Minoas Taverna has been part of Burnaby since 1986. The restaurant is a large house, and the Chronakis family who own the restaurant actually lived there until a few years ago.
The feel of the place is very homey. There are lots of pictures on the walls, and nicknacks from travels to Greece. There are vines that go around the celling and there’s plenty of natural light. All that is fine and dandy, but we were here for the food.
A few months back, I purchased a Groupon for Minoas. It cost me $36 for a dinner for two. I’ve never been here before and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I take the Skytrain everyday for work, and I’ve seen the large Greek house on Kingsway several times. I figured a restaurant with this kind of longevity must be doing something right.
What we got for our Groupon was a large platter that featured the restaurant’s most popular dishes:
Huge portions of roasted lamb, calamari and moussaka, together with sides of roasted potatoes, rice, hummus, tzatziki sauce and pita bread. Our platter also came with Greek salads to start. What can I say, this was a feast! What a ridiculous amount of food.
I really couldn’t pinpoint what my favourite dish was: the lamb was so tender and just melted in your mouth. The calamari was a tad chewy, but the batter had a good mix of spice and crunch. Excellent hummus and tzatziki.
The things that were most outstanding for this restaurant were the portions and the price. There were several families dining around us at the same time, and the portions coming out of the kitchen were almost as big as our platter. If you look at their menu, most items go for $12-$17, giving you an excellent value for your money.
I asked if a diner could recreate the platter that was part of the Groupon deal and they said no, but their menu has several platters to share, like the Minoas Dinner Platter for $49.95 that comes with chicken souvlaki, moussaka, paidakia, spanakopita, domades and tzazitki sauce. Or the Seafood Platter, for the same price, that comes with prawn souvlaki, fried and garlic calamari, and red snapper.
A dish that this restaurant is famous for and I recommend is the Kleftico (Roasted lamb) for $17.95 Juicy and fall-off-the-bone tender, this Minoas signature dish may just be the secret to their success.
There are lots of desserts to chose from, but I recommend something a bit different: the bougatsa: an oven-baked orange flavoured custard, wrapped in phyllo pastry and dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon. Very good.
Check them out next time you’re in the Metrotown area.
