Ilios, Nanaimo

With the recent ending of my contract I decided to take a trip out to Nanaimo and visit a friend for a few days of winding down.  I was out on the island for a number of days which were spent loading, discharging and breaking a manure spreader, cooking, drinking and dining out.  My friend Sees and her roomie Laura love to eat (you’d never know it looking at them) and be out on the town.

The first night I was in town, Laura cooked up a great chicken dish that she learned about while down in Australia.  All I can remember about it was that it contained peanut butter.  I made some enchiladas and some vindaloo on other nights as well.  Overall, in 5 days I ate like a king.

On the last night Laura chose Ilios for a dinner out.  When we got to the restaurant, I was surprised how busy it was for a Thursday night.  The patrons were a little closer to retirement than the three of us, but that didn’t stop them from having a raucous time.  We were seated in a nice 1/2 banquet and greeted by our waiter.  I have to cut the guy some slack as it was very obvious that he was very new to the job.  That said, he was the least polished part of the evening.  At one point, when we ordered our drinks at the start, he tried to take the menu away from one of us before we had the chance to decide on the meals.

In the spirit of relaxation and the good life, we started with some martinis.  I had a Dirty Sanchez (tequila, lime juice and something else that I can’t remember) which was unbelievably good.  Actually I have 5 of them.  I’m on holidays so I indulged….  The martinis that the ladies had were fantastic I was told.  One was with raspberry and the other was called a Black Widow (I think).

We started the meal with a plate of Saganaki which was fabulous.  I’d suggest to the waiter that he hold the plate a little farther from the table when he lights it up.  I think Laura and I are missing some of our eyebrows after that performance. 

All three of us ordered pasta.  Laura had what looked like a wonderful ravioli dish.  Sees ordered a truely mediterranean pasta complete with olives, basil, tomatos and feta.  I didn’t get to try it, but looked quite nice.  I had the New Orleans pasta which amounted to jambalaya with fettuccini.  It wasn’t overly spicey, but it was very nicely flavoured.  My only complaint would be that the pieces of chicken that it had were a little bit too big at times.

Because the meal was well sized and it came with two massive cuts of bread, I was in no shape to eat dessert.  The ladies, however, had room for something chocolate.  I believe it was a chocolate mousse cake, but I might be wrong as I was having another martini for desert.

Over all, I’d give Ilios a 4.75 out of 5.  Good atmosphere and vibe combined with great food and marvelous martinis.

 Fixed the typo…it should have been 4.75 out of 5 not 4.75 out of 10.