The Payoff: Mia Dona

Today, Frank Bruni awards two stars to Mia Dona. It was a predictable outcome, given Bruni’s love of hearty Italian comfort food at economy prices, sans tablecloths. And if any chef knows how to push all of Bruni’s buttons, it’s Michael Psilakis:

At the big-hearted new restaurant Mia Dona you’ll find pasta dishes so forcefully flavored and generously portioned they could play as well at Carmine’s as at Del Posto. You’ll find a deep-fried rabbit appetizer that owes less to the grand commanders of haute cuisine than to Colonel Sanders. You’ll find meatloaf.

And if you step back to survey all of what you’re eating and all of what it’s costing — which, in the context of the restaurant’s East Side neighborhood, isn’t very much — you’ll find something else: a portrait of a rising young chef with more practicality than vanity, even though the acclaim that’s rushed his way over the last few years has given him ample reason to preen…

We win $4 on our hypothetical bet, while Eater loses $1.

	Eater		NYJ
Bankroll	$81.50		$87.67
Gain/Loss	–1.00		+4.00
Total	$80.50		$91.67
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Won–Lost	35–15		35–15

Rolling the Dice: Mia Dona

Every week, we take our turn with Lady Luck on the BruniBetting odds as posted by Eater. Just for kicks, we track Eater’s bet too, and see who is better at guessing what the unpredictable Bruni will do. We track our sins with an imaginary $1 bet every week.

The Line: Tomorrow, Frank Bruni reviews Mia Dona, the latest production of chef Michael Psilakis and restauranteur Donatella Arpaia. The Eater oddsmakers have set the action as follows (√√ denotes the Eater bet):

Zero Stars: 8-1
One Star: 3-1 √√
Two Stars: 4-1
Three Stars: 8-1
Four Stars: 15,000-1

The Skinny: Frank Bruni hearts Michael Psilakis. He has awarded two stars to every one of Psilakis’s New York restaurants to date (Onera, Dona, Anthos). He also adores Kefi—he devoted two blog posts to the mere fact that it was moving—although he delegated its review to $25-and-under columnist Peeter Meehan.

Eater thinks that two stars for Mia Dona is a “hard sell,” given that Mia Dona’s casual vibe and super-low prices put it practically in Meehan’s territory. But that has never stopped Bruni before. He holds the New York Times record for two-star ratings given to $25-and-under restaurants.

Perhaps the most relevant precedent is Ureña, which won two stars from Bruni. It re-opened (after a slight make-over) as Pamplona, with food not quite as good, but prices much gentler on the pocket book. Bruni, once again, awarded two stars.

That’s precisely the situation we have here: Dona was forced to close when Psilakis and Arpaia lost their lease. They moved six blocks away, changed the name, and installed a simpler menu at much humbler prices.

All the pieces are in place for a two-star review. The only question is whether Bruni likes it as much as we did.

The Bet: Given Bruni’s obvious affection for Psilakis’s cooking, the Ureña/Pamplona precedent, and our own high opinion of the place, we are betting that Frank Bruni will award two stars to Mia Dona.

Mia Dona

Note: Click here for a later review of Mia Dona. It wasn’t as impressive the second time.

Restauranteur Donatella Arpaia and Chef Michael Psilakis have been busy. Every few months, they seem to be closing one restaurant and opening another.

Donatella Arpaia and Michael Psilakis

In less than five years, Arpaia has opened six restaurants. One closed, and she severed ties with another, leaving her with four. In less than four years, Psilakis has opened five restaurants. Two closed, leaving him with three, all partnered with Arpaia. One of them, Kefi, will be moving shortly, and they intend to open yet another restaurant in the current Kefi space.

Got that?

Mia Dona is their latest creation. It was supposed to replace Dona, which was a hit, but lost its lease not long after it opened. As it was at Dona, the cuisine at Mia Dona is Italian, though interpreted through Psilakis’s Mediterranean–Greek lens. But Mia Dona is really a much different concept, despite the superficial similarities. Dona was much more elegant and nearly twice as expensive. I wasn’t wowed at Dona, though I realize many others liked it better than I did.

At Mia Dona, you almost have to pinch yourself when you see the prices. Could this be true? Appetizers are $8–13; pastas are $10–12 as appetizers or $15–17 as entrees; meat and fish entrees are $17–24; side dishes are $8–9. The wine list has plenty of decent bottles under $50. Compare this to Dona in mid-2006, where entrees topped out at $45, and a four-course dinner was $75.

The front dining room [thewanderingeater]

Of course, something has been lost, too. The tablecloths are gone, and there’s a motley assortment of unmatched china and cheap wine glasses. A single hostess has the dual role of greeting guests and checking coats. The casually dressed servers are a bit pushy and somewhat bumbling. The restaurant has been open for five weeks, so perhaps some of these things will improve.

The decor is a confused jumble: three rooms, each of which looks as if it were entrusted to a different decorator. Some of the choices are odd indeed: blonde wood paneling and zebra-skin carpeting? That’s the back room. We were in the front room, which has bare brick walls, no carpeting, and colorful enamel dishes hanging from the walls.

Bread Service

With as many projects as Psilakis has in flight, you have to wonder how much time he spends in any of his kitchens. Yet, I’ve seen three menus—two on the Internet (here, here) and the one I brought home with me—and all are different. So it seems he still has time to innovate, or he has able deputies who do so in his stead.

Compared to the opening menu, most of the appetizers, pastas, and seafood entrees have changed, at least to some degree, and many of them considerably. (The meat entrees have remained pretty much the same.) The appetizer I ordered, which was perhaps the most remarkable item we tried, must be a new creation, as nothing even remotely like it is on either of the Internet menus. Psilakis continutes to astonish.

We liked the bread service, which came with two contrasting warm breads and a clove of warm garlic.

 
Bigoli (left); Warm Calf’s Tongue (right)

When I ordered Warm Calf’s Tongue ($10), I scarcely imagined what I was in for. Yes, there’s calf’s tongue, but also mushrooms, pecorino romano, a soft poached egg. That’s what the menu said, but there is apparently quite a bit more in there, including green vegetables and chili peppers. It’s a remarkable creation, and so hearty that it could almost be an entree.

My girlfriend was impressed with Bigoli ($11), thick pasta noodles with sausage, broccoli rabe, lentils, spicy chiles, and (again) pecorino romano. At least, that’s how it was served yesterday. Tomorrow, Psilakis may come up with something else.

 
Roasted Chicken (left); Roasted Red Snapper (right)

Psilakis does have a way with chicken. The preparation here ($17) is a bit less artistic than the version we had at Anthos, but just as tender and flavorful.

Roasted Red Snapper ($22) was the evening’s only disappointment. The fish was dull, and the skin (which could have imparted flavor) was too tough for my knife to penetrate. The cous cous underneath it were also bland, though mussels and merguez sausage were nice.

Even with side dishes, Psilakis gives you far more than you have any right to expect at the price. Spinach ($8), which could have served five people, was luscious, with béchamel and pecorino (a cheese that recurs in multiple dishes).

At Dona, portions were on the large side, and that’s true here, despite the bargain prices. Psilakis’s cuisine skews towards the beefy and hearty, and we left a bit overfed. We took most of the spinach home, and we were so full that we skipped our usual nightcap.

The wine list isn’t long, but it has plenty of budget-friendly bottles. We settled on a 2003 Chianti ($58). The first page of the list, with a pretentious list of Donatella’s favorites (“Wine I drink while watching my friends on television”), ought to be scrapped. Servers need a bit of training on wine etiquette (hint: pour the lady’s glass first).

Four out of the five things we ordered were excellent, and both appetizers and entrees were priced a good $5 apiece lower than they needed to be at this level of quality and ambition. If the service improves, and if Psilakis continues to lavish as much attention on the menu as he has to date, Mia Dona may rank among the city’s most remarkable restaurants.

Mia Dona (206 E. 58th Street between Second & Third Avenues, East Midtown)

Food: **
Service: *½
Ambiance: *½
Overall: **

Anthos

Note: This is a review under chef Michael Psilakis, who left the restaurant in March 2010. Anthos closed in August 2010. It is now the Empire Steakhouse, from the Ben & Jack’s team.

*

Anthos is the latest creation of Greek wonder-chef Michael Psilakis. For a self-taught chef, Psilakis has made a remarkable name for himself in just a few years. First he opened Onera on the Upper West Side. I loved the place, but the space was admittedly a bit dismal, and the location worked against it. And maybe the Upper West Side wasn’t ready for an offal tasting menu.

Then, he opened Dona, an Italian/Greek hybrid with comely restauranteur Donatella Arpaia. I wasn’t quite as infatuated with Dona as some other people, but there’s no question it was a big success. But then, Psilakis and Arpaia lost their lease, and Dona was no more. Around that time, he closed Onera and re-opened it as the more casual Kefi, and it’s now a hit. Then came Anthos (“blossoming”), which was meant to propel Greek cuisine to the three-star heights that Onera and Dona both missed.

The question is, did they succeed? Both Adam Platt in New York and Frank Bruni in the New York Times didn’t quite think so, both awarding two stars, though Bruni thought Anthos came awfully close to three. He pronounced it better than either Onera or Dona—both of which had won two stars from him—and several of his complaints seemed petty: “fussy tics” and “self-consciousness” (both recurring turn-offs for him), as well as “drab” décor (a complaint several critics have noted). He added, “Pauses between courses are too long, and not everything that arrives is worth the wait.”

We found Anthos to be just about everything a Greek restaurant could hope to be. Perhaps some of the early rough spots have been smoothed out. Or perhaps a Saturday in August, with the restaurant only half full, didn’t provide an indication of what service would be like when traffic is busier. We had no complaint with the purportedly drab décor, which seemed to us comfortable and appropriately restrained.

Canapés came first (above, left), followed by an amuse bouche (above, right). The server describing them had a heavy accent, and was difficult to understand. The latter—a smoked Halibut, I believe—was about one inch square. My girlfriend didn’t much care for it, but I thought it was successful. In any case, it must have set a record for most ingredients in a small package.

The menu at Anthos is re-printed daily. Both the appetizer and entrée I ordered aren’t shown on any of the online menus, and I don’t have exact descriptions. A Skate Salad (above, left; $16) was excellent, but I was especially impressed by Cod wrapped in zucchini (above, right; $33).

To start, my girlfriend ordered Sheep’s Milk Dumplings ($16), which were beautifully executed. But the highlight for her was the Roasted Chicken (above; $28), which was impeccably prepared, tender, and very attractively plated.

The wine list is a tad over-priced, but we found a wonderful Greek white wine at $55 (label pictured above). Curiously, the sommelier tried to steer us away from Greek wines—we weren’t sure why—but the choice we finally landed on was excellent.

Mileage may vary, but we left Anthos more impressed than we have been with any restaurant in quite some time.

Anthos (36 W. 52nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, West Midtown)

Food: ***
Service: **½
Ambiance: **½
Overall: ***

The Payoff: Anthos

As expected, Frank Bruni awarded the deuce to Anthos. It was as enthusiastic as Frank gets at the two-star level, and he implied that the restaurant fell only a whisker short of three:

[Anthos is] the restaurant you might get if you triangulated between Onera and Dona. It has the former’s resoundingly Greek soul. It has the latter’s fussy tics and more sophisticated wine list, with sommeliers who can guide you through the impressive advances of Greek winemaking.

It’s better than its predecessors, although it doesn’t come together quite smoothly or sharply enough to loft Mr. Psilakis and Ms. Arpaia to the level they clearly aspire to and will almost certainly reach.

The review marks the return of Fussy Frank. As we’ve often remarked, Frank does not like fine dining—a peculiar deficiency in a critic assigned to cover high-end restaurants. And “fussy” is his favorite word when he feels he’s been pampered too much.

The precise reasons for the two-star rating border on incoherent. He says, “Much of the cooking is inspired, and much of it is excellent.” What’s the Venn Diagram for that statement? Is some of the food inspired, but not excellent? Excellent, but not inspired? Later on, the servers’ exuberance “communicates a self-consciousness that only a few of the dishes are transcendent enough to justify,” and “not everything that arrives is worth the wait.”

Later still, “the ratio of hits to misses is better at Anthos than at Dona” (a restaurant he loved), but he wishes “the kitchen’s efforts” were “just a little more selective and straightforward.” Good luck making any sense of that smorgasbord of “almost…but not quite” sentences. The one thing he makes clear is that he likes this restaurant better than any Arpaia/Psilakis production to date, but in the end, lands at the same two-star rating given to the rest of them.

Eater and I both placed identical $1 winning bets on Anthos at 2–1 odds, so each of us wins a hypothetical $2.

	Eater		NYJ
Bankroll	$28.00		$30.67
Gain/Loss	+$2.00		+$2.00
Total	$30.00		$32.67
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Won–Lost	12–2		11–3

Rolling the Dice: Anthos

Every week, we take our turn with Lady Luck on the BruniBetting odds as posted by Eater. Just for kicks, we track Eater’s bet too, and see who is better at guessing what the unpredictable Bruni will do. We track our sins with an imaginary $1 bet every week.

The Line: Tomorrow, Frank Bruni reviews the haute Greek restaurant Anthos, the latest collaboration of chef Michael Psilakis with the comely restauranteur Donatella Arpaia. Eater’s official odds are as follows (√√ denotes the Eater bet):

Zero Stars: 7-1
One Star: 4-1
Two Stars: 2-1 √√
Three Stars: 7-1
Four Stars: 25,000-1

The Skinny: All indications point to two stars. Frank Bruni has already awarded that rating to two other Psilakis restaurants, Onera and Dona, and he seems hopelessly besotted with Arpaia.

At one point, we thought Anthos could be headed for a trifecta, which was no doubt Psilakis’s intention when he closed Onera, and announced he was going for something more upscale. But no critic so far has been wowed by Anthos, and Bruni isn’t the type who says a restaurant is better than everyone else says it is.

We agree with the Eater oddsmakers that one star is more likely than three, but that would be a very significant slapdown. Bruni’s affinity for Everything Arpaia will save the day.

The Bet: We agree with Eater that Frank Bruni will award two stars to Anthos.

Kefi

Note: Click here for a review of Kefi in its current location. This is a review in its former location.

I was a big fan of Onera, Michael Psilakis’s haute Greek restaurant on the Upper West Side. It was one of the few very good restaurants, in a neighborhood where great ones are in short supply. But I guess there’s a reason why the Upper West Side isn’t a fine dining destination: yuppies with strollers prefer casual cafés and take-out.

The new interior


Cuttlefish, Spinach & Manouri


Braised Lamb Shank, Orzo, Root Vegetables


Walnut Cake, Walnut Ice Cream

So Psilakis converted the formal Onera to the casual Kefi. Anyone who visited Onera will recognize the space. But the white tablecloths are gone, and the décor is much more informal. Reservations are not accepted.

Prices are astonishingly low, with appetizers $4.50 – 9.95, pastas $9.95 – 11.95, main courses $13.95 – 15.95, and desserts $4.95 – 7.95. Most wines by the glass are only $6, and cocktails are only $7. (I can’t remember the last time I had a cocktail below $10.)

Even at these prices, a three-course dinner for two, including drinks, is likely to go above $100 with tax and tip. So we were irritated to find that Kefi doesn’t take credit cards, and we noted other patrons taken by surprise. If McDonald’s can take credit cards nowadays, why can’t Kefi?

I started with the Cuttlefish ($8.95), which were grilled, stuffed with spinach, and perched atop warm tomatoes. It was an ample portion, and impressive at the price, as it must be a fairly labor-intensive dish.

For the entree, I had the Braised Lamb Shank ($15.95), which was just as tender and flavorful as you could ask for. It compared favorably to versions of the same dish that upscale Greek restaurants sell for twice as much.

I was also quite pleased with dessert, a moist walnut cake with walnut ice cream.

We were sad to see Onera go, but there’s no denying Kefi is more in keeping with the area. It’s doing a brisk, if not crowded, walk-in business, and also offers take-out. I hope it survives and thrives.

Meanwhile, the concept of Onera remains very much alive. Psilakis is planning a similar restaurant called Anthos at 36 West 52nd Street near Fifth Avenue, a neighborhood where high-end Greek dining should find a much warmer reception.

Update: Kefi will be moving to 505 Columbus Avenue near 84th Street, sometime around July 2008. The new space will seat 200 and will accept both reservations and credit cards (the current restaurant takes neither). Chef Michael Psilakis hopes to open a new restaurant in the existing space — “something I haven’t done before.” Psilakis gave the exclusive to a practically breathless Frank Bruni, who loves the place, although he never bothered to review it.

Kefi (222 W. 79th St. between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave., Upper West Side)

Food: *½
Service: *
Ambiance: *
Overall: *½

Onera

Note: Chef Michael Psilakis closed Onera in late 2006, re-opening a more casual version of itself called Kefi, which has since moved to larger digs. The space then became the short-lived Gus & Gabriel Gastropub, before morphing into Fish Tag—all still under Psilakis.

*

In a neighborhood short on elegant dining options, Onera is an oasis of calm. My friend was immediately taken by the cool, relaxing environment. The original chef, Michael Psilakis, has since expanded his empire to Dona (which he shares with Donatella Arpaia), though he remains chef/owner at Onera.

The menu has morphed since my first visit a year or two ago. There’s no longer quite as much emphasis on organ meat—a choice that had put Onera on the map, but apparently hadn’t wowed diners. The cuisine seems safer now, but it’s still plenty good.

The menu remains a tad over-complicated. There’s a choice of “meze” to start ($11 for two, or $22 for five), appetizers ($9–12), salads ($8–9), pasta ($15–17), fish ($23–26), and meat courses ($18–24). Some of those categories could be merged. It would be nice if the pastas were available in smaller appetizer-sized portions.

Anyhow, we each chose a pasta and an entrée. I had the sheep milk dumplings ($16), which were plenty of spicy fun, although slightly cloying in an almost main course-sized portion. My friend chose the Greek risotto ($16), which came with shrimp, spinach, onion, tomato, and feta cheese. I had a taste of this, and it was absolutely spectacular. I was jealous! This must be the city’s best risotto bargain.

Ah well, the haze sets in, and I’ve forgotten the entrées, except that mine was fish and hers was chicken, both well executed and enjoyable. The wine list has an impressive selection of Greek wines at reasonable prices. The bread service is bountiful, and you could easily spoil the meal if you snack on too much of it.

Onera (222 W. 79th St. between Amsterdam Avenue & Broadway, Upper West Side)

Food: **½
Service: **
Ambiance: **½
Overall: **½

Dona

Note: Dona closed in early 2007, after Arpaia lost her lease. (Well, technically she was bought out, but the landlord created a situation where there was no real option to stay.) A more casual version of the concept, Mia Dona, opened six blocks north in February 2008.

*

Dona is the latest restaurant creation of impresaria Donatella Arpaia, who also brought us David Burke & Donatella (DB&D) on the upper East Side and Ama in SoHo. All three opened in about a two-year span, so you can conclude that Arpaia doesn’t linger over her creations (indeed, she has already exited her partnership in Ama).

DB&D is one of the hottest restaurant openings of the last several years, and as far as I can tell, it’s still a tough table to get. Dona is just getting started. Arpaia’s partner is chef Michael Psilakis. The website is just a stub right now, showing a photo of Arpaia and Psilakis, with “Modern European Cuisine” in big letters.

I took a friend to Dona a couple of weeks ago. The space is attractively decorated, and the sound is nowhere near as deafening as at DB&D. Actually, I’m happy to say that we could hear ourselves talk without much trouble at all. There was a pleasant buzz, but it wasn’t packed. On the other hand, Dona isn’t a breakaway hit, like DB&D. The day of my reservation, I had to change the time from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. “We can do that,” said the reservationist. In contrast, last time I went to DB&D, we were sternly told that we had to keep our original time, and if we were more than 20 minutes late, we’d lose our table.

The menu has separate sections for cold appetizers ($12–16), hot appetizers ($13–15), pasta ($18–24), fish ($26–32) and meat ($24–45). For $75, you can choose two appetizers, a pasta, and a fish or meat course, and we went that route. It’s been about 10 days now, but I believe I had the Tartare (two contrasting raw fish bites), Spiced Almond Crusted Prawns (two hefty ones), Gnuci (sheep’s milk ricotta dumplings), and the pork chop.

My recollection is that it was all solidly done, but I was not wowed. The enormous pork chop came slathered in a heavy tomato-based ragout. It struck me that this was: A) far too much food after three earlier courses; and B) far too heavy for a summer menu. It didn’t go to waste, though, as my friend took home a doggie bag.

Service was friendly, and we were quite pleased both with a sparkling rosé that we ordered before dinner and a sauterne that we ordered afterwards.

Dona (208 E. 52nd St. between Second & Third Avenues, Turtle Bay)

Food: *½
Service: *½
Ambiance: *½
Overall: *½