I feel a certain fondness for enduring dining institutions.
I am pretty far from conservative by nature, but there is still something reassuring to me about the ability of a venue or culinary tradition to sustain the constantly shifting winds of the restaurant industry. It’s a dynamic, often fickle business that is heavily influenced by trends and evolving tastes. The sheer number of failed and defunct businesses in this industry is a testament to its volatility.
Andreas Restaurant, the ambitiously large, Greek-themed venue on 16th Street near Chesterfield Avenue, is a North Shore dining institution. The restaurant has been in operation since 1984. If you’ve lived on the North Shore for any length of time, chances are you have eaten there at least once. If you’re a night owl or a restaurant industry professional, the odds are even greater that you’ve had an
Andreas experience; this is a spot known for being open considerably later than most other places on the North Shore, serving large portions of reasonably priced food from a rarely changing menu, and for offering familiar, inexpensive drinks from a decidedly unpretentious list.
The down-to-earth, few-frills formula continues to work for Andreas, it seems, based on a recent birthday visit there with my family during which we encountered a beleaguered server who was being run ragged by an interminable dinner rush. Despite the alleged chaos behind the scenes, our server maintained a friendly, casual disposition that helped disarm the mounting tension at our table as hungry children began bickering, fiddling with condiments and elongating their syllables in the signature whine of exasperated young minds. “Da-aad, where is our dinn-errrrr?”
OK, so it needs to be said that Andreas is not pushing any culinary boundaries, redefining local cuisine as we know it or pioneering sophisticated new techniques that will make the pages of Food Arts Magazine. But here’s the thing: they’re not trying to. Edgy is not the Andreas ethos. You go there, as we did, with a hearty appetite in search of a platter of food.
Andreas simply doesn’t do small, as evidenced by my Combo BBQ Ribs and Chicken main, a massive pairing of half a chicken, half a rack of spareribs, thick-cut, butter-drenched garlic toast, salad and, just for fun, a cheese-laden side of baked rigatoni that would have been a sufficient meal in its own right.
The meats were fall-from-the-bone tender and proficiently seasoned, though suffered from a heavy smokiness in the barbecue sauce, a flavour that is not to my personal taste, but is nevertheless a common and popular interpretation of what barbecue should be. The rigatoni was a gooey and indulgent “side” with an ample portion of fat noodles in a simple tomato sauce buried under a solid half-inch of mozzarella. This was a well executed dish and represented good value at $18.
My wife DJ went for a signature Greek dish, the Spanakopita Platter, probably the best selection of the meal. The spanakopita was part of another very hefty plate of food featuring two sizable rectangles of the spinach and feta pie, seasoned rice, Greek salad, tzatziki and two slices of the aforementioned garlic bread. Though perhaps not a dish of sufficient distinction to rival some of the North Shore’s other popular Greek fare, Andreas’s spanakopita was, again, a perfectly respectable take on a classic dish, ably executed and generously portioned enough to warrant a doggie bag.
My daughter, Blondie, chose Baked Ravioli in Meat Sauce with garlic bread.
The dish had simple, predictable but warmly familiar flavours, well suited to a child’s palate, if not appetite, given the overwhelming amount of food. The uniformity of the ravioli and consistency of the filling suggest they were not made in-house, but the dish still delivered on a promise of filling, tasty enough fare, well priced for the portion and quality at $12.
My son, The Boy, whose affection for pepperoni pizza must surely represent one of the world’s most committed loves, ordered a small pie, priced at just over $10, and soon fell into silent, boy-with-a-sated-appetite paradise as he tucked into Andreas’s deep dish, cheese heavy, don’t-mess-with-a-classic rendition of his favourite meal.
A complimentary slice of berry cheesecake arrived as a gesture of goodwill for the wait on our meal and was not only a hit with the kids, but with DJ and I, who were afforded a bit of extra time to sip our wine, a bottle of Cupcake Cabernet Sauvignon from California. The wine is well-made, straightforward, reliable, and wholly lacking in pretense or airs; it is the perfect metaphor for the Andreas dining experience.
Our meal for four was $98 before gratuity, including a bottle of wine. Andreas is located at 153 West 16th St. in North Vancouver. andreasrestaurant.ca 604-985-0414
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. North Shore News dining reviews are conducted anonymously and all meals are paid for by the newspaper.
