Molyvos

I've been around traditional eastern european food for a long time and the food at Molyvos is excellent. I went here tonight for V-Day with my GF and we had an overall very good experience. The restaurant is much larger than it appears on the website. The noise level is moderate, not too loud that you can't talk comfortably but not so low that it is very intimate. The decor is pleasant and overall nice, nothing really fancy, just what you might expect from a contemporary NY restaurant. We ordered off the regular menu, the V-Day menu sounded good, but one of the tastings was Oysters and I don't care for them and didn't want to fuss. My GF had their Chicken soup and it was very good, very traditional and perfectly prepared. We shared an order of Grilled Ocotpus that was good, this was actually the low of the whole meal, but it was still good. I recently went to Anthos (another high end modern greek) and while I think the overall food at Molyvos so far is better the octopus at Anthos was great. I also had a seared scallop app that was really great, very tasty, can't remember off hand what was in it, but it was very good. Entrees were stuffed cabbage leaves for her and a great authentic lamb shank dish for me both were excellent, and my GF being from the adriatic region said that everything was excellent and tasted as though it were cooked fresh off a Greek stove with fresh ingredients and all the right flavor. I have to say the meal was really good. We actually didn't have enough room or time to sample desert since we had to get to Lincoln Center on time, but a word of advice would be, have some apps but don't fill up on them so you can try desert. Wish I could have, but neither one of us were able to totally finish our plates and I am a fairly big eater. The service was OK, nothing great, but to the places credit they were completely packed and that can make things harder for sure. The waitress, was cordial but only came by once. My GF ordered a glass of wine and I ordered a soda, but they brought me a glass of wine too, I didn't say anything because I really didn't mind drinking it, but it did add an extra $10 on the bill that otherwise wouldn't have been there. 3 apps 2 ent 2 glasses tax and tip $150, not cheap, but not terrible, and as opposed to the $165 I spent at Anthos, I felt this was worth it. I'm not trying to give bad marks to Anthos, it's also very good, but I felt $135 was the max it was worth for what we had. Try them both!

I have been here several times, both during the day for business lunches, and in the evening with my wife. I have yet to find anything bad to say about this restaurant. Quite to the contrary, I can only say very good to excellent things about them. From the atmosphere, to the food, to the service. It's all great! I'm almost apprehensive to write this as I fear one of our favorite spots may become "too well known" and ruin it for us, but after so many pleasant experiences, I thought it only fair to share.

My mother and I enjoyed a fabulous meal. The service was impeccable and the food, fabulous. I would highly recommend the sweetbreads! A little pricey, but well worth the experience.

The service was probably the best I've ever had in NYC. The lamb ravioli was superb. The ravini was also good. The prices were typical NYC but I've had much worse food for the same price. I highly recommend this restuarant to anyone looking for fine dining without the snobbery.

Unless you go out to a restaurant for the service then don't bother coming here because the food is very average greek and the prices are astronomical. We ordered the Saganaki and for $15 you get 3 slivers of cheese that is dry and rubbery. Seriously this would have cost them about $1 to prepare. My entree was a miniature lamb shank with rice for the bargain price of $30, again which would have cost about $2 for ingredients. It's a large place with plenty of staff so by going here you are paying for their rent and their labor costs. You're better off spending the money on a taxi to Astoria where anywhere you go the food will be better and will be half the cost.

Consistency is the hallmark here -- we've been to Molyvos for post-concert meals a number of times, and have found it to be a great way to cap off the evening. It's no surprise that seafood is the way to go. The lamb shank ravioli gets high marks too. There's a nice selection of Greek wines (the good ones) and, of course, ouzo.

I recently visited Molyvos with a friend from out of town. About two years ago, a friend from NY told me that the place was wonderful and I went on faith that it was still the great place that he described. While the restaurant is beautiful and comfortable, both my friend and I were unimpressed with our meals. As an appetizer, I ordered flaming saganaki, a dish that I have eaten in Greek restaurants around the world, and found it to be very poor. The cheese was of poor quality and the waiter flooded my plate with cheap Ouzo to quench the flame. The proper way to serve flaming saganaki is to cover the cheese with a shot of liquor that should be almost burned off. What I ended up with was 4 small squares of tasteless cheese swimming in 8 ounces of alcohol. Our main meals were okay quality but service was far from what one would expect for a restaurant that was only about 75% full at the height of dinner hour. We had to ask 3 times for more bread and when I asked for salt, I was given a salt 10 inch salt grinder (I kid you not!) that required an extraordinary work to get the salt out. On a positive note, the spread and pita that are served to every table upon arrival was fantastic and the drinks were tasty.