This black and white dining room is perpetually polished and sophisticated. Nostos is a standby, a stalwart. The service is refined, friendly, not formal and stodgy. And the food is consistent. The majority of the menu doesn’t budge—from the dips (the hint-of-fish taramosalata, as light as whipped cream) to the salads (the simple beet and arugula decorated in almonds and cheese) to the seafood (shrimp surrounded in a tomato sauce with feta, pine nuts and raisins)—ensuring a reliably good meal. Meat is handled expertly: The lamb chops are charred on the outside, rosy on the inside and so good they deserve to be picked clean, sans fork and knife; and a meatball more resembles a hamburger, and is better for it. Fish, of course, is a treat here, with filleted halibut, textbook in its crispy skin, or branzino served whole, with delicate flesh. Doggy-bag any leftovers to make sure the end of the meal is one of the many versions of phyllo dough, nuts and honey, because baklava in any form is a good idea.
