Astoria Shish Kebob House

Have only dined in once but have gotten take away on a number of occasions. The food is delicious, especially the pork souvlaki. Tzatziki sauce is strong and will be on your breath the next day — tasty!

I have been to 3 different Astoria locations and I am glad to have this one in Vaughan.
Been to this location 3 – 4 times and I am happy with it.
Everything is pretty fresh and portions are good.
The grilled calamari could be more tender, other than that, no complaints.

As a regular here, it really disappoint me to put a 3 star, maybe even a 2.5 (because I fell ill). I just didn’t have the nerve to pull the official 2 star this place has earned from the past 2 visits this week. Because I’m optimistic that those were hiccups and will change!
There are a few things that truly need attention, we have brought it up to management and other staff which I will get into in just a moment, but until we see these changes I truly can’t stick to my original rating. After 3 negative experiences back to back…
Here are a few instances —
The last time we sat inn which was a few nights ago. We went with our children.
The food was very fresh the service was NOT BAD, but the portions were disappointing, as well as the fact that the children’s dinner which goes for $ 8.99 only offers a small plate of food (mostly carbs (rice, fried etc) and practically nothing else (meat), and a drink. NO DESSERT. So we basically paid $ 9 for a side plate of rice… And a fountain drink which is worth nothing.
Our children were not very hungry so they shared that 1 plate, we got our 2 year old a side drink, which he had 2 sips off, and were charged $ 2.99?! Ouch! It’s free everywhere else… (Since there free refills, which our
Other child had the drink from the combo, how much can a toddler drink) the issue is not the cost Or affordability! Simply principal, and what we’re used to getting from all the other restaurants in the area)
My husband got the chicken dinner, large/​but I swear it was a small!
And had to pay extra for a tiny thing of tzaziki, where as it’s free everywhere else!
My village salad was very good, slightly under seasoned, but generally fresh, and generous amount (I even took some home as usual) I also ordered the grilled calamari app. Which was around $ 13 and was shocked when they didn’t offer or bring tzaziki, with that! Cheep! (How much does a table spoon of you fury cost?) lol
And as usual I told the waitress I am very sensitive to any gluten and wheat, and to please let the kitchen know and treat my food very carefully (usually I feel fine at this restaurant) this time I did not! I felt very sick. For 2 days unusual…
We mentioned to the waitress that we were so surprised and disappointed, that we were charged extra for all the tzaziki not even 1 came with any of the dishes, the no dessert issue for children, and that these seem to be common complaints, (I noticed as I checked in at the end of our dinner) and as well as your ratings are truly dropping on Unilocal due to the same complaints we have made, and to please pass them along to management– these would be very simple– low cost Changes that could be fixed over night!
HER RESPONSE: ‘I don’t really pay attention to ‘Yelp’ anyways’…
I reassured her that she really should! How
Popular it is, and how it can affect the business… Later, when we got the bill, She offered us a 1 free espresso… For 2 people… Thanks.
A few days later we decided to get take out and give it another shot. I will not complain about the tzaziki and dessert, again, although I’m tempted! the over priced fountain drinks… And mediocre service, as we already knew what we were getting, and instead opted out to get take out and eat at home! we also mentioned to the manager the little flaws, that we’re getting annoying (while waiting for our take out) he who now claims, they are aware and are thinking about the
Changes… we’ll see!
The food was not bad, they added the holes in the wrong container (as per request) to keep the food from getting soggy… The fried calamari was soggy and cold, My grilled calamari was not bad, a bit cold, however the portion was great… And this time I felt completely fine not sick at all, my husband made a true emphasis on being extra careful when handling my order. Due to my strong sensitivity. Guess this time they listened! We ordered 2 village salads, full size and were also charged full size, but as you can see by my image– it looks and feels like a side salad. Both that small!
In conclusion, we are big fans of Greek food especially Astoria, we are keeping our fingers crossed, and hoping to see changes very soon!

Damn, this place is terrible.
It looks nice, and the service is great, but the food was just awful.
Had chicken souvlaki, with a Greek salad. The souvlaki was tasteless, and the salad had too much dressing on it, giving me heartburn.
Will not repeat.

This is the third Astoria I’ve been to and I remember way back when there was only one. The original Astoria on the Danforth near Chester Ave was the one and only and the original used to be a hard place to get into because it was always so busy.
Just as how Astoria has expanded out to Mississauga on Dundas east (the location I’ve been to the most) as well as Newmarket, this Vaughan location that has been around for a while has a sign as if they just opened. As it was my first time actually entering the doors of this place it wasn’t the first time I’ve had food from here as my in laws have had take out/​catering before from this Astoria location.
This «new» Astoria location located across the street from Vaughan Mills on the north side of Rutherford is a busy place. The mall is busy, the restaurant is busy, the street is busy and the entire area is a buzz. This location seems to be well loved and while the name is familiar for those that know the old Danforth this new place doesn’t necessarily have the same charm as it’s just too «new».
Now that I’ve been to 3 of the 4 existing locations, this being the third of three I can say that things have certainly changed when comparing Astoria to Astoria that is this is a location apples to apples comparison. To me the original will always be the original. Although I’m not in that area as often as I used to be (the Danforth), my wife is in the area daily. She tells me how the place is much emptier than it used to be. The Mississauga location my wife had gone there late last year and was not as impressed as previous visits as she told me the servings seemed smaller and smaller with each visit.
Now while I haven’t gone to Astoria in a while I will take her word for it that being that she’d always get a large souvlaki order eat what she could and bring home the rest. The bringing home of the leftovers has shrunk because overall the plates have become smaller as do the portion sizes.
While nothing can compare with the serving sizes of say 15 years ago at the original Danforth location the serving sizes for somebody like me who has been going to Astoria for decades would know and these days the prices are understandingly higher but the servings have definitely become smaller.
It’s all the little things and they all add up. The large lamb souvlaki «cubes» in which the order had 6 cubes, to me were noticeably smaller. The rice and fries or potatoes are no longer plated on the opposite sides of the meat which is in the middle of the plate but rather on the same side essentially each taking less than a quarter of the plate. Instead the tzatziki and ketchup are plated to opposite to the rice/​potatoes/​fries side.
This plating technique is significant because it now allows for LESS food to be plated on seemingly smaller oval plates that previous which in turns makes for less overall food and portion sizes. Now while there is no real comparison to a place like Zet’s who’s serving sizes are arguably the thing of legends, Astoria used to be «less skimpy». My wife spoke of it and now I witnessed it.
Bread which used to be served with the meal is now a la carte unless you order a dip like hummus in which they really don’t give you that much. The side salads that come with souvlaki meals seem to be more of the same and by more I mean less. Less than previous in that there’s a single olive on it and for me what equated to maybe a quarter wedge (3 thin slices) of tomato. The feta cheese which makes their salad so good didn’t have a consistent serving on top of the 3 salads I saw (my mother in laws, my wife’s, and mine).
I don’t know if Astoria has just slowly adapted to serving the public less and less over time or am I the only one that noticed it? I mean back in the day the original Astoria’s portions were borderline ridiculous. Ordering chicken would get you 2 full sized center breasts.
While the food is decent at Astoria it certainly for somebody with a memory like mine when it comes to food can basically quantify how it has changed from bread that you have to pay for to portion sizes that are noticeably less generous to salads basically almost all lettuce to less potatoes and rice that used to fill a full sized platter, Astoria is not what it used to be and this new location sadly has made it more than clear.
The service makes up for what to me is a place past its prime even though it’s just so packed at this location but if it weren’t for a family function I’d not want to necessarily come back for what seems is a place which is a shell of its former self when compared to the original location which to me is the standard by which to measure this establishment as a whole.
Sadly, this is not your father’s Astoria on the Danforth.

Went to Astoria this past Friday evening for the second time. Enjoyed the first visit on a Sunday evening when it wasn’t busy.
The restaurant was about half full and quickly noticed that the volume of sound was quite high due to a party and loud talking tables nearby. The floor and walls are made of hard materials and along with a steel deck ceiling, noise tends to reverberate quite freely in the restaurant. There are few soft surfaces to dampen the sound.
I ordered the grilled calamari dinner that was quite good but my partner wanted a souvlaki combo of pork and chicken. «Can’t do.» said the waiter, something about mixing the different meats on the plate. Can’t believe that, thought I. A small plate of tasteless overcooked meat showed up which the waiter claimed was pork. Another small plate of chicken pieces showed up which was a tad overcooked but eatable. A huge side dish of rice showed up with some bland mystery sauce on it. Presentation was awful And this was a disappointment to my partner. Why they couldn’t have put it all on one plate with some nice vegetables is beyond me. Is this restaurant company so huge that there is absolutely no flexibility? I generally find greek restaurants on the Danforth to be very accommodating.
Our waiter seemed extremely busy with two others seemingly looking bored with lack of duties. It took, what seemed forever to get a bill.
The restaurant seems to have a management problem as all the poor performance can be tracked backed to disorganization.
Won’t be coming back.

My first time at a Greek restaurant with friends and family. Food here is delicious! We ordered the hummus as an appetizer, it comes with pita as well which was good. We ordered the calamari as well which was by far the best calamari I ever had. Definitely recommend getting those. I ordered the chicken souvlaki with rice and fries. It also came with Greek salad. The price is decent for the portion they give you. Environment and service was great. Waitress kept coming back to make sure our food was good and got us our water. Definitely will be back here again.

We have given Astoria on Rutherford a couple tries, once when they opened in the restaurant and the second time a couple days ago with takeout. Both time service was extremely slow (we were told ½ hour pick up and it took an hour) and frankly the food isn’t worth the wait. Our salad was soggy and saturated with dressing and my spanokopita was very dry. My hubby’s meat was very burnt. Definitely does not compare to Astoria on the Danforth. We will not be going back again… too bad too because we don’t have another good greek restaurant near us.

The food is quite similar to the Greektown version. The décor though is light years more modern, there is tons of space between tables too. Parking of course is free given its in suburbia.
One thing that was really weird is when we got there, I wasn’t sure if we had a reservation so I started listing possible names. She then looked and asked again to which tried to help and she pulled the clipboard in as if I’m trying to steal someone’s reservation, just wanted to help. Besides, they had plenty of take given it was an early dinner hour.
Seated, server was nice enough. Food is quite good. Liked the pita and dips, pork souvlaki is delicious. They have a decent car menu as well.
I had the chicken souvlaki and it rates food but I’d say it could be slightly juicier. Overall it was still a good dinner for a decent cost.

In & out in under an hour!
Came to Astoria during my lunch break with my bff and got a few lunch specials. I ordered the tamaramasalata, small greek salad and the «add 3 butterflied shrimp for $ 3». It was all pretty tasty! I really like their seafood sauce for the shrimps. Wasn’t really expecting deep fried shrimp but here we are… I thought it would have been grilled. The flavour was still good. I felt a little ripped off when I compared the price to the size but hey, it was flavourful so I’m content.
The tamaramasalata is a Greek caviar which was spread on warm pita bread. I’m a fan. It wasn’t very salty. I thought it was going to be black but it was pink! I think the serving size is a bit excessive but who really complains about too much food?
Oh ya — I’ve had Astoria catered for lunch a few times through my work, always a hit!
Now to bribe my Greek boss into letting me have the rest of the day off in exchange for left overs…

arggg… we had such high hopes for this restaurant.
We arrived on a Sunday night at 8:00pm. We were greeted at the door by a friendly hostess who promptly seated us and gave us menus. From this point, everything went downhill.
We flipped through the menu, and waited, and waited, and waited. Servers kept passing by us, not one stopped to see if we wanted to order drinks, to greet us, to even acknowledge us. The restaurant was not busy enough to warrant this type of service (if it was busy, you’d expect some service delays). After waiting 20 minutes, we decided to leave and go to another restaurant, one that would actually acknowledge us as paying customers. Just then, a female employee, who was busy bussing a nearby table, walked by. One of us (we were a table of 4), asked if we could place an order. She stated she would be right back to take our order and off she went. She returned within 5 minutes and offered to take our drink order. then come back for our food order. By this time, we had the menu memorized and we explained that we were ready to place our full order… which she took without hesitation. From this point on she was a fairly good waitress. checked on us frequently, etc., although we had to ask for drink refills, whereas a more seasoned waitress would notice empty glasses and offer refills (or just bring them without asking).
Anyway, our table of 4 ordered:
Saginaki — it was excellent and served with pita wedges. The chap who «flamed» the cheese for us was friendly.
Lamb souvlaki meal — the person who ordered it said it was excellent. She ordered fries and rice with it, but didn’t like the tzatziki.
Chicken souvlaki meal — ordered with rice and potatoes. The person who ordered this dish said the chicken was «flavorless» and that the tzatziki overpowered the plate.
2 Pork souvlaki meals — with potatoes and rice. Perhaps the driest souvlaki I’ve ever had in a restaurant… it was way over cooked (despite the fact that it was riddled with fat). I’ve eaten at many Greek restaurants and I’d rank this as the worst souvlaki I’ve ever had. While the tzatziki was VERY garlicky (I prefer it that way) it was a bit too strong to compliment the meal. It was as if the owners know the food isn’t great so they try to mask it with garlic. The rice was good but the potatoes were pretty flavorless.
The Greek salads that came with the meals were large and loaded with feta… they were the hi-​lite to a pretty dismal meal.
While driving home the 4 of us agreed that the food/​service isn’t worth the trip back. Too bad…

I was always curious about this place since the Danforth Rd location was amazing. I thought maybe it was a goo idea to have one close to home. BOY WAS I WRONG!!!
I ordered the fried Calamari with tzaziki and our mains were pork and souvlaki entrée with rice and potatoes and Greek salad and my brother had the chicken souvlaki with fries and Greek salad. The salad was so salty and swimming in the Greek dressing. The calamari was burnt and looked like Burger King onion rings, my pork was burned to a crisp and the chicken was pink on the inside. The fries had to be McCain. To top it off. Never again. Period. I got pics have a look. My pork looks like poop! Literally.

For Mother’s Day we decided to try Astoria after my mother and her friends had a positive experience several weeks back. Being the proactive person that I am I decided to make a reservation which was an excellent idea considering what day it was (Sunday and Mother’s Day). Upon arrival we were promptly seated in the comfortable and modern dining room.
We ordered the appetizer plate of Taramasalata which is a Greek caviar paste served with pita bread. It was good and not as salty as I remember this type of spread being. We’re off to a good start so far. Next up, our Greek salads arrive (each main course came with a salad). The salad was excellent with a good amount of dressing and feta cheese. Their dressing is definitely homemade. Bonus points for not overdoing it on the tomatoes (not a fan of too many in my salads). Despite the salad being an included accompaniment to the main courses, it was very plentiful in size. Shortly after our salad plates were cleared the main courses arrived. I had ordered the 8oz beef sirloin souvlaki with potatoes and rice (each main comes with your choice of 2 side orders). I had ordered my beef cooked medium however it was closer to medium-​well. Not wanting to wait for a re-​do and hold up my family I opted to eat it anyway. Unfortunately, the pieces of beef were somewhat fatty which is a turn-​off for me. One piece of the five or six I received was nearly 70% fat. To me, it is not acceptable to serve souvlaki with that much fat on it. All in all, I was not overly impressed with the beef portion of my meal. Fortunately, the potatoes, rice, and delicious homemade tzatziki helped improve the meal drastically. Their tzatziki with its excellent garlic flavour and a thick texture was some of the best I’ve had in a sit-​down restaurant. The chicken souvlaki (white-​meat) and grilled calamari my parents ordered were both excellent according to them.
While I would certainly return to Astoria’s Vaughan location, I will be opting to try another main course from their menu.

I must say I was hardly impressed at first, a waitress sat us in another waiters section, there was maybe one or two other tables when we walked in here.
I really started to feel like a nuisance to our waiter, he came by and took our drink order and I ordered an appetizer at the same time, he had pen to paper waiting for me, I just looked at him like how many appetizers can three adults eat. He came with the side plates just kinda dropping them on the table, which was loud and annoying. I get he could have been having a bad day and all, but the device industry only gets one shot with a new customer.
Luckily for him, the food was amazing, the chicken was perfectly cooked, the rice wasn’t dry and had a nice amount of sauce, the tzatziki sauce was nice and garlicky, just how I like it, and the roasted potatoes were nicely cooked and soft. The salad had a decent amount of dressing, they didn’t cheap out, everything was good.
We had dessert, then a hard time to find the waiter to get our bill settled. Once we did get his attention he couldn’t find the machine, then when he finally did he stood there impatiently while we did our thing.
I’ve been to other locations, but the food here seemed to be better, the service on the other hand was pretty poor. When we come back I’d contemplate asking not to sit in his section if I saw him.

This town is turning into piss and shit with all the franchising of restaurants.
I got duped into thinking that this was a corporately run extension of the original on Danforth… Not even close. Nothing was up to par and it was way too expensive. Dinner for 3, no drinks $ 95!
Calamari tough, lamb and chicken souvlaki no flavour… Frozen shrimp and fries. I’ll never go back, and for punishment I won’t even go back to the idiots on Danforth who felt the need for greed over keeping the quality of what was a Toronto institution. Are there really that many desperate franchisees that want to cut corners and drive a business into the ground?
Complete joke.

Well done, well done
We need more restaurants like this. Chef is extremely professional. Very very very clean place.
Food is delicious .no surprises. we had the Beef souvlaki and several orders of sauteed shrimp !!!
We will definitely come back to try more stuff !!

Order:
— Golden Fried Calamari
— Large Pork Souvlaki
— Roasted Potatoes
— French Fries
Price:
I found the price to be quite fair given the portion of my meal. The prices seem pretty similar to other local Greek cuisine restaurants and given the quality, I would say the price is very reasonable.
Size:
I found the size of the meal quite large (which in my books is amazing!). The Golden Fried Calamari was perfect for sharing and the main course, Pork Soulvaki with sides, was very filling.
Quality:
The quality was exceptional. The Golden Fried Calamari came out very quickly and tasted amazing with the Tzatziki sauce provided. When the main course came around, I found the Pork Souvlaki a little dry however the roasted potatoes tasted great! This was the first time I experienced the dry Pork Souvlaki as prior visits left my mouth craving for more as each piece of meat was usually well cooked, tender and you could really taste the cinnamon spices applied to the meat; this really complimented the meal.
Overall:
I will be returning to this restaurant whenever I am in the mood for Greek and I would recommend this restaurant to anyone craving the same cuisine in Vaughan!

First time at Astoria at Rutherford. Beautifully decorated and the food is amazing. Ordered the beef souvlaki and it was cooked to perfection. Can’t wait to come back again.

Top quality Greek cuisine along with friendly service. First time at this location, have visited Mississauga and Newmarket. Same excellent service and food. I would definitely recommend lunch or dinner. Easy parking, GPS might be of since its a new location. It’s across from the Keg.

SUMMARY: Expensive, Small Portions, Lousy Service.
Astoria Shish Kebob House is a mediocre Greek Restaurant that opened a location in Vaughan (directly across from Vaughan Mills).
With much anticipation of this new location, we were very excited to try it out and see if it brought some of the Danforth up to the Vaughan area.
The Astoria Vaughan location disappoints from the moment you view the menu.
The prices are very expensive compared to the great Greek restaurants located on the Danforth.
The portions are shockingly small. I mean, VERY small! The Greek Good you get at the food court across the street at Vaughan Mills are much larger and tastier than what you get at this location.
If you want to experience Astoria, go to the Danforth Location. It is 100 times better and they give you double of what you get at the location in Vaughan.
Do not waste your time and money at this feeble copy of a Danforth landmark… DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME and MONEY HERE.