Latin Quarter

Added Nov 3, 2009 by Lobo47 of new westminster (7 Reviews)

all without leaving the country
Saturday night, one week ago, we went to the Latin Quarter. It might be the most authentic latino place we have. It's informal, atmosphere is itimate, like a Mexican, or Brazilian traditional restaurant. Food was solid. We had the NY Steak, it was good. My halibut steak was almost outstanding. All told, the food was very good.

The real draw was the band. Three guys on amped acoustics, (flamencos) and one conga guy. No synthesizers, no electronics, just musicians grinding out sambas, salsas, and romantic standards. We danced on the small floor, between the tables. It reminded me of La Bodeguita on the Malecon in Vallarta. Waiters winding through the dancers, food held high. Bar star, part time Colombian lounge singer Julio sang some Jamaican songs topping off the evening. He's good. I'd say we left Vancouver that night. Loosen up, roll with whatever happens, and escape to another time and place.

I'm big on the whole experience. You can get food anywhere in Vancouver. You can't always get an experience like this. Latin Quarter is going back in my "regular" list. Thanks.

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Added Apr 17, 2009 by grantrmca of Mount Pleasant, Vancouver (3 Reviews)

Great as ever, my favourite, I miss the band on Thursday night though
This is my favourite place in the whole city. It's so nice to go to the drive for supper and avoid all the "Bling" in the downtown. The tapas were excellent as usual, great ceviche, champignones, papas a la diabla, fantastic camambert and papaya quesadillas, all the food was first rate. I took two friends who had not been there before and they gave it a 5/5, both of them. The only downside was that in the past there was a band there on Thursday night apparently the band is not there on Thursdays until May??? Oh well, if I am back before May it will have to be on a Fri or Sat. WELL WORTH IT AAA+!!!

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Added Dec 10, 2008 by kilani of vancouver (1 Reviews)

Great place to eat
I have been to this place twice and both times have had an amazing time. I read some reviews before I went and decided to go with an open mind. The food was amazing and quite quick. If you want a nice quiet evening in a romantic atmosphere, go to the Latin Quarter. There is live latin music 5 nights a week and helps to set the mood.

Added Oct 26, 2008 by roberb7 of New Westminster (1 Reviews)

I like Latin Quarter a lot
I've been here several times. The quality of the food, service, and live music has been excellent each time. OK wine list, moderate food prices. Highlights are the chorizo (delivered to your table while broiling) and a salad containing pork strips. The owner is friendly.

Themusic is usually a classical guitarist, but they had a three-piece latino group the last time I was there, and the joint was jumping (yes, dancing is permitted).

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Added Aug 31, 2007 by seansean of Commercial Dr. (1 Reviews)

No service -literally
Hello,

Below is a description of our experience at Latin Quarter:

It was Sunday Aug 19th at 8pm. Myself and six of my friends (2 of them are first time visitors from New Zealand) visited the restaurant which was at half-full capacity. So, basically not very busy. Knowing we were walk-ins we asked if they happened to have a table for 7. The man who greeted us said "yes, right over here". So we sat down and were given our menus and the server walked away. Everything seemed great, but unbeknownst to us at the time, it was the last time someone would come by our table.

20 minutes went by and we noticed that our table and the table of two next to us had not been attended by anyone for our drink or food order. We hardly noticed the time go by as we were chatting and going thru the menu.

But at 25 mins in, the table of 2 threw down their menus and proceeded to walk out. We were at first bemused by everything but then started to get annoyed as did the table next to us. When that table left, the server looked a little surprised in our direction but still did not come over to take our order.

At the 30 min mark, fed up, we got up and left. What a great impression to our New Zealander visitors. We went to Marcellos across the street where they were more than happy to accomadate us. As you can see I rated "poor" for the food because we never got to taste it. The ambience looked good at the beginning but as we were ignored that started to sink as well.

I would avoid this restaurant if you're looking for good service because chances are you're not going to get any whatsoever.

Added Jul 23, 2007 by mem of east vancouver (20 Reviews)

Could have been better
Dined here with friends and our kids.
Hostess (?) walked pass us about 3 times until I flagged a disgrunted server. I told him we'd like to have a table, he said "okay," and walked away. He didn't ask for how many people, and he didn't tell any instructions. I stood there until I had to flag him again, and he pointed at a table for 4 people eventhough I told him 4 adults and two kids.
Usually I would have walked away from the restaurant but my kids were hungry. So on our own we found another table and had to grab an extra chair.
We had another waiter serve us and he was decent. No water was offered though. But at least he didn't just grunt at us.
I ordered the rotini with artichokes, and smoked salmon and my husband ordered spaghetti with seafood. Food was good, but we were quite put off by the service.
BTW, we weren't given a choice to order appys. By the time we ordered our main meal the menus were whisked away.
Will not dine here again.

Added Feb 11, 2007 by dlishusfood of Downtown, Vancouver (31 Reviews)

Dissapointing - flavourless - boring!!
Our friends had been raving about this place for some time, so on Saturday night 6 of us downtownies took the trek out to Commercial to eat at the "famous" Latin Quarter. What a complete dissapointment - from the lousy and I mean LOUSY service to the very so - so food offered. My partner and I shared the Paella which is their signature dish - which I guess at $42 just means its the dinner with the most profit in it for them. Mussels undercooked, shrimps over cooked, rice flavourless, empty clam shells - If they think thats how Paella is meant to taste they had better go back to cooking school -I wont go on - but I definately wont be going back to this sham of a resaurant. I think enough said about this place - you have been warned! There are plenty of great choices on The Drive but this one is certainly not one of them.

Added Oct 8, 2006 by xtianyves of Collingwood (2 Reviews)

Ordinary food + food poisoning = bad experience
I went here for a friend's get-together (so it wasn't my idea) with my girlfriend and was unfortunate enough to get food poisoning from what I believe was the seafood (probably the paella).

The food was hardly spectacular and everything else was either bland or burnt (eg. the chorizo)

The service was almost non-existent and I don't remember hearing a peep from our server at all.

After getting food poisoning from the seafood there is no way I am coming back here or recommending it to others. I think the only thing I liked about this restaurant is the name. It has a nice ring to it. That's about all it has going for it in my opinion.

The Latin Quarter left a very bad taste in my mouth. And my stomach didn't like the food either.

Added Jun 28, 2006 by parr of south van (5 Reviews)

different experience
I feel like we went to a different restaurant from the dire place described in some of the negative reviews here. We went on a Tuesday night and there were no female servers at all. The fellow who served us was outstanding. He was attentive without hovering, made an excellent (not overly expensive) wine suggestion and checked several times to ensure that we were happy. We ordered only from the tapas menu and everything was really tasty. The mushrooms and flaming chorizo were particularly good. This seemed like a really top-rate neighbourhood restaurant to us.

Added Jan 17, 2006 by cakone of Richmond (54 Reviews)

Boring
I was not impressed with this place at all. It was recommended to us by a friend of a friend.

The food as said in a previous review is extremely ordinary. I ordered a salad w/dressing that may very well been water. My friend ordered the veal which was so chewy & nasty.

Not once did the waitress ask how our meal was or if we needed drinks. Not once! The service was AWFUL. Our waitress was more concerned with entertaining her friends than taking care of us. It was soooo busy in there, how can you justify chatting it up with your buddies? It was ridiculous.....my friend got so pissed, she yelled "Hello...remember us? Can we have our bill please?" It was pretty funny considering it was well deserved.

I will not be returning.

Added Nov 14, 2004 by thecritic of East Side (173 Reviews)

dashed hopes
I had really high hopes for this place and unfortunately the Latin Quarter did not deliver. The tapas we had were ordinary at best, although we only tried the artichokes, grilled eggplant and prawns. I had the veal for my main course and the veal was covered in a weak sauce/gravy that tasted like corn starch and sugar. This is probably a better place to just have a couple tapas and enjoy the live music and ambiance.