Koutouki

The food was fantastic, the service went above and beyond what was expected — went out for a friend’s birthday and they served us free desserts, free shots and also smashed plates with the birthday girl… It was a true experience with the staff at the restaurant. Honestly would recommend this place to anyone — I feel like we didn’t tip them enough!

This is the best Greek food I have ever had!!! Under new management and I must say, the food was amazing and the décor is much nicer than before. Will definitely be going back soon!!!

My family adores this restaurant — especially my mom! It’s become a tradition to come here for special occasions because it’s such a guaranteed hit with our family. We recently came here to celebrate Mother’s Day!
Once you step inside, is like you leave Edmonton and get transported into Greece! The textured white walls and vibrant blue accents remind me of the famous buildings in Oia, Greece. The lovely Greek music adds to the cozy atmosphere inside.
We usually start with the pita and some dips. To be honest, the four dips are quite small in proportion to the pitas that come with it. We split this amongst six people and we each had a small sample sized serving. We could’ve ordered more but we ordered so much food, that we didn’t want to get full from the appetizers.
Next, the fried calamari is a must here! So good! Crispy, well seasoned and garnished perfectly! There’s some chopped onion mixed with the calamari and some lemon on the side.
I also love the Dolmades! These pickle-​like stuffed grape leaves pair so well with meat. The portion sizes here are actually quite large compared to dolmades I’ve seen elsewhere.
Another hit are the roasted potatoes! The potatoes are cooked perfectly, lemony and jam packed with flavor! They come with the entrees but can also ordered as a side dish. I’m salivating again just thinking of these potatoes. So good!
They unfortunately ran out of lamb skewers on Mother’s Day. We opted to try the roasted lamb entrée. Because they ran out of the lamb skewers, we were able to ask for an additional order of just the roasted lamb — our server asked the chef if we could do this. This was very nice of them to make an exception for us!
We were dealing with major food coma after this recent meal. We thought we would pass on dessert but surprise! Tapioca pudding on the house!
I’ve had nothing but pleasant memories from eating here. The food seems a bit pricey and sometimes there can be a bit of a wait for food… but I totally think it’s worth it! This place is awesome!

This place would get a 4.5 if I could give it. It isn’t a 5 but it is better than a 4. I have only ever had 1 dish but Meza is so good it is all you need! You will never be hungry when done. I cant even remember all the items you get but my mouth is now watering thinking about it. The service is great and the atmosphere is authentic!

This restaurant has new owners food has gone down hill, especially the keftedes.

I am sad to report that this Koutouki location has new owners, and they don’t know how to make tasty Greek food. Apparently, in March 2015, they sold it to the guy who used to run «It’s All Greek To Me» on Rice Howard Way.
We used to come here somewhat regularly, and it was always good, but the the food is all different now.
We had:
1) Calamari: definitely the worst calamari I have ever had. It was like they used fish and chip batter, and then dumped some seasoning on some parts but not others. It was over done (tough and rubbery), fishy, and the breading all crumbled off. Calamari is a signature dish of Greek restaurants, so they really should get this one right. They got it soooo wrong.
2) Greek Salad: it wasn’t good, but it wasn’t terrible. The dressing was just kind of bland, and they used white onion instead of red, which was weird.
3) Humous: not the worst humous I’ve had, but close. They put a garnish of small diced tomatoes on it. Who puts tomatoes on humous? You put an olive and a drizzle of olive oil on humous
4) Kopanisti: this was terrible. Not what kopanisti is supposed to taste like at all. It was green. I don’t know what the heck they put in it to make it green.
5) Chicken souvlaki skewers: they were cooked well. Nice and moist, but they were a little flavorless. They put some kind of greenish sauce on them which was bland. Overall, not too bad.
6) Greek potatoes. These were surprisingly excellent, considering the rest of the food. We still had the tsatziki from the calamari we sent back, and it was also good.
So, it seems that the last good Greek place in Edmonton is gone. We’ll have to go out of town for Greek now. :(

It’s been a while since our last «date night» so we decided we had better get back into it and we decided on Greek. Great choice. Food was delicious and the service was great. It’s been a while since we’ve been to this location and there are new owners, however, please don’t let that keep you from coming. Food was excellent. Their meze choices are pretty much the same, with a different style of chicken, and the gigantic beans, which were amazing and very tasty, instead of the ratatouille. The lamb is not the same, but none the less, it was flavourful and tender. We really enjoyed it and as a bonus, we received a free dessert, which was also delicious. We’ll be back.

it’s been a while since I’ve been to Koutouki and after eating there again I remembered why. The food is pretty good. We shared three appetizers — dolmades (delicious), calamari (not bad, a bit greasy) and spanikopita (flavorful but the filo was VERY dark and tasted almost burnt). The dessert was also yummy. The service was ok. Our first two appies came out immediately. We ordered the spanikopita a bit later and it took so long to come out that we reminded the server that we’d ordered it. That’s when it immediately appeared with its dark, almost burnt filo. Can’t help but wonder what happened there.
Back to why I don’t go very often — Koutouki is a cute little place. It’s what you might expect in terms of Greek style. White walls with blue trim and lots of pictures of Greece. The problem is that the chairs are absolutely horrible. So uncomfortable. Some of the tables are pretty bad too with table legs so close together that you can’t necessarily fit both legs in between them. I saw several people struggling to find a way to comfortably sit at the table. In addition, there is no air conditioning or even fans. It was sweltering hot in there when we went and we moved tables to find one where there might be a breeze coming through the window.
Unfortunately, good food won’t make up for a physically uncomfortable dining experience. I won’t likely go back.

Came for appetizers and really enjoyed it! We had the keftedes meatballs, spanakopita, saganaki, and tirosalata with pita bread. The meatballs were probably my favourite. After the four appetizers split between 2 people, I felt content but not stuffed. The serving sizes were relatively small but we weren’t starving so it was pretty much just what we’d asked for. I really appreciated the small serving of complimentary rice pudding that we got at the end– hit the spot without having to overdo it with a huge dessert! The restaurant is family friendly and has a family-​owned vibe. It is a step up from casual, but you don’t need to dress up to come here. Food was good, service was good, atmosphere was good. I’ll be back!

Authentic Greek! We get the meze every time we come here — delicious!
Plate breaking and belly dancing after 8 pm on Fridays and Saturdays!

We went back and ordered the fried cheese. The waitress brought grilled cheese instead. Not what we ordered. When we told her, she gave me a dirty look and said «grilled is better for you». What a witch.

My friend and I have been going to the 124^th Street Koutouki for years, and loving it. Until the last two times. The last time, the rice in my souvlaki was mushy, the chicken was burned and the potatoes were just not the same. We decided to give it one more try.
Tonight was one more try. We walked in and noticed things looked different. The room has been repainted, the pictures and vines are gone. That was fine.
Then, along came the server and things went straight down hill. He told us the restaurant was sold in January (our last visit was early February) and they’d got a new chef and ‘freshened the place up’. He then made disparaging remarks about the previous owners.
I ordered my souvlaki, and my friend ordered the vegetarian mousakka, only to be told it had been removed from the menu because it was ‘redundant’.
He brought the salad and proceeded to serve it on to our plates for us, twice sticking his elbow in my face. He rushed us through the salad, coming back twice to serve again. Again with the elbow.
When he brought our meals we mentioned there was tzatziki with the souvlaki, and how much we look forward to that. He told us that this was new, that the previous version hadn’t had it, but it had. When we told it had he said ‘I worked with them, it didn’t!’, then smirked and walked away.
When we finished the meal and I was paying, he not only entered the wrong price, but hovered over my shoulder while I used my debit card.
The food wasn’t nearly as good as it used to be. The rice had what were obviously frozen vegetables in it, the potatoes were almost florescent yellow, but flavourless. The chicken was okay, and the beans were good. The tzakziki was the best part of my meal. We used to dream about those potatoes. Fabulous and fluffy, and now they’re disappointing.
I could handle the food being different, but the arrogant, rude and disrespectful server turned me off. It’ so unprofessional and disrespectful to disparage the previous owners. To stick your elbow in the guest’s face and to so very arrogant. He turned me off completely.
We won’t be back.

My boyfriend and I came the night before Christmas Eve and overall had an okay experience. Our server was pleasant and friendly, the food on the other hand, was nothing stellar. We ordered hummus and pita to start — they charge you separately for both. The pita was served warm which is always a nice touch, but the combo doesn’t compare to Sofra’s which I think takes the cake for their hummus and pita. We also shared the fried calamari and when the server asked us if we wanted tzaziki sauce we said yes — we should’ve known they’d also charge $ 3 extra for that too. My boyfriend ordered the beef souvlaki dish and I ordered the musaka. The musaka was so hot that I didn’t even start eating it until my boyfriend had finished his meal =(The two potato wedges served with both dishes were SOOOO salty it was unpalatable. We also ordered a drink each (they were out of Greek beer that night). Our bill came out to almost $ 120 for the both of us for mediocre food and and an uninspired experience. I wouldn’nt recommend this place — there are other better options around in my opinion — even the other location in the southside is much better than this one.

What happened here!!! We went in for dinner and half the restaurant was empty. We were seated fairly promptly but then sat for 20 minutes and no one paid any attention to us. Once we got up to leave someone caming rushing over but it was too late. For a restaurant like that the service should be quick. This has been our favorite restaurant for a long time but we heard that the owners are trying to sell and moving on so service has fallen way off.

Amazing. Been here many times and have tried a good chunck of the menu, not once was meal anything less than amazing! Meza? Mesa? While over priced is maybe my favorite meal ever. The service is also amazing… However the belly dancer while entertaining needs to leave people alone if they are eating. Also it is not cheap but if your hungry for a good meal you wont be dissapointed

If you are not a fan of olive oil drizzled food, vinegar and bread then you may not enjoy the food BUT you will certainly enjoyed the entertainment they have on weekends.
They have authentic belly dancers engage the guests by getting them to dance with her, smash plates and drink tequila. They also have a good selection of imported wines and beer, and the atmosphere is lovely.
Enjoy you experience under an array of twinkling lights and green vines, and listen to the music of the Mediterranean.

Hard to believe that two restaurants of the same name in the same city could be SO different, but they have different owners, and it shows.
Allan G. and I needed to run an errand after work the other night, and it wasn’t too far away. It was about quarter to five, and we considered multiple dinner options, and I tossed this one out. I liked the southside Koutouki a lot– wrote a review of their luscious pastitsio a while back.
NOTHING about this place lived up to what I expected. Nothing. We were the only diners in the place, and now I know why.
As Mike mentioned, their chairs are incredibly uncomfortable, especially if your butt is a little larger than usual, like mine.
Then, I looked over the menu and saw there was no pastitsio. Great. Disappointment #2. The waitress said they sometimes do it as a feature, but that wasn’t much consolation to me on our visit. I wasn’t in the mood for spanakopita, and I’m never in the mood for moussaka, so now I had to get adventurous.
In the meantime, while we studied the menu, we both ordered glasses of the house red. Now, I’m no sommelier, but this shit was UNDRINKABLE. I don’t know if it was purposely watered down, or if they broke out the bottle on the previous Friday (we were there on a Wednesday), or both. But I have never had such a nasty glass of the grape in my life. Al concurred. He finished both glasses, but only because he didn’t want them to go to waste. I ended up ordering a Coke to have something other than water.
I ended up ordering appetizer portions of calamari and dolmas, and Al had the moussaka. All were equally disappointing, except for the dolmas.
The calamari were served with a tzatziki sauce, and were hot and crispy, but the batter had no seasoning. You had to double up on sauce to make it taste like anything. The moussaka arrived, and looked more like shepherd’s pie. Almost like the person cooking it knew what the ingredients were supposed to be, but had no idea how to put the dish together– you know, layered and baked, like it usually is. Oh, and did I mention it took an hour for the food to come? Yeah, that.
The only saving grace were the dolmas, which were actually served hot, instead of cold as they usually are. There were four large ones, also served with tzatziki, and they were tasty (thankfully). We paid way too much for a seriously disappointing meal.
We also waited an eternity for our bill, and would have waited longer if I hadn’t gotten up to bug somebody about it.
We won’t be returning.

Stop. Make another choice. Way too expensive and the food is not good. It cost $ 90 for two meals, two appetizers, tea, pop and no alcohol. No wonder the place was almost empty. The appetizers get a small pass but the mains were disgraceful. The lamb was tough, the Moussaka was tasteless and way too oily. They even used under ripe tomatoes for the Greek salad. I love Greek food but this cook should be ashamed. If you will not serve it to mom don’t serve it to me. Oh yeah. The place was almost empty and we were sat across from the waitress station near the bathroom. I only asked for a warm place to sit. I was here for lunch once and it was just as bad. I was hoping it was just an off day. I can’t understand the rave reviews this place gets. I won’t be taken in by them again. Now to find a good authentic Greek place for next time.

This has been the most disappointing meal I think I ever had! Not only was everything over cooked, it was also overpriced!
The only thing half decent about this restaurant was the glass of wine (which one glass is the same price as buying the bottle of wine on sale) and the waiter! Will not recommend to anyone nor show our faces there again! $ 100 wasted!

Nice family restaurant just outside of downtown.
My GF and I visited on a Sunday after deciding we didn’t feel like cooking.
The atmosphere inside was nice, the staff friendly.
The food was great. We did the meze (sample pretty much every dish) and had a bottle of wine. Probably some of the best Greek food I’ve had between Vancouver and Edmonton and Calgary. For the price I had no complaints. I’ve paid more for alot worse.
Only complaint was that I had to wait a fairly long time to pay for my meal after receiving the bill. My girlfriend didn’t mind but that kind of thing really grinds my gears.
Overall though I really enjoyed this place, will likely be back again.

Ordered in from Koutouki last night seeing we were too lazy to cook. We were very hungry and decided to order the Meze Sampler. The menu describes it as «sample about a dozen dishes, don’t be tempted to finish every dish that arrives or you won’t need to eat for a week» blah blah blah. We’re not huge eaters and don’t see value in simply huge portions, but this was a disaster.
$ 38 per person, you have to order minimum 2. Ok. $ 72. Let’s give it a shot.
When the food arrived and we put it on plates, we had to laugh at what a joke it was. We both had 2 tiny dry meatballs, half a piece of chicken, a fatty lump of what can only be described as bad pot roast, a tablespoon of greek salad, a pita, and some plastic containers of dips. It was horrible.
Do yourself a favour and order from a restaurant that doesn’t rip you off so bad that you pay $ 38 per person for what was seriously $ 8 worth of food. We will never, ever, EVER order from Koutouki or go there again. What an effing joke.

A friend of mine arranged a dinner here for a large group of people to celebrate my birthday. We were seated in a little section that was somewhat separated from the rest of the restaurant. This was nice for us since it gave us a bit of privacy and nice for the rest of the patrons since we’re not the quietest group (which is ironic considering most of us are librarians).
We had a bit of a scare when the waitress told us that as a group of more than 10, we were obligated to order the «meze» which sounded good but also rang in at $ 38 per person. Ouch! Plus considering I don’t eat meat, there’s no way I’d be getting my money’s worth. Luckily they were able to make an exception for us which saved the night.
I ended up choosing two appetizers rather than an entrée and this was just the right amount of food. I wasn’t all that enamoured with the spanakopita. I prefer larger pastries with more filling rather than smaller ones with more crust. However, the gigantes plaki (beans in tomato sauce) were delicious.
They have a belly dancer on Friday and Saturday nights which is always entertaining. I don’t really like how loud they turned up the music for her though. When she’s off performing on the other side of the restaurant you want to be able to comfortably continue your conversations. They also apparently have plate smashing which unfortunately, being in our special section, we could hear but not see it.
Overall I had at great time at koutouki. I’ll definitely be back, but because of the «meze» rule for parties of 10+, I probably will only come with smaller groups.

Can we say HUGE Greek party?!
My mom was in town and me and my boyfriend wanted to pick somewhere interesting to go eat since she lives in Fort McMurray and has BP’s or Moxie’s to choose from. Just walking up 124^th to the restaurant we heard really loud music and couldn’t figure where it was coming from. as we got closer. we found out it was coming from where we were about to go eat !
When we walked in we were greeted by an extremely friendly hostess with a belly dancer shaking her everything behind her in the background. We sat on the small cute patio and definitely had to lean in and talk quite loud to hear each other. After looking over the menu and realizing we didn’t know what anything was, we asked our waiter for recommendations which he shot off quite quickly and let us choose from that.
I don’t remember any of the actual names of the dishes but. We ordered hummus (garlic to the max), spicy meatballs, calamari, beef and lamb skewers and a huge Greek salad with a crazy amount of feta on it. Everything was amazing !! The only things I wasn’t too crazy about was the tzaziki that came with the calamari, a bit too much lemon for my liking and the beef skewers were dry.
To end off our night we got to see alot of plate smashing and dancing. One guy even smashed a plate on his head ! I’d definitely recommend coming here with a huge group of people so you can share everything!

This was my first meal in Canada. I was pleasantly surprised! The hummus was probably the best hummus I have ever tasted. I’m a fan of garlic, and that hummus sure packed a garlic punch!
I ordered the lamb skewers which were not gamy at all (I don’t mind gamy, so there was something to be desired). The zucchini in tomato sauce was excellent. Also got to try some meat balls with minty cream sauce. Not really into the minty mouth wash flavor in sauces or drinks, so I wasn’t digging into them as much.
Over all this place was very good and I would highly recommend it.

I’ve been here just once but did, in fact, have a great time. Neither have I been to Greece, nor would I consider myself an expert on Greek food, but I’ve got to say that the food I ate here was delicious and seemed nearly authentic.
Of course, like everybody else under the Sun, I’ve eaten Greek food at expensive restaurants, fast food joints and things in between. But I really haven’t had a better experience of Greek food than I did at Koutuki. Also, the ambience adds a certain amount of romance to the whole experience with slow Greek music in the background and creeper plants all over the ceiling (actually, they may have not been creepers, but forgive my lack of botanical interest).
We were a group of six and we shared several small appetizers. All of the appetizers were delicious. The tzatziki was really quite yummy with the sour greek yogurt hitting the right spots. Hummus has become an everyday commodity and people tend to have a lot of expectations of how it should be, etc. I like that the hummus was tasteful yet not overpowering or something that’s standoutish, like a store bought 3-​pepper hummus, not that there’s anything wrong with that! Of course, I don’t want to harp on about the appetizers. The meat balls were tasty and so were the dolmades (yumm, my mouth is watering as I type of the «e» and «s» in «dolmades»). Nice shrimp that we ordered and everything was par excellence, to be honest.
The restaurant is split into two sections and we went into the section that was more seafood based, probably more emphasis given to Mediterranean islands of Greece. I drank a glass of the (white) Santorini wine with my meal.
The service was okay. A couple of glitches. They got out the wrong dish at one point and left it at our table and ended up charging us for it. One of us (certainly not me, for lack of courage) ended up rectifying it. Also, the servers were a little impatient, waiting to clear up plates and almost ended up picking my plate up before I was done. It’s okay.

I have to say, I had one of the best night-​out experiences at this place.
It’s cramped and vintage-​feel coupled with fabulous Greek food and a cultured atmosphere would never be expected by looking at the restaurant from 124 Street.
I joined a party of around 25 other people to celebrate my sister-in-law’s birthday.
And man, did they show us a fabulous time.
A 12-​course meal spanned out over three hours kept our bellies happy and an outrageous belly dancing woman kept us on our toes.
Somehow, she managed to get our entire party out of our chairs, arms draped around one another, as we danced in a circle around the restaurant to a traditional dance called the «Kola»…the whole time an employee poured alcohol down our throats.
We weren’t complaining… never argue with culture traditions!
Alcohol was later poured onto three plates that were placed on a small end table. The plates were ignited and as the sounds of Greek music and cheering people filled the restaurant, a man bent down bit the table and lifted the furniture with it’s flames atop it.
He then proceeded to dance to the music with a table in his mouth that balanced the flaming plates.
The tab was reasonable and the food was fantastic.
The energy of the restaurant is nothing but pure happiness.
For a dinner experience filled with surprise and true culture, I recommend Koutouki to anyone.