another person come in to help her out so that everything would be quicker and even more accommodating to the guests. Not only did this result in frustration over trying to get her attention but also for the wait that some guests (including us) had to endure.

Their cleanliness on the other hand was on the so so side, it wasn't as clean as I had hoped for but it wasn't super dirty either. I mean what can I expect from a restaurant like this? 5 star quality? Of course not. Also, when we sat down, one of the plates on our table was dirty so I wasn't happy about that (I have a picture of it below). The plate added on to the frustration that I had with their idea of only getting one server because it really did took a while before she was able to get around to our table for us to tell her about it and for her to bring us a new set of plates. When it came to their food however, I will admit that it was pretty decent. Their service and cleanliness wasn't really as good as I had hoped for, but the food was still good and tasty like my last visit (so at least you know that the chef is consistent with his/her cooking). We only ordered two of their items to share (their roast lamb and spanakopita) since their dishes are already quite filling just from the sides themselves (they pretty much load you up with carbs like rice, pita bread, potatoes and Greek salad). The lamb itself was cooked very well but the mint gravy could have used a bit more mint flavor to it. Their Spanakopita on the other hand had a nice crispy texture on the outside and then filled with the right amount of spinach & cheese on the inside. What I loved the most here though was their pita bread and their Tzatziki sauce because believe it or not they actually make it from scratch right at the restaurant! Actually all of their dishes already comes with a side of Tzatziki sauce but since we loved it so much.. we actually ended up ordering 2 more for $1.75 each. The price they charge for their sauce may be a bit much but for the taste and quality of the ingredients that you get, you'll be happy for paying that extra $1.75 just so you could get more of their awesome Tzatziki sauce!


 Overall I would have to say that Kisamos isn't a bad place to go to if your looking/craving for authentic Greek food in Richmond. Although they do need to make some improvements on other aspects of their restaurant, their food however has still given us a good reason to go back a couple more times. I'm just hoping our next visit would be a better experience for us not just food wise but service and cleanliness wise as well.
 

The dirty plate

Pita bread

Tzatziki Sauce

Roast Lamb

Spanakopita