We were not expecting to find anything particularly delicious when we walked from the Royal Columbian Hospital to find something to eat. We decided spontaneously on Gino’s, which advertised cheap drinks during their 2-5 PM happy hour in large print outside their restaurant, their name advertised in white cursive sign above their front door. The decor outside reminded me of a similarly decorated Irish bar downtown known more for its sloppy clientele than its food. As a result, my expectations were low.
However, when we sat down we were pleasantly surprised to discover that Gino’s menu is primarily Greek despite our Irish associations with the exterior’s decor. Their clientele were mostly the over-forty crowd, and the restaurant was decorated simply but warmly. The busyness of the restaurant and their slightly older crowd seemed a good sign to me. In Asia, we learned that middle-aged and older people tend to go where it’s simple but good. I wasn’t wrong.
The menu at Gino’s wasn’t exorbitantly priced, but it wasn’t necessarily a place for cheap eats. Nevertheless, we were exhausted from days in the hospital and decided to splurge. The results are the reason why I’m writing this at all.
We decided on sharing a medium Gino’s Greek Pizza ($18.75), which comes with beef, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, olives, and feta cheese, a souvlaki plate with tzatziki and pita bread ($15.95) and a large humous with 2 pita bread ($5.50) and a large tzatziki with 2 pita bread ($5.50). I almost resisted the humous (my greatest weakness), but when I asked the very sweet waitress how she would rate the humous out of 10, she told me their humous was 10/10, and so was the tzatziki. I went for it.
Everything was ecstatically mouthwatering. The humous was creamy and garlicky, a little bit of an herb giving it some extra flavour. The pita that came with the dips was soft on the inside, somewhat crispy on the outside, and lightly oiled from cooking. It was hot from the oven. The tzatziki, too, was garlicky. I love garlic, however, so this was delightful. The tzatziki was also thick, not watery as it can be sometimes, and had just the right amount of flavour.
We finished all of it. While eating the dips with the pita I had moments of delight so wonderful that my companion teased me for the dazed look on my face. The dips alone elevated Gino’s to one of my favourite surprise restaurants within a 10-minute drive of my house. No wonder they had so many visitors, grey-haired or no.
And then, at just the right time, we received our pizza. It was not at all what we were expecting. We had expected (and looked forward to) a classical Italian thin-crust pizza with a sparse smattering of toppings. This was not Gino’s Greek pizza. The sturdy crust held a mountain of delicious toppings. It was hot and the cheese blended with all of the ingredients to make a somewhat difficult-to-hold smorgasbord of heaven. Indeed, there were so many toppings on the pizza that the edge of the crust was curved into an almost pie-like shape, though the topping levels did not quite reach that of Chicago style. The pizza was absolutely worth the money, and, especially after our humous and tzatziki experience, had us filled up after only a slice or two each.
The souvlaki our companion ate was also, supposedly, very good. The house red wine ($6), not so much. There’s a special on wine on Thursdays — only about $12 for 1/2 a litre. However, the house red that I tried was acrid and not pleasant. Luckily, their drink menu held more than just the house red wine, and we each got a very pleasant drink. Their drink menu is simple but solid, but the real feature here is the food.
Our waitress told us that the food at Gino’s is all made from scratch. You can taste it in every wonderful bite. We were also told that the menu is largely Greek because the owners are Greek, and so are many of the chefs in the back. You can taste that, too. Gino’s has little of the traditional Greek feel of many other Greek restaurants, but the taste is definitely there.
Despite the somewhat unpleasant circumstances we found the restaurant under, Gino’s was a pleasure and a surprise. We will be going back, and you can bet that I will be very happily savouring our leftovers.
Gino’s Restaurant
431 East Columbia Street, New Westminster, BC
Phone: 604-525-1071
E-Mail: ginosrestaurant@telus.net
Dine-in, Delivery and Pick-Up available 7 days a week
OPEN EVERYDAY FOR LUNCH!
Monday-Friday: 11am – 10pm
Saturday-Sunday: 3pm – 10pm
The Goin' 