How I wish I came here sooner. Now that I’m living in this area, I’ve been wanting to try new places in South Vancouver. There are just a handful in South Van, but many are hidden gems. I’d like to think that Panos fits this description pretty well.
Brian and I came here one evening – pretty late too. We were both craving Greek food but not feeling motivated to travel downtown for Greek. Panos has been on my radar and to-eat list for a while now, so I suggested we go try it out.
The restaurant is located on South East Marine Drive near Fraser street and is every bit a Greek taverna. The multicoloured table clothes, the yellow tinged lighting, stucco yellow walls and all. I also have this habit of listening to other people’s conversations (I know, terrible!) but there was two big groups when we were there and the restaurant staff were chatting with them and referring to each other by name. It’s great to see that kind of community in a restaurant.
For our first experience at the restaurant, I decided to go with staples: kalamari appetizer ($8.50) and the roast lamb ($15.50) and Brian tried the Tiginita ($14.95).
The appetizer is a good portion of kalamari. The breading is crispy and not too salty and the squid flavourful with a lot of snap back to it. The tzatziki sauce is delicious, creamy and light – I pretty much demolished it.
My Greek salad is good, all the vegetables were firm and fresh.
My roast lamb is huge. Like HUGE. The roast is lamb shoulder from New Zealand. Not only is it so tender that it just comes off the bone pretty easily, it doesn’t have that gamey taste you’ll find in other lamb dishes. I couldn’t finish the lamb as it came with salad, potato, rice, pita and tzatziki. But definitely the star of the dish. The rice was good, not too over cooked and my potato had a nice hint of lemon without being over powering.
Brian’s dish, the Tiginita is a mix of beef, lamb and chicken sauteed with green peppers, mushrooms and onions in a tomato and white wine sauce. The portion is a healthy one and the meats in the dish are pretty tender and flavourful.
The pricing is pretty fair for a Greek restaurant, especially with a couple of Greek restaurants around my area.
Overall, I’d definitely recommend checking out Panos if you’re in the area. It’ll definitely be my go-to for Greek. It’s kind of a little scary that they deliver, because it might become a habit!
Food: 4
Service: 4
Value: 4
Ambiance: 3.5
OVERALL: 4
