Great Greek in New York

We went back to New York last week. This time we went to the US Open. We got to see Federer and Serena play and it was very fun. Serena has very big muscles! But we also went to an amazing restaurant called Estiatorio Milos. Milos is a Greek restaurant that specializes in seafood. The restaurant was big and busy, even though we went early. Everyone was very friendly and was very nice to my brother and sister and me. We ate in a small area in the upstairs part of the restaurant.

One of the most special things about Milos is that you get to pick the fish that you want to eat. Our server was named Peter and he brought my dad and me back downstairs to choose our fish. He told us about the different kinds of fish and where they were from. We chose a branzino first. Then my dad wanted dorade, but Peter thought that was too similar to the branzino. So we got what I had wanted all along, which was Dover sole! Remember how I got that at Mistral too?! It's definitely one of my favorites.

This is me checking out all the fish. I really liked seeing what the food I was picking looked like and knowing that everything was very fresh.

After we picked our fish, we went back to the table. They brought us bread and olive oil, but then something very special happened! After he poured the olive oil, our server cut fresh herbs into it.

I thought that this looked very pretty. My sister loved the pink scissors!

We all shared some appetizers to start. We got a Greek salad that had tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, onions and feta. I used to not like tomatoes, but my dad convinced me to try them from this salad because they were so good. And do you know what was very surprising?? I loved them!!! My mom doesn't always love tomatoes either and she said that these ones were so good because they were very sweet but firm. My little sister loves feta and our friend Alec taught her to say that "feta makes it bettah," so she said a lot while we ate this salad!

Feta makes it bettah!!!!! (Hi Alec!)

Next we had the Milos Special which is a tower of lightly fried zucchini and eggplant with kefalograviera cheese and tzatziki. Kefalograviera is a hard sheep's milk cheese that is used in Greek cooking and tzatziki is a yogurt sauce. The zucchini and eggplant were sliced very thinly and were crispy like potato chips. I liked dipping them in the sauce.

I loved how they stacked the chips into a tower. They must be very careful so that it doesn't fall down!

We also had pita served with three greek spreads. Meze is a group of small dishes served as appetizers in Greece. Taramosalata is a Greek meze made from salted cured cod roe, that is mixed with salt and olive oil and a base of bread or potatoes. That one was my favorite! There was also hummus, which was very good. And htipiti, which is a spread made from feta and roasted red peppers. Even though it starts with an H, it is pronounced ch-tee-pee-tee. It is actually the perfect spread for our family, because all the kids have H names!!

The hummus is on the left. The htipiti is in the middle and the taramosalata is the one on the far right.

Before our entrees came, my dad and Rachel got something a little bit crazy! It was called carabinieros and it was a special kind of shrimp from Spain called Crevette Royal. But the crazy part is that it was was served with a shot of sherry to pair with the head. Sherry is a kind of alcohol, so my parents wouldn't let me try the head part. But I did get some of the shrimp, which was very sweet. My dad and Rachel soaked the heads in the sherry while they ate the rest of the shrimp, and then they sucked out the heads. My mom tasted a little bit of it and said that it tasted like sherry cream sauce that you sometimes put on pasta.

After the carabinieros, we got the fish that we'd picked out. Our server de-boned it next to the table and he invited me to come and watch him. He did a very good job because none of us got any bones!

Do you see the fish head?! We didn't eat that part.

Because the fish is so fresh, they prepare it very simply. Even though I picked the sole, I liked the branzino more. I think I liked it because it had the herbs and capers on it.

This one is the sole.

And this one is the branzino.

We had grilled vegetables with our fish. I liked the eggplant and the summer squash best. And I really liked the mint yogurt that came with it!

For dessert, we had baklava. Baklava is filo dough layered with chopped nuts and honey. I had never had it before, but I thought it was very good. I liked the filo dough, but I think that I like French pastry dough more.

You can see the layers of filo dough in the baklava.

I loved Milos. I think it might be my second favorite restaurant ever after L'espalier. I liked the restaurant because I liked learning about the Greek culture and food and everything was delicious. If you're ever in New York, you should definitely go there!