Maria's Taverna - Vancouver

Ordered from M's just last night and was quite happy with their food.

I hope you like it thick. Some people do, indeed, like it thick.

Came here with the family for my brother's birthday and we had the following: Pizza for my nieces - they love it! One of my nieces also had the spinach

Ordered some greek food from here as it is a vancouver institution and although the food was authentic and tasty, they missed some of our order and the pizza crust was very dark. We Ordered: Moussaka: one of our favourites of the night, the layers of beef, vegetables and creamy béchamel made for a delicious bite. We loved how it tasted despite the haphazard appearance and seemingly small portion. Greek Platter: dolmanthes, meat patties, chicken souvlaki, lamb shoulder, calamari with pita and tzatiki this one platter had a little bit of everything and our favourite was without a doubt the calamari. I asked for the fried calamari instead of the broiled and without charge, they were able to substitute it and the portion was HUGE. It was an entire platterful and it was crispy, crunchy and perfectly seasoned, easily the best of the meal. The chicken was a little bit dry and the vine wrapped meat and rice (dolmanthes) had a sauce that was very heavy but the flavours were all spot on. The lamb shoulder was a nice portion size and we enjoyed the tasty meatballs as well. The biggest letdown was how they forgot the greek salads with this platter and the presentation of the potatoes and rice was very poor. Maria's Combo greek style pizza is meant to have a thicker crust with a mound of toppings and their pizza delivered on these accounts but the bottom of the pizza was definitely burnt. It was dark black in many spots and although this didnt affect the flavour TOO much, I didnt like the fact that I was ingesting all those carcinogens. The taste of the pizza itself was fine but we had a hard time getting over the crust. Overall, the food here is classic and other than a few overlooked mistakes, a good choice for a greek meal.

Great restaurant, great staff, fantastic food. We were there on a busy Saturday dinner and ordered hot and cold appies, main course and dessert for a special celebration. The waitress was attentive, helpful and we all loved the food. We go there quite often and never had bad food. Thank you Maria's.