Yiannis Taverna Greek Restaurant

This place is our new favourite in Edmonton! The chicken was extremely juicy with a crispy grilled edge, the eggplant dip is extremely flavourful, and the lamb was delicious! The service was incredible - our server was Amy and she was extremely attentive and helpful - she was very attentive about my dairy allergy! We will certainly be back and with our family who visits, since we just moved! The white wine was great as well. Can’t say enough good things!

We had a family reunion in Edmonton and a friend suggested Yianni’s for take out. I called ahead and Tammy was super helpful and got a family style meal ready for our party of 13 quickly and efficiently. Fantastic service and experience

Really good food, and such a beautiful restaurant layout. The food is tasty and they staff are awesome!

Server Tammy is fantastic. Platter, drinks and Lamb is absolutely delicious. HIGHLY RECOMMEND

I went to this restaurant on Saturday night, the food was okay but we had serious trouble with an allergy warning that was expressed by everyone in the table. I proceed to point all the allergies that could possibly be dangerous for us. After waiting for 30 minutes the server tells us that the last dish was nos made with the proper prevention and they had to redo it. We all finished eating and the last plate arrived, with peppers that we pointed as an allergy, they were in the salad and the portion of the fish was so small, so we paid 30 dollars for the smallest piece of salmon, no salad because our allergy warnings were neglected and a cold rice.

Food tasted great and the atmosphere was energetic and fun. However the portions are way too small for the price you pay. I paid around $20 for the shrimp appetizer. Service was okay but it seemed like my server didn't care really.

We recently hosted an academic event for the residents of the U of A. They were so accommodating, the servers were fantastic, the food was excellent, and making the reservation was so easy. Thank you Yannis staff for making our event a huge success.

The BEST place in YEG for Greek food! First of all the ambience is lovely, very welcoming, warm and authentic! My friend and I ordered the Athena platter! It was a delicious decision to have made. The hummus and greek salad were fresh, the chicken skewers were juicy and tender, the salmon and lamb were cooked to perfection! Will definitely be coming here again soon! Shoutout to Steph, our server, who was kind, warm and genuine!

The visit before this one, I didn't have a bad experience, but this time was.well not great, so I'll get into it. It was my brothers birthday dinner. I arrived a bit early, and the server was fantastic (Actually at every point, I will point out, our server was a very attentive and helpful young lady.) So once the rest of the group showed up, we settled on ordering their platters, since there was four of us. The first dish, the greek salad was served promptly, and it was.not really that great looking They didn't mix it, it was really just tomatoes on top of everything, it was a Greek salad, but for the price point you expect better plating. Wasn't plated well, but there wasn't anything bad about it. We got the pita and hummus and tzatziki next. The hummus and tzatziki were fine, but the pita bread was actually fairly hard, and clearly a bit stale. Like a day or two old.

Again, at this point we were like it's all fine. We got the Calamari and we couldn't taste anything but the breading, and all four of us tried, but I'd be surprised if there was anything other than breading in it. That's all we could taste, and I've had some great calamari.

Our Saganaki showed up, and it was, honestly, disgusting, it didn't taste fully cooked, it was super oily, and just.tasted super off. Saganaki is one of my favorite dishes, and. I took one bite and was done. At this point we were talking about how bad the experience is, we had ordered a second saganaki but cancelled it. Didn't finish the first.

We were starting to talk about potentially leaving depending on how things continued. So the next dish was the moussaka, the meatballs and the potatoes. Pretty much greek staples. The moussaka looked burnt, and a bit dry. The meatballs looked completely dry. My dad and I cut up the potatoes and tried them. The seasoning was okay, but they weren't actually cooked completely. They had that 'crunch' you have from not fully cooked potatoes. At this point we were done. We tried to speak to the manager for the night, the server was doing her best to help us, but the manager wouldn't come to our table.

Evidently they were too busy cooking? I'm not too clear on it. But after 20 minutes of trying to get the manager to come out and talk to us, we gave up. If anything I feel bad for the server who was appauled at the food we had, and was doing her best, we let her know it wasn't her fault at all.

My dad, visited a few days later, to talk to the owner, and all the owner would say is he wasn't there, and kinda.just acted like he didn't care at all about it. We ended up walking to Seoul Chicken and had that for supper back at home. Not an ideal way to spend my brothers Birthday dinner.

For a high priced Greek Restaurant on Whyte Ave, I had much higher expectations, especially for their price point, location, and am amazed they would provide such.substandard food. I eat on Whyte regularly, and I eat at several Greek restaurants, but I wouldn't recommend eating here. Atmosphere is great, price and food, terrible. I would recommend the Koutouki's, or Mythos. Both I've had good experiences at.

And since i can't respond directly to your message. I commented on the quality of food. Also there was no yelling and screaming as you indicated since my father had stepped towards the kitchen to speak with your staff. So considering you werent present. Im not sure where you get these ideas.

Im sorry for the loss but it sounds like you are using it as an excuse. There were only two other tables. If the manager couldnt find time over a half hour, thats something else. Im disappointed that you decided to attack me personally over the poor food service. As a true Greek, as you would say i am appauled.

Have some pride and instead of making excuses make your food properly. Your serving staff were doing their best. They werent the issue at all. They did great. If you cant have someone who can cook properly, don't be open. The only thing more disappointing than the food is your attitude in response.

It was good. Service was good and food was good. Tzatziki was rather bland but was OK. The pork skewer was ok but again lacked much flavour. Service was ok. The espresso I had at the end of the meal was very good. May try this place again sometime

Had a wonderful dinner. The ambiance was very nice, our server was great, the wine was reasonably priced and the portions were large. The beef moussaka was phenomenal! Very nice evening out with my mom.

We were a big group (7 of us) on a busy Saturday night. The servers were friendly, warm, patient, and all round fabulous. Everything we ordered was delivered quickly and the food was excellent. Superb!

Not what it used to be very small serving no more potatoes with souvlaki very small portions of chicken

Ordered the Olympian platter (we have ordered this many times), it was missing an item. We called the restaurant. They did not care. Talked to me like I don't know what vegetables look like. Too bad, won't be ordering from them again. Sad that they didn't try to make provisions for a long term Customer.

Great atmosphere! Went here to split a few appetizers and cure my home sickness. Was not disappointed.

The decor is nice and outside seating is nice but the portions are SO SO small. You pay 30$ for a salmon platter only to have one tint sllice of salmon and the plated filled with rice and veggies. The taste isn't anything too special either.

We were greeted by a professional hostess and the environment was very clean. They accommodated our group size by moving tables together and making sure that we had lots of clearance for our movement and our servers movement.

The food was excellent and the prices were reasonable. The portion sizes were nice. The Saginaki, chicken souvlaki and cheesecake dessert we’re all excellent.

The restaurant itself is absolutely beautiful. The dining room is warm and inviting. The wait staff is charming and helpful without being invasive. Our server alone deserves 5 stars.
The food, however, was underwhelming. It was tasteless, unseasoned and extremely over priced. The potatoes were the driest potatoes I have ever had. The vegetables included 3, very small, bite-sized pieces of carrot and 2 small florets of broccoli. Unfortunately, the carrots and the broccoli were the most flavourful parts of the plate. The chicken, although moist, was absolutely tasteless. We will not be returning. $50 per person for an underwhelming plate of food and a dessert (which was delicious but probably made elsewhere) is far too much.
Greek food is my favourite. Yiannis Taverna was disappointing.

Edit to respond to your response: thank you for calling me "vindictive" for posting a second review; had you not stealth edited your response, I would not have even responded! While it can be frustrating to receive negative reviews and I understand that not all negative responses may be warranted, your response frankly indicates that you are not committed to improvement. Thank you for invalidating my experience as a POC! If you cannot understand why automatically assuming that a POC carrying a bag is there to collect food is wrong, I can't help you! We are all conditioned by the society we live in (that led your employee, like many others, to make a racist assumption. Rather than using this as a learning experience (apologizing, not excusing the racist assumption by claiming it was just an "honest mistake" because i was carrying a bag, and committing to doing better next time) you are frankly just denying and deflecting. I don't have any more time for you and can only thank you for revealing your open hostility, aggression, & lack of commitment to improvement!

I posted a couple of months ago about how I (an East Indian woman) was assumed to be a food delivery person the minute I walked into this restaurant. I noticed that at some point, this restaurant edited their response (I didn't check againafter the first few days) to claim that they made an "honest mistake" because my "big bag" seemed like a "Skip the Dishes" bag and that they truly value couriers. I considered not responding as I didn't remember the login information for the account I used to post the initial review, and questioned whether responding toyou was even worth my time when what I experienced was so tiny and trivial compared to what BIPOC experience daily. But I couldn't let this go.

I was carrying a grocery store shopping bag that day. Ask yourself if you would have made the same assumption if you had seen a white person walking in to your restaurant with a green Save on Foods bag (such as I was carrying that day). Would you automatically assume - just the minute they walked in, without even saying a word to them- that that person was there to collect food? Would you ask them right away for their "order number" and act surprised when you realize that they don't work for Skip the Dishes? I doubt it. While you may claim it was an "honest" mistake, there was a racist split second assumption beneath your so- called "honest" mistake. I would have been happy if you had just acknowledged your error and would have just moved on. The fact that you stealth- edited your response compels me to respond now. Also, automatically assuming that a POC carrying a bag (in my case, a green Save on Foods bag) is there to collect food is neither the explanation or justification you might think it is. (Given your way of responding, I would not be surprised if you went back and edited your response again).

Also, when I was assumed to be a Skip the Dishes worker, I wasn't even greeted by your restaurant staff. You may claim to value food delivery workers, but that wasn't my experience when you thought I was one. Do better.

Thank you for helping further solidify my decision not to come back. While the food here was okay, nothing else was.

The food is not bad but it is expensive compared to the quality and portion of the meals. $20 for only four regular dips with so much bread: . The staff are not so caring about the customers and do not explain the menu to you. I was not satisfied in total with the service.

Price is high and portion is small. The food taste good but definitely so expensive for that portion. Never order flame cheese.

Stopped in for lunch and absolutely loved it! The atmosphere in the restaurant is great. We had fast and friendly service and the food was incredible. One of the best restaurants I've ever been to!

Great place! Was. Referred by a friend who live in Edmonton. It was delicious my waitress was very nice with good service and responding to menu questions the baklava was unreal must have been the best one I’ve eating in my life the lamb was good the appetizer was good. It was a decent price for the quality and servings in the plates. Definitely coming back when I’m around

Great ambience and classic dishes makes this a nice place for special dinners. Saturday night belly dancing is a blast.its old school cool.

Best moussaka in the city hands down!
And I’ve tried them at every Greek restaurant in edmonton!
Phenomenal recipe! Never change it!
It’s as good as the ones I’ve had in Greece - extremely authentic and always fresh.
Also the Greek salad is actually an authentic Greek salad - (unlike what some of the other local restaurants try to pass off as a Greek salad)