If you're in NYC and like to dine out, you probably know that it's now Winter 2012 Restaurant Week (or rather, 3 weeks, from January 16-February 10). I highlighted my personal picks in NYC Restaurant Week Winter 2012: Where to Go and have a review for the first restaurant I mentioned on that list, Estiatorio Milos.
Surprisingly, given, how enormous it is inside, it would be easy to miss Estiatorio Milos, since its 55th Street midtown address is fairly nondescript from the outside. Once inside the first set of doors though, you see a huge Grecian urn and through another set of doors, the cavernous space, only one part of which is in my photo. It took a few seconds to figure out where the host was, but once we did, we were quickly shown to our table. Initially, it seems like a nice spot, by the windows, with more natural light, but later on I decided this was the equivalent of Siberia, in more ways than one.
Since I'd already looked at the menu when writing my prior post, I knew what I wanted. My husband, meanwhile, decided on the crab cake ($10 supplement) and the tuna burger.
We were brought a basket of bread fairly quickly, along with an entire bottle of olive oil, which one of our servers (I counted at least 3 over the course of our dining) used to pour a small amount into a dish, for dipping. Bonus points on the bread–very fresh, crusty and warm.
It took some time to produce our appetizers, but I chalked it up to the crab cake taking time to prepare, since my meze plate was primarily cold dips.
My husband for some reason was not too excited about the crab cake, perhaps being used to the flavor of Dungeness crabs, but I thought it was wonderful–the flavor and freshness of the blue crabs really shone through, since there were nice big hunks of it used to make the cake and only just enough binding to hold it together. I do wish there had been two crab cakes though, not just one rather small one. I know it's an appetizer, but for a $10 supplement on top of the Restaurant Week price of $24.07, I was expecting a bigger portion.
My meze plate was beautifully presented, with a variety of dips (tzatziki, hummus, taramasalata), Greek olives, a spicy marinated pepper, and spanakopita. Everything was delicious, especialy the hummus, but again I wished for just a little bit more.
Then began a very long wait of 30 minutes or so until our mains arrived. What had seemed a nice table, next to the window, was so cold that I considered putting my winter coat on during the long hiatus between our appetizers and mains. And it seemed that the tables elsewhere in the restaurant were receiving more efficient service, while we languished out here in Siberia.
At long last, we were served our mains. My husband's tuna burger was a good sized portion and reasonably good, although I noticed the fried zucchini sticks disappeared so quickly I didn't even get to sample them!
I was very happy with my loup de mer, which as expected was grilled and served simply with a drizzle of olive oil and capers. If the French loup de mer (literally, “wolf of the sea”) doesn't mean anything to you, the fish is also known by its Italian name, branzino. It has a mild, sweet flavor and I could tell that it was very fresh. The broccoli sprig struck me as a little odd (do Greeks eat much broccoli?) and I would have preferred, say, some garlicky fennel or broccoli rabe, but that's nitpicking.
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While the quality of the mains made me momentarily forget the long wait to get them, the excruiciatingly slow service continued after we finished and were waiting for dessert. Finally, I simply got up and found the nearest server and asked if he could somehow track down our server. When he arrived I complained about the lack of service and asked for the dessert and check together. After that (probably because he sensed his tip was at stake) things improved considerably. We were brought out our dessert within a minute: karidopita (Greek walnut cake soaked in spiced syrup) with a scoop of ice cream, which seemed to be cardamom. The cake was fragrant, moist and delicious–if Estiatorio Milos ran a bakery, I would buy karidopita (and galektoboureko, which I enjoy even more) there regularly.
Bottom line: while I enjoyed the fresh seafood, especially the crab cake and loup de mer, the poor service would keep me from coming back. It could be that they're simply overwhelmed due to Restaurant Week, but it certainly doesn't leave a good impression with potential new customers. And as good as I thought the blue crab cake was, I don't view it as worth the $10 supplement, since you only get one. If you go, I'd suggest trying to go early or late when it may be less crowded, and if you want to get out in a reasonable amount of time, be proactive in mentioning this at the outset to your server.
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