Italian and Greek dishes made restaurant famous
Alfie Lau
Sun
The family at Romana: Stelios Nikolaidis (left), Jenny Siormanolakis, Poppy Siormanolakis, Eugene Siormanolakis and Nora Iliakis. Photograph by : Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun
ROMANA RESTAURANT
4660 Hastings St., North Burnaby
604-298-7252
Opening hours: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for lunch on weekdays
Dinner: 5 to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday, and for special catering parties, by appointment, on some holidays and Sundays
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Rare is the small business that has survived 35 years with the same ownership but don’t try telling that to Poppy Siormanolakis.
In 1973, Poppy and husband Eugene started the Romana Pizza and Steak House at 4660 E. Hastings in North Burnaby, serving predominantly pizza and Italian dishes even though they were proud Greeks.
The eatery, now called Romana Restaurant, still serves pizza and Italian but there’s a healthy assortment of Greek dishes that come straight from Eugene‘s home kitchen.
“There weren’t a lot of people looking for Greek food in the ’70s and ’80s,” said Poppy. “We didn’t start focusing on Greek dishes until the ’90s. … What’s good for our customers is that our pizza and our steaks have been very popular, almost since the start, and they can still order that off our menu.”
If you don’t believe Poppy, then all you have to do is go to the restaurant’s website at www.romanarestaurant.com and see an original menu from 1973.
On a beautiful sunny night, an old schoolmate and myself decided to step back in time and see what has made Romana an enduring success story.
Poppy herself was working and she had us sitting in the back patio, where her own family was relaxing before the dinner rush.
We started with a couple of quintessentially Greek items, the calamari ($9 if deep-fried, $12 if grilled) and the lamb paidakia ($12).
When I asked Poppy what type of calamari I should order, she asked if I was a health-conscious eater.
When I replied that I’m not known for my marathoner’s body, she told me the deep-fried calamari was my only choice.
And Poppy wasn’t wrong, as the calamari almost overflowed on the plate she brought us. Crispy and not too-fattening — that’s what she assured me as I polished it off — the octopus was a great way to start the meal.
The lamb, which comes in three perfectly charbroiled chops, was exquisite, as Eugene‘s mustard-based sauce gave it a little kick. The lamb literally fell of the bone, it was so tender and juicy.
For our mains, we decided to go with a couple of old favourites that have survived the test of time.
The baked ravioli, once $3.50 per serving, is now $13 but it’s still as filling as ever. Eugene doesn’t skimp on the ravioli and having it surrounded with meat sauce makes it a pasta dish worth coming back for.
And we couldn’t not order the pizza that is famous in North Burnaby, so we went with the Super ($24 for a large 14-inch version and $15 for the small 10-inch version). The Super now features pepperoni, mushrooms, ham, onion, green peppers and olives, which is slightly different from the 1973 model, which had shrimp and bacon instead of ham.
The pizza was as perfect as you would expect. The crust was hefty enough to support the weight of all the meat and vegetable toppings but still crispy enough to be crunchy on first bite.
And unlike mass-market pizza joints, the Super wasn’t oily, with just enough cheese to give it flavour.
The pizza is so good that my nephew, who just finished Grade 2, insisted that he get three slices of the Super as his treat for a year of learning.
“I love this pizza,” he said. He likes it so much that when he first tried it several years ago, he would pull off the olives. Now, it’s an acquired taste and he can’t get enough. It’s a small wonder he can fit so much pizza in an eight-year-old’s stomach.
to hear that my nephew loves Romana’s pizza because both her daughters, who have worked in the restaurant since they were young, are pregnant.
Jenny is due at the end of August and Nora at the end of November.
“My daughters have worked very hard here and maybe we’ll have the grandchildren working here when they are old enough,” said the family matriarch. “I think my greatest pleasure in the 35 years we’ve been here is seeing our customers come back with their kids. I remember them when they came with their own parents and now they come with their own kids. It’s a great cycle, that’s the pleasure I get. It’s very satisfying to see generations of a family eating at our restaurant.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
