I do love the Latin Quarter. You almost have to manage your way through the evening. If you master it, it turns out great. If not, well you're at the mercy of the waiters.

It's rough, almost like a bar. Latino, South American bistro feel. The best is the entertainment. Again, the four caballeros with their "almost Gypsy Kings" music are totally solid, authentic, talented. They are musicians, playing on flamenco acoustics, amped for big sound. No synthesizer, no computers, just four talented guys. They have a recipe. Be forwarned, you will dance between the tables. Salsa, latin, of course.

The food. Hmmmm. I think it's time to call Gordon Ramsey and have a meeting with the chef. They try, and it almost works but then you remember what you're paying. It's not cheap. For the price, I want much, much better food.

Seating, you'll have to be assertive to get the good tables. You won't get them, even with a reservation, you'll have to push. Like I said, you will have to project manage your evening.

We like the experience, the dancing, the music. It's an experience and I go back regularly. If you don't dance, and don't care, it's a bit rich. Wish to heck someone would get serious about the food.

You may not like everything, but you will remember it.
I may see you there.

Recommended. Nice place on Commercial Drive, with a Latin feel and comfortable atmosphere.

Food - I ordered the Veal Marsala, which was very tender and tasty. The accompanied ravioli and veggies were excellent. I also sampled my friends' nachos and Rabbit Stew. Very good!

Service - Friendly and prompt service on a Monday evening. The server was very pleasant and quite attentive. I love how he referred to the Rabbit Stew. Upon serving the dish he asked, "Who ordered Bugs Bunny?"

Value & Ambiance - Decent value for money. A little pricier than some spots on Commercial, but worth it in my opinion. Nice spot along the Drive, and decent decor inside. We were one of only a handful of customers on a Monday night.

This is my favourite place in the whole city. It's so nice to go to the drive for supper and avoid all the "Bling" in the downtown. The tapas were excellent as usual, great ceviche, champignones, papas a la diabla, fantastic camambert and papaya quesadillas, all the food was first rate. I took two friends who had not been there before and they gave it a 5/5, both of them. The only downside was that in the past there was a band there on Thursday night apparently the band is not there on Thursdays until May??? Oh well, if I am back before May it will have to be on a Fri or Sat. WELL WORTH IT AAA+!!!

I have been to this place twice and both times have had an amazing time. I read some reviews before I went and decided to go with an open mind. The food was amazing and quite quick. If you want a nice quiet evening in a romantic atmosphere, go to the Latin Quarter. There is live latin music 5 nights a week and helps to set the mood.

I've been here several times. The quality of the food, service, and live music has been excellent each time. OK wine list, moderate food prices. Highlights are the chorizo (delivered to your table while broiling) and a salad containing pork strips. The owner is friendly.

Themusic is usually a classical guitarist, but they had a three-piece latino group the last time I was there, and the joint was jumping (yes, dancing is permitted).

Hello,

Below is a description of our experience at Latin Quarter:

It was Sunday Aug 19th at 8pm. Myself and six of my friends (2 of them are first time visitors from New Zealand) visited the restaurant which was at half-full capacity. So, basically not very busy. Knowing we were walk-ins we asked if they happened to have a table for 7. The man who greeted us said "yes, right over here". So we sat down and were given our menus and the server walked away. Everything seemed great, but unbeknownst to us at the time, it was the last time someone would come by our table.

20 minutes went by and we noticed that our table and the table of two next to us had not been attended by anyone for our drink or food order. We hardly noticed the time go by as we were chatting and going thru the menu.

But at 25 mins in, the table of 2 threw down their menus and proceeded to walk out. We were at first bemused by everything but then started to get annoyed as did the table next to us. When that table left, the server looked a little surprised in our direction but still did not come over to take our order.

At the 30 min mark, fed up, we got up and left. What a great impression to our New Zealander visitors. We went to Marcellos across the street where they were more than happy to accomadate us. As you can see I rated "poor" for the food because we never got to taste it. The ambience looked good at the beginning but as we were ignored that started to sink as well.

I would avoid this restaurant if you're looking for good service because chances are you're not going to get any whatsoever.

Dined here with friends and our kids.
Hostess (?) walked pass us about 3 times until I flagged a disgrunted server. I told him we'd like to have a table, he said "okay," and walked away. He didn't ask for how many people, and he didn't tell any instructions. I stood there until I had to flag him again, and he pointed at a table for 4 people eventhough I told him 4 adults and two kids.
Usually I would have walked away from the restaurant but my kids were hungry. So on our own we found another table and had to grab an extra chair.
We had another waiter serve us and he was decent. No water was offered though. But at least he didn't just grunt at us.
I ordered the rotini with artichokes, and smoked salmon and my husband ordered spaghetti with seafood. Food was good, but we were quite put off by the service.
BTW, we weren't given a choice to order appys. By the time we ordered our main meal the menus were whisked away.
Will not dine here again.

Our friends had been raving about this place for some time, so on Saturday night 6 of us downtownies took the trek out to Commercial to eat at the "famous" Latin Quarter. What a complete dissapointment - from the lousy and I mean LOUSY service to the very so - so food offered. My partner and I shared the Paella which is their signature dish - which I guess at $42 just means its the dinner with the most profit in it for them. Mussels undercooked, shrimps over cooked, rice flavourless, empty clam shells - If they think thats how Paella is meant to taste they had better go back to cooking school -I wont go on - but I definately wont be going back to this sham of a resaurant. I think enough said about this place - you have been warned! There are plenty of great choices on The Drive but this one is certainly not one of them.

I went here for a friend's get-together (so it wasn't my idea) with my girlfriend and was unfortunate enough to get food poisoning from what I believe was the seafood (probably the paella).

The food was hardly spectacular and everything else was either bland or burnt (eg. the chorizo)

The service was almost non-existent and I don't remember hearing a peep from our server at all.

After getting food poisoning from the seafood there is no way I am coming back here or recommending it to others. I think the only thing I liked about this restaurant is the name. It has a nice ring to it. That's about all it has going for it in my opinion.

The Latin Quarter left a very bad taste in my mouth. And my stomach didn't like the food either.

I feel like we went to a different restaurant from the dire place described in some of the negative reviews here. We went on a Tuesday night and there were no female servers at all. The fellow who served us was outstanding. He was attentive without hovering, made an excellent (not overly expensive) wine suggestion and checked several times to ensure that we were happy. We ordered only from the tapas menu and everything was really tasty. The mushrooms and flaming chorizo were particularly good. This seemed like a really top-rate neighbourhood restaurant to us.