Milo's (Midtown Manhattan) 01/10

Most distinguished by rave reviews from largely enthusiastic patrons this midtown Greek restaurant was brought to our attention by friends. They concentrate heavily on fish which are caught in the Mediteranean and flown in on ice to be served on the day they were caught. They do have other fish including snapper, tuna and turbot and there is a steak on the menu. The place is split level, large and fairly noisy. At the far end of the room is a hill of ice chips in which the fish are half buried. They are sold by weight and you can choose and weigh whatever takes your fancy. As soon as we were seated we were offered an explanation of ow the system worked. Bread and oil were brought to the table as were menus. A very small amount of oil was poured into a bowl and the bottle moved to an adjacent table. I took the bottle back to pour some more and the waiter immediately returned and said that is how we do it, added some oil and removed the bottle. He then began rearranging how every thing was on the table, moving the candle an inch to one side and the oil dish an inch to the other side and so on. We asked him to leave it to us which he did but a moment later was back asking what wine we might like. I said I needed a few minutes to decide; two minutes later he was back again. Eventually he did get the message and things settled down. We started with grilled octopus cooked with capers lemon and olive oil

which had received high praise from several internet reviewers. It was very nice, tender and tasty but not exquisite. A second appetizer of crab cakes, cake really, was served with a bean paste and a mayonnaise dressing on a red lettuce leaf. After a super crab cake at Francoise, a restaurant in a small Pennsylvanian town, I found this pretty presentation pretty ordinary. Good but not as sweet or as moist and succulent as I had hoped. Turbot, a fish a bit like a large almost round flounder is rarely seen in Australia so we were happy to have it fresh here. It, as with almost everything else here, is grilled with olive oil, capers and lemon. Our two and a half pound fish arrived at the table greatly reduced having been boned and skinned. The fish has a tender firm flesh with a a gentle non fishy flavour. We could have liked to have had a lot more. Their interpretation of a custard cake in a philo pastry was another delight. (Much better than the photo). Their Greek yogurt, available in supermarkets everywhere, was excellent served with honey and mandarin syrup.

This was the dressiest restaurant we went to in New York almost all the patrons were wearing suits and ties. For once they were better dressed than the waiters!

The food was extremely good, the venue noisy but bearable, the wait staff 'in your face' and the prices high.

Score: 15/20