Estiatorio Milos blends sophistication and staggering prices with a profound affection for Greece, and pride in its rich history and culinary traditions.

For founder Costas Spiliadis, Estiatorio Milos is a mission, not merely an upscale restaurant. Founded in 1979, in Montreal, the Milos brand has grown to include 12 locations, a wine bar, a gastronomy-focused Athens hotel, and a small fleet of luxury yachts.

Milos, says Spiliadis, is "a lifelong project that started when I was much younger. It started as a mission that I placed upon myself to help the world outside of Greece see another version, or another picture, of my home country."

The idea, he adds, was to help guests experience Greek food and culture the way he did as a child growing up in the port city of Patras. "It was more than just food," he recalls. "It was a celebration. Every day. At lunch and dinner."

A sister restaurant to the original Milos, the Toronto location represents a return to the company's roots.

"I started this mission, this business, in Montreal," explains Spiliadis. "I needed to go around to the different capitals of the world that I consider are important in terms of creating a public opinion."

Still, he adds, "it's time to return home… Let's face it, Toronto is the nerve of the country. It's where it matters."

At Milos Toronto, which opened in September, Spiliadis' childhood memories are given new life in glittering rooms designed by Jeffrey Beers International.

Housed in the historic Northern Ontario Building, the restaurant is peppered with imported Greek artifacts, grounding the modern look with a solid backbone of historical gravitas.

From the windmill-shaped entrance to the bar's Pentelikon marble, the wide plank oak flooring and the pendants shaped like traditional fishermen’s lamps, every corner of the space draws on Greece for its signature look and feel.

In the restaurant's atrium, a 50-foot market display vies with the dramatic design for diners' attention. On any given day, it's populated with a brilliant display of farm-fresh produce and homemade yogurt, live lobsters, cured meats, and the day's fresh and imported catch. All told, it's an impressive exhibit that feels more like a still life than actual food.

But it is food. Food you're meant to handpick, then savour, one bite at a time.

"My menu is not fixed," explains Spiliadis. "It's mostly the result of what is seasonable and available every day, in terms of fish, seafood, vegetables. We create a market which we then invite our guests to visit. With the help of our captains, our waiters who play the role of sales, they develop a menu that will accommodate the needs of each particular customer."

Though Toronto boasts an expanded number of meat dishes, including family-style dishes, such as Slow-Cooked Ontario Goat and Rabbit Stifado, raw and cooked fish and seafood remain the backbone of Milos' menu.

 

 

 

 

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"We import from all over the world," explains Spiliadis. "Actually, we make the impossible possible. We have fish that our customers in Toronto will enjoy even before our customers in Greece, where it was caught, will have it. It's very exciting for me."

A meal at Milos, then, might begin with a gingery Santorini Spritz ($19), and East or West Coast Oysters on the half shell ($60/dozen) served with tangy mignonette.

Or, it might look more like a citrus-forward Ionian Blue ($21) with a sashimi trio — including Tuna ($45), Salmon ($45) and Live Scallop ($MP).

As eye-catching as jewels (and virtually as costly), each ruby-hued morsel of tuna is garnished with yuzu, dill pollen powder and Milos' exquisite olive oil, cold-pressed from the hand-harvested olives of centuries-old Koroneiki trees.

Accented with lemon juice and lime zest, red chili, micro basil and salt collected off the rocks of Aegean islands, vibrant bites of salmon are buttery, sophisticated and a perfect match to the elegant room.

As for those scallops? They're given a similar treatment as the salmon, then dramatically displayed on an oversized bowl of ice.

Stick to the so-fresh-it's-practically-swimming arc with Ceviche ($47) or Whole Fish Ceviche ($MP).

A bright medley of Greek beans and herbs, chili peppers, shallot, feta, tomatoes and lavraki, a type of Mediterranean sea bass, ceviche is sunny and fresh, light and wholesome.

More dramatic, is an entire sea bream, meticulously sliced into bite-sized pieces, separated into citrus-kissed and chili-topped, its head and body repurposed as platter décor.

Charcoal-broiled, sashimi-quality Octopus ($49) sates cravings for food that's met fire. Firm and sweet with a sidenote of char, it's topped with caper-studded citrus sauce and is sided with fava bean spread for a dish that surprises with every mouthful.

Move inland, with Tomato Salad ($34), a Grilled Vegetable Platter for the Table ($42) and the fan-favourite Milos Special ($45), a vegetable-based appetizer that has become a Milos signature.

"It's the first time this dish has been named a tower," says Spiliadis of Toronto's take on the Milos staple. "It reflects the whole aesthetic of the city," he laughs. "I love it."

"The idea of fried eggplant and zucchini was always part of the Greek culinary repertoire," he explains. "However, it was always very oily. Tasty but not very healthy, loaded with oil that the vegetables had absorbed."

Coated in a paste of flour and water, one that Spiliadis himself used as a child to make kites, Milos' paper-thin vegetables are delicate and crisp, the type of food you could snack on for hours without ever feeling overfed.

At the tower's core is a dollop of house-made tzatziki, with springy tidbits of saganaki cheese completing the über-Greek trifecta.

"The tzatziki is real Greek tzatziki," says Spiliadis, proudly. "Why? Because the method that we use to thicken it is a natural method, without using any additives or chemicals. It's very traditional. Very simple."

And that, at its core, is what Estiatorio Milos is all about.

Yes, the restaurant is pricey and swank, its clientele well-heeled and its wine list loaded with fine imported bottles.

Its mission, though, and that of its founder, is to prepare superior ingredients simply, and to then serve them in a way that shows the ingredients, and diners, utmost respect. If you leave feeling like you just sojourned in the Greek Islands, even better.

Estiatorio Milos is located at 330 Bay Street.