After reading all the positive reviews about this restaurant, I decided to take my mom there for lunch.

My first impression of the restaurant was not great. It was 2:30 pm and the restaurant was not incredibly busy, yet there was no one to greet us upon our entry. There were a couple of waitresses who passed us by, but no one offered us a table. Anyways, we decided to seat ourselves a table close by the door.

Once we were seated, the service was much better. A friendly waitress prompty provided us with menus and took our order.

The wait for the food was lengthy (around 20 minutes) but well worth it. I was quite impressed with the portions and the taste of the food. At 9.95, my platter consisted of a large piece of roast lamb (larger than the size of a clenched adult fist), roast potatoes, greek salad, rice, stewed beef, and a piece of flatbread/pitabread. The lamb was cooked almost to perfection - it was crunchy on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside. I went into the restauarant quite hungry, and still had to pack half of my platter home.

Overall, Stepho's is an excellent restaurant for those looking for value!

I stopped in for a quick lunch at Stephos on the weekend.
I was promptly seated and given a menu and ask if i wanted anything to drink.

I ordered a small lamb souvlaki (with rice, roasted potatoes, and greek salad). The order arrived fairly quickly (less than 10 minutes).

Everything was okay, nothing standing out as noteworthy... it's decent food at a very reasonable price (ie. value dining).

There was no line-up at the time, I'm not sure the fare is line-up-worthy.

I've been to stephos a few times now and I've always ordered the lamb, can't go wrong with it. Portions are huge and I never finish so I save half for the next days' lunch. The only downfall i could think of is the lineup....geez, usually takes 1 hr, there was one time where i waited 30 mins but that's rare. I also got tired of waiting one time and went a few stores down to the other greek restaurant (i heard it's the same own) but food is about $1 more but i think it's ok, compared to having to wait 1 hr just to get a table. Service is alright, never had a problem. Although i was sitting outside the patio area and the restaurant next to them had their back door open with a sign that says (come in we're C*NTS)....not very appropriate but I guess it's not really stepho's fault!

I wanted to go to Stepho's because of friend's comments that it was inexpensive and good. I also wanted to go because I ALWAYS see people lining up to get in.

I'm not a patient person at all and so I thought a quiet night like a Monday might help my chances of getting in pretty quickly. There was still about 14 people in line when we arrived - so perhaps an indication Stepho's does not have a quite night. We waited about 15-20 minutes.

Once seated we had our drinks orders taken quite promptly (within 10 minutes) with our food orders taken soon after. We observed the HUGE portions that were served and the many doggy bags that were being taken so we decided against a starter.

It is a good thing we did not order a starter as neither my friend nor I finished our mains of roast lamb and lamb chops. Usually I would expect 2 lamb chops but here I got 4 piled on top of a whole lot of sides - including roast potatoes, salad, vegetables, pilaf and with pita on a side plate. Both mains were cooked how we ordered them - medium to well done and were juicy and tender.

The service was the right amount of attentiveness - I had my reservations that perhaps they hovered to quickly turn over the diners but this did not seem to be the case with us or anyone else - and we received our drinks and food orders promptly.

Ambience - partly it is what you pay for. If you want to pay more then you might expect more by way of design. It has a homely, Greek family esq feel to it. I did find it slightly too dark though my friend found it pleasant.

Overall a good experience. It doesn't hit the ball out of the park, but then with what we paid I wasn't expecting that. (We paid $40 for lamb roast, lamb chops, half krafe of wine and tip)

I used to live near Davie Street in the West End and enjoyed picking up items here. I will emphasize that I PICKED UP items as in TAKE OUT.

My favourites are the Spanakopia (you get two big pieces and I find them tasty - if a tiny bit greasy), the roast lamb (again, if you are watching your cholestoro - keep away - but it's tasty). For a lighter choice - I recommend the slouvaki.

Call in the order or order at the counter if you are in the area. Pick up in about 20 minutes. One caveat - for takeout, bring a plastic grocery bag. They pack your order in styrofoam containers and put them into brown paper bags (like the old style paper bags you used to get at supermarkets). It's hard to carry (as the the paper bag is on its side - you have to rest your take out order on your arm or your food will be mussed up). I just bring a couple of old plastic bags from Safeway or ??, plunk the paper bag in their and it is easier to carry.

On nice days, I take me order to Sunset Beach and eat it as picnic.

I have no interest or time to stand in line to dine in. The Restaurant is cramped and noisy - but for a nice Greek picnic lunch on the beach - it is the best value.

After much anticipation (and worry from some ill reviews here) we went to the famous Stephos. A Saturday evening about 6pm.
There was the expected line-up, appeared daunting, but we weren't in it for more than 30minutes.
We sat for almost 10minutes before our drink orders were taken but it wasn't a big deal. I have to admit our waiters lack of knowledge about the wines was a slight drawback. Luckily my guess got us a great bottle.
The food was wonderful. Tasty, Garlicky (I wouldn't expect Greek cuisine any other way), Fresh and Inexspensive. I had the Roast Lamb which was fork tender and a ridiculously huge portion!
Some comments here have suggested this food to be "cheap" and of lesser quality. I dissagree.

Let's be honest. If you love Stepho's, it's not because you love the food. It's because you're cheap.

First time I came here, I did so because I kept seeing a big lineup out front. I figured they must be doing something right. Since then, I'll come here only if a friend strongly insists. Which happens.

Service:

Let's start with the lineup. I've waited anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. I eat here with friends though, so it's a good chance to talk if the weather is nice. However, most people in the world are not as patient as I am, and you'll see others in the line getting visually frustrated. And it makes for a consistently uncomfortable atmosphere.

But sometimes it even tries my patience. Consider this scenario: you've been waiting outside for an hour, and you're at the front of the line. The hostess comes out, and asks you "how many?" and you reply "2." The people behind you are a group of 2, and behind them a group of 2. She finds a group of 3 about 20 people back in the line, and brings them in immediately and seats them. I'm assuming the justification is that she has a table for 4, and doesn't want to "waste" it on a group of 2. But for f@#$ sakes, we've been waiting an hour. The group of 3 at the back just arrived. And there's no chance that getting that 1 extra person through is going to make or break the efficiency of the restaurant. It just pisses off the 20 people standing in front of them.

Furthermore, it's not uncommon to see an empty table inside for extended periods. During my 2 hour wait, the table by the window was vacant for about 45 minutes. There's just no excuse for this.

Food & Value:

Once seated, everything moves quickly. You'll get your drinks and food shortly after ordering, which makes me wonder if they actually prepared it prior to my ordering it.

I order the chicken souvlaki. $8. The meat is consistently overcooked to the point where I struggle to get it off the skewer. "Roast" potatoes are so god damn chewy I don't even bother touching them anymore. The greek salad may or may not come with any dressing on it. At least one piece of the pita bread will be scorched to the point of being inedible. I think the rice is my favorite part of the dish. And the greek salad when they remember to dress it.

People rave about the "huge" portions. I dunno. It's about the same as any greek place I've been to. And I've been to quite a few.

For a chicken souvlaki dish, your average greek restaurant is typically $11, so you're saving $3.

Drinks (pop/iced tea) are *not* refillable, and come in tiny glasses. $2 for a half a can of coke? No thanks. Stick to the water like everyone else. I'll give them credit. My water glass is never empty.

Ambiance: Not worth mentioning.

So the question comes. Is it worth it? My vote is: no. Long waits, subpar food, and all you're going to save is about $3. Which means you can have dinner paid for with tip for $10. But for what you get, I think that's too much.

A friend and I went to Stephos this afternoon for lunch. There was no wait and my friend and I were seated as soon as we walked through the door.

My friend and I both had appetizers which arrived at snails pace which we could not understand as the restaurant was pretty much empty when we arrived.

According to my friend, she says her calamari was dry, flavorless and really not all that fresh.

We both ordered the lamb souvlaki for our entrees which came within a reasonable amount of time and was piping hot. Unfortunately, this is where things go downhill.

Stephos has cut there portion sizes. Everything is much smaller than what they are normally known for, no more plates of heaping food. The lamb souvlaki were like little nuggets on a stick; and because the cubes were so small they were overcooked and dry. The Greek salad was a green pepper salad with a little feta on it. Our potatoes looked good but were not cooked all the way through.

I’ve been a long time customer and at one time I would swear up and down that the wait to get into Stephos is well worth it. I would never even consider going elsewhere for Greek food. Now, I would tell people to consider going elsewhere. Stephos in my mind no longer stands out from the crowd. It’s not worth the wait in those long line ups, the food quality has gone downhill and the can no longer sell the value aspect as they’re portions size has diminished. It’s now become another run-of-the-mill Greek restaurant with the hopes of becoming more!

I am sorry and with all due respect, but I really do not get it. First time I went there, waited in the lineup, got sick after (don't think I should start describing). Decided to try it again, waited in a lineup, got sick again even though I ordered a completely different dish! Third time I got persuaded by a friend to go, did not get sick but was not impressed with my meal.
I honestly think quality of food they serve is not that great. Large poritons, good priced or not, I will not go there again.

i used to frequent this place occasionally as i used to work near by and im sorry to say but it's not as good as it used to be. i know my rating for stephos is "solid" across the board but it used to be excellent. now the portions are smaller and now charge you if you want to sub out the greek salad for the Caesar... and the Caesar tasted like something that came from a fast food joint. i had the roast lamb, which was fine but the portion was definiatly smaller then what im used to seeing. before i couldn't finish a roast lamb from Stephos but this time i polished it off and wasn't full as expected to be. maybe it's the recession but stephos is no longer a good bang for it's buck