Estiatorio Milos

My partner saw on their social media that some of their people had raved about this place for lunch. I took a look at the dinner menu here, and it seemed unjustly expensive for what it was. Usually a good indicator of prices starts with oysters. If a restaurant charges $4 for east coast oysters (average price should be around $3), you would expect the restaurant to have higher than usual menu prices. It turns out that the lunch menu prices were way more grounded, and it was a 3 course prix fixe on weekdays.

Ambiance

The interior of the restaurant is very open and nice. The decor is a very bold white everywhere. They have live water tanks for lobster, and in the center of the restaurant, they showcase seafood that you can order by the pound. I was mildly interested in the soft shell crab, but they were charging $29 per crab. That was a little too pricey for me.

Outside, they have a nice tent set up that is adjacent to the restaurant and not on the street.

The service was very attentive, and the food came out pretty fast.

Food

We ordered a coke (right) and the aegean paloma (left), which came with tequila blancom grapefruit, pineapple, lime, and bubbles. I think this drink lacked any sort of sweetness for me. It tasted like tequila with bubbles. The fruit flavors were not prominent, and there was something that didn’t mix well.

As a freebie, they served us bread with olive oil. The bread was lukewarm and soft.

We ordered a small portion of Milos special separately, which came with a lightly fried zucchini and eggplant tower, kefalograviera cheese, and tzatziki. Martha Steward raved about this on a show called “Best Thing I Ever Ate”, so I had to order this to see what she was talking about. The zucchini and eggplant were both fairly thin cut pieces and were stacked on top of each other. In the center of this tower was tzatziki. On the outer skirts was a fried cheese roll. This is not the best thing I ever ate, but it was very good and highly recommended. The “chips” are incredibly fluffy and fried perfectly without much oil soaked in them. The tzatziki was an excellent complement to the chips and very refreshing. And the fried cheese roll gave it that nice salty finish. The cheese is a little bold at first, but after the first bite it’s quite good.

The grilled octopus was our first course and came with capers, onions, and santorini fava. The octopus had a nice smokey flavor to it and was crispy. My partner thought it was a little chewy, but I thought it was fine. The octopus did come out slightly on the colder side, but that didn’t impede our enjoyment.

The 3+1 oysters was our other first course and came with a daily selection of seasonal oysters. The sauce is their own concoction of a mignonette. It did not have as strong as a bite as red vinegar and was a little bubbly. Regardless, the oysters were fresh and were complimented well with it. For me, the oysters were on the smaller side. They did not taste briney at all, so I am guessing they’re probably bluepoint oysters.

The whole grilled fish of the day for the second course came with ladolemono (olive oil and lemon) and steamed crown broccoli. The fish was mostly deboned, but you should still take some precautions. I tried the fish, and it was mostly fresh. The fish was seasoned with primarily olive oil. I thought overall, this entree was rather on the plain side. The lemon helps a little, but in the end, the fish is what it is. The meat flavor itself didn’t have any strong scents and was plain.

The Icelandic artic char for the other second course came grilled with santorini piazzi-style beans. The arctic char is kind of a mix between trout and salmon. The flesh in color is orange like salmon, but it has both the trout flakiness and the fatty salmon flavor profile. This was seasoned with salt and grilled nicely. The skin was crispy underneath, and overall the fish tasted much better than the whole grilled fish.

The greek yogurt for the final dessert course came with honey and walnuts. This is pretty much no frills, so it kind of tasted like how it looks.

The karidopita for the other final dessert course came with honey lavender ice cream. This was actually quite good despite not knowing what it was at first. I learned later that it’s just a Greek dessert cake made primarily from walnuts and covered in a sweet syrup. I will say that the cake itself was very moist but still kept together. There definitely was some liquid substance that it soaked up. The ice cream on the side was a good complement giving a milky and flowery after flavors.

Final Verdict

Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by this restaurant. The dishes we ordered were pretty good, and the lunch price for a prix fixe menu was actually pretty well set. I would be more hesitant for dinner since that is more a’la carte, but I think if you’re around this area and wanted greek seafood for lunch, this restaurant is a fair choice.

Yelp Jabs

It’s all about the fresh fish! Friendly wait staff will show you the fresh fish market with catches from the morning, explain the flavor profile of each fish and how they recommend it prepared, and then suggest appropriate wine pairings. Our sea food feast was delicious!

This is most definitely a seafood restaurant, but this is far from the “best”. If you’re willing to make the trek, Astoria fits the stereotype of having excellent Greek seafood. I think the prices at this restaurant are on the very high side.

Greek salad was my favorite - would absolutely order that again.

This Yelper gave a 5 star review and said the Greek salad was their favorite. I can’t be the only one that sees the irony in that.