Anthos
32 West 52nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
212/582.6900
$200 for two, with wine, without tip
♥ ♥
By the fifth time someone asked us if everything was okay, I paused and looked into the waiter’s eyes and told him, Really. We’re okay. I like good service as much as anybody else but there’s a fine line between being attentive and annoying. Our waiter swung by a few times to see if we needed drink refills (our wine glasses were still more than a third full), a couple of busboys tried to clear our plates away while we were still working on them and two other waiters whom we’ve never seen before also came by to ask if we were okay. I looked around the restaurant to see if we were holding up our table for too long, but it was fairly empty at 8pm. Were the servers just bored?
When we had uninterrupted minutes to ourselves, we were able to enjoy the food. The kitchen started us off with a lamb sausage amuse which my dining companion didn’t eat because she is quasi-vegetarian. I thought it was odd that no one ever bothered to ask her. I figured that they probably assumed we both eat meat because we were at a Greek restaurant.
The smoked octopus with fennel and mushrooms in lemon confit was so fragrant while the salad of Brussels sprouts and beets was so beautifully presented. The mullet and sweetbreads combined with bitter greens were a good mix in terms of texture, although I wasn’t a fan of the bulghur wheat that came with the roasted mushrooms and hen’s egg. By the time the quail and the tuna tartare were served, I was already full. My friend, skipping the meaty dishes, had room for the cotton candy with petit fours and the rich chocolate tart with ice cream.
We were really more than okay.
Related post/s:
Kefi is also from chef Michael Psilakis
Nobu 57 is a few blocks down
Coincidentally, we recently visited Anthos for the first time, having read good things about it and seeing and finding an alluring $38 pre-theater dinner that would enable us to enjoy both the raw meze and whole grilled loup de mer that seem to be among the restaurant’s signature dishes.
I was seated before my companion arrived and asked to see a menu. When I was brought a dinner menu, I asked for the pre-theater menu, but was told that the pre-theater dinner was served only between 5 and 6 and needed to be ordered by 5:45. Pointing out that most pre-theater specials are, literally, pre-theater and that the restaurant’s web site did not stipulate this time restriction (I added, in good humor, that few people in NYC and, few people outside of Florida, eat dinner before 6), I asked the server to appeal to the kitchen. They declined my appeal and we ordered from the regular menu.
The raw meze was a delightful plate of what I would call Greek sashimi: five different servings of raw fish, each prepared in a different sauce. My companion had the squid appetizer which was exactly how you described it. She had the grilled marlin and I had the grilled loup de mer. With a half bottle of a Greek red, our check came to $140.
Perhaps in response to my initial disappointment over the restaurant’s pre-theater policy, we were comped dessert, a nice touch.
Overall, we found the food to be thoughtfully done and the service to be attentive.