IOS Estiatorio

The Upper James commercial corridor doesn't promise a wine bar, but IOS Estiatorio puts one inside a Greek dining room and lets it earn its keep at lunch, at dinner, and at a table of ten on a birthday Saturday. The menu reads as a working Greek kitchen: mezedes and phyllo pies for the start, souvlaki and lamb for the middle, whole grilled fish for diners who want the lighter centre of the meal. A separate group menu sits behind the regular one for families and parties, which is why the dining room books most often by phone. The "little taste of Greece" line is a useful summary, but the more honest one is that IOS is the Greek restaurant on the mountain you would send a group to and trust them to find what they want.

Tableside Saganaki — Kefalograviera seared with ouzo and lemon — is the opening move when the meal wants a little ceremony, and IOS Chips of fried zucchini or eggplant with house tzatziki carry the same job more quietly. Mezedes spread across Greek Spreads of Tzatziki or Tirokafteri, a Trio of Dips with pita, Tiropita and Spanakopita built around barrel-aged feta, and a tightly-stocked seafood opener of Octapodi, IOS Shrimp in white wine and Greek spices, and Spicy Garlic Shrimp. The soups are honest — Avgolemono is chicken and rice in a whipped egg-and-lemon broth — and the salads keep faith with Horiatiki and a Greek Village Salad weighted toward tomato, feta, and oregano rather than lettuce.

The Land side leans on Boneless Ontario Roast Lamb, marinated with herbs and spices and slow-roasted, plated with the Lemon Potatoes that local food writing has singled out alongside it. Souvlaki appears as Chicken, Pork, and Lamb skewers and as the Traditional Gyro plate; Lamb Chops handle the higher-ceremony end of the meat order. Seafood has real depth: whole grilled Sea Bass (Lavraki) plated open-faced with oregano, whole Red Snapper (Lithrini), pan-seared salmon, and the shrimp and octopus that crossed over from the mezedes section. Glyka closes on Baklava and Bougatsa rather than the dessert-cart version of Greek desserts elsewhere on the mountain.

The wine-bar half of the name does real work. The list pulls from producers around the world and from local Ontario growers, and the menu is built to sit beside a bottle rather than chase a quick plate. Lunch is a Friday-through-Sunday window — Souvlaki on a Pita, the Traditional Gyros Pita, the IOS Burger, salmon — that gives the daytime side of the operation a tighter, more tactical shape than the dinner menu. Reservations are taken only by phone, and party and group inquiries route through email; the rhythm of the dining room — closed Mondays, Tuesday and Wednesday from three, the wider daytime stretch through the weekend — reads less like a constraint and more like an operator picking which services to do well.

Greek family hospitality and consistent menu execution have earned IOS a place in local food coverage, with a 2024 readers' choice nomination following an older food-column write-up that named the lamb and the lemon potatoes specifically. None of that should distract from what the menu actually does on a Tuesday at seven: anchor a meal in saganaki and spreads, build through lamb, lemon potatoes, and whole fish, and finish with baklava and a glass of something Greek from the list. The doors opened on Upper James in 2019, and the work of the kitchen still covers the same three jobs — a quick souvlaki at lunch, a saganaki-to-lamb dinner, and a phone-booked table for a birthday.