Dining in Vancouver – Cassandra's Wine Room

Good for groups
If you are looking for a space that can handle a group (we had 17 people) with decent service and reasonable prices then Cassandra’s Wine Room is a good choice. We attend a monthly meet-up group that goes out for a bite to eat afterward. The event is hosted in the ING Cafe (a great community partner) on Howe Street and we are always looking for new places nearby.

Cassandra’s Wine Room is a new addition to Scoozi’s Mediterranean Bar & Grill at 445 Howe Street. You actually enter through the Scoozi’s front door. The Wine Bar is open starting at 2pm daily and serves a large selection of tapas and mains with both Greek and Italian influences. There are 15 – 20 options for wines by the glass (from Greece, Italy, Chile, BC, Argentina, California and Austrialia) that range is price from $6.95 to $8.95 for a 5oz pour. The bottled wine prices were very reasonable and there was a good selection of specialty coffees on the menu.

The “Scoozis Spanakopita” ($7.50) is a house specially. I ordered it with a side Greek salad ($3.50). I really enjoyed that there was more spinach than cheese but for some people in our group there could have been more cheese. The tzatziki was very garlicy and very good. 

 The “Baked Lasagna” ($13.50) had spinach, beef and cheese layered with a basil tomato sauce. It was finished with a meatball on top. The sauce was a bit runny but the flavors were good. There was a decent amount of spinach so beware if you are not a veggie lover – I ended up eating some of Jeff’s spinach for him.

 The “Veal Parmesano” ($21) was served with a good sized portion of Penne Pomodoro. According to our friends both the veal and the pasta were good. 

The “Saganaki” ($11.95) was ordered by a few people at the table. It was made with kefalotiri cheese which is a hard, salty, yellow Greek cheese made from goat or sheep’s milk. It was served with pita bread and was very tasty. The portion was a bit small for $11.95 and the Greek side salad ($3.50) was needed to make it a meal.

 The “Calamari” ($10.95) was a table favourite. The presentation was nice with red onions on top and the dish smelled delicious as it was delivered. There was a good portion of garlicy tzatziki and the calamari was cooked very well, not overdone or chewy. 

The “Baklava” was also a hit. Drizzled with honey and accompanied by whipped cream and fresh fruit the flavor was great with a hint of cinnamon on top. The pastry was very good.

Cassandra’s may be the new home of our meet-up group. I have also heard that the breakfast – especially the Eggs Benny – is very good. We will be checking that out soon too.

Jeff & Tara Ciecko of CK Golf Solutions write two blogs on their website, one is their 19th Hole Blog where they share personal experiences and the Biz Blog where they share business best practices and golf industry related opinions. They have owned CK Golf Solutions for 5 years and provide marketing, social media and business services to the golf and other industries.