Loula’s Taverna: Greek restaurant on Commercial Drive

It has been many years since I last visited Greece 🇬🇷 but this restaurant on Commercial Drive transported me back to Santorini.

Loula’s Tavern on Commercial Drive is a beautiful restaurant that really embodies the visuals of Greece. The vibe here is so fun and the menu is built for sharing. We came here as a table of 6 adults to celebrate a birthday and here is how our experience went.

📍 Loula’s
1608 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC V5L 3Y4

---

The vibe

The aesthetics of Loula’s is really well-done 😍. From the white walls to the foliage on the ceilings to the lighting, everything was designed to really bring you to a small part of Greece. I imagine dining here in the summer would be even more amazing.

We were seated at a large table in the back with booth seating on one wall and chairs on the other side. Seating was comfortable on the booth side and there is a decent amount of table space.

---

Food and drinks review

We shared all appetizers with 6 people and each couple ordered their own mains and drinks.

Prices are in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.

Mediterranean dips ($18)

Our first shared appetizer was the mediterranean dips. There is a selection of different dips you can choose from and it can be $12 each or $18 for 3 dips.

The 3 dips we got was: tzatziki, smoked eggplant spicy feta, and hummus.

I was pleasantly surprised with the portion of this appetizer 👍. They gave a lot of pita that was pre-cut into smaller slices for easier sharing. You can also get a refill of pita.

All 3 dips were fresh and delicious, but I did like the smoked eggplant one the most as it was more unique than the tzatziki and hummus, which you can find easily at other spots.

Kalamari ($19)

One of my favourite appetizers is calamari 🦑. If I see it on a menu, there is a 70% chance I will order it. At a Greek restaurant, this is a must!

The kalamari here has crispy squid with red onions and tzatziki. The portion is reasonable but for 6 people, we did have to order 2 of these. The kalamari was fried well and is well-balanced with the freshness and sourness of the lemon and tzatziki sauce, however, it is not the best kalamari I’ve had in Vancouver.

Spanakopitas ($24)

I’ve always thought spanakopitas are more of a pastry, but this ended up being my favourite appetizer 😋.

This pastry is stuffed with spinach, feta, leek and wrapped in phyllo with a drizzle of honey and sesame seeds. I thought the flavours here was quite sophisticated and a bit more of an upgrade from a regular spanakopitas in a bakery. The honey really added some of that sweetness and I liked the texture of the puff pastry.

Eggplant

We also ordered this eggplant appetizer 🍆, but I am not sure it is on the menu anymore. They have eggplant chips for $18 but not sure if this is the same dish.

The eggplant appetizer we ordered were big chunks of eggplant that were lightly battered and fried, paired with cheese and a tomato-like sauce. I really like eggplant and I liked how this was both fried and juicy on the inside.

Greek salad ($22)

I almost never order salad at restaurants but the birthday girl wanted some salad so we got the greek salad 🥗. It comes with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, onions, olives, capers, mixed peppers and evoo.

Overall, a light and fresh salad. Yummy but I would not pay $22 for it.

Souvlaki ($14-18 each)

For our mains, my husband and I shared 3 souvlaki. This is mostly because I do not like to eat lamb and a lot of the main entrees on the menu featured lamb.

For souvlaki, we ordered 1 of each:

• 🐔 Chicken ($16)
• 🐮 Beef ($18)
• 🦐 Tiger prawns ($18)

What is kind of crazy is that I was actually almost full from sharing all those appetizers so I kind of struggled to eat these souvlaki 🥲. My first impression was that the souvlaki were all quite large which made me feel better because it is literally $16-18 for one skewer of meat and nothing else (sides are separate).

Out of the 3, I liked the tiger prawns the most. They had a slight smokiness to being on the grill and they were just large prawns. My next favourite was the chicken – it was juicy and not dried and had good seasoning. And lastly, my least favourite was the beef as it was a little tough.

Patates ($15)

To pair with the souvlaki, my husband and I also shared a side order of patates 🥔. These are Yukon gold potatoes cut into wedges and seasoned with lemon, evoo and rosemary.

I found the potatoes to taste the way I expected and for $15, there is a reasonable portion size.

Baklava

This dessert doesn’t seem to be on the menu anymore but it was a nice highlight to end my meal 😚.

I love baklava, a popular Greek dessert that features phyllo pastry (again! I think I just like pastry), nuts and honey. It is both sweet and savoury and crunchy! Add on the vanilla ice cream and it was so perfect.

---

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

We had a fun and very filling birthday dinner with our friends at Loula’s Tavern on Commercial Drive.

We shared so many dishes together – I feel like we got to taste the whole menu! For groups of 6+, there is a family sharing option where it comes with a selection of appetizers and mains priced at $68+ per person. But because I did not want to eat lamb, we decided not to opt for this family sharing menu.

Out of all the dishes, here were my favourites:

• Spanakopitas
• Mediterranean dips – must get!
• Souvlaki – chicken or prawn
• Baklava dessert

I’ve included some photos of the lamb entrees in this post – our friends ordered the lamb chops and lamb shoulder. Out of the 2, the lamb chops were a much smaller portion but our friends said it tasted good. Whereas the lamb shoulder was a more generous portion but certain parts of the meat were tough.

Overall, this was not a budget-friendly restaurant but for the quality of food and vibe, it is reasonable. I recommend you to come here during the summer!

Sincerely, Loewe