Myrtos

Myrtos, presumably named after the famous beach in Kefalonia where the movie Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was filmed, was opened in 2025 by Asimakis Chaniotis, formerly head chef at Pied a Terre. The dining room was large, well-lit and bustling this evening. The menu was a la carte, featuring Greek and a few dishes from the wider Mediterranean region.

The wine list had 118 labels and ranged in price from £34 to £265 with a median price of £82 and an average markup to retail price of over 3.5 times, which is extremely high even by the demanding standards of London. 65% of the wines were from Greece. Sample references were Pavlidis Estate Thema White from Drama 2024 at £40 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £12, Bosinakis Winery Moschofilero Mantiniin 2024 at £58 compared to its retail price of £14, and Estate Argyros Assyrtiko 2023 at £98 for a wine that will set you back £40 in the high street. For those with the means there was Oeno Π ‘Tria Ampelia’ Assyrtiko 2021 at £165 compared to its retail price of £67, and Thomas-Collardot Puligny-Montrachet ‘Les Enseigneres’ 2022 at £265 for a wine whose current market value is £119. Corkage was a hefty £60 per bottle. 

Taramasalata (£11) was pleasant enough, made with smoked cod roe and garnished with trout roe and dill oil (12/20). This was a lot better than the hummus (£10), made with chickpeas, tahini, black sesame and smoked paprika, which had a gloopy consistency. Given that supermarkets sell perfectly nice hummus, then if you are going to serve it in a restaurant then it needs to be better than you can buy, and this was not. As a final note, it is not entirely clear why hummus, a Levantine rather than Greek dish, was even on the menu (10/20). At least the pita bread that the dips came with was fine, as well it might be at £6. Dolmadakia (£15) were stuffed vine leaves made with avgolemono, which is a lemon chicken soup made with egg yolks, and wild fennel. This was decent though I have had better dolmades elsewhere (12/20). Easily the best starter that we tried and indeed the dish of the meal, were sardines (£14) that had been marinated with olive oil, aged vinegar and lemon. These had good flavour and a touch of spiciness via a little red chili (14/20). 

For the next stage of the meal, poussin (£20) was served on a bed of long grain rice with more avgolemono. The bird was cooked properly but was under-seasoned (12/20). Moussaka (£22) was rather better, a traditional lamb moussaka, though again some extra salt here would not have gone amiss. It was puzzling how small the portion size was, given that moussaka is made from the not exactly expensive main ingredients of minced lamb, aubergine, potato and bechamel sauce (13/20). Beetroot (£8) with its leaves was rather nice, served with crushed walnuts, goat cheese and aged vinegar. The walnuts were a nice textural contrast for the beetroot (13/20). Olive oil fries (£8) were harmless enough if a little soggy (12/20).

A selection of Greek cheeses (£20) was fine and came with some cherries. For dessert, pistachio cake (£13) was not good at all, barely tasting of pistachio (10/20). Portokalopita (£13) was a Greek orange cake with syrup, and this was very enjoyable, the syrup not too sweet and the cake having nice texture (13/20). Coffee was Brazil Yellow Bourbon from Difference Coffee. Service was friendly, if a little stretched tonight.

The bill came to £190 with corkage, and that was even with the desserts being comped after we just had one bite of the pistachio dessert. It was telling that the best dish we ate was the marinated sardines, the dish where the kitchen had intervened the least. £190 a head is an awful lot of money for what appeared on the plates here, and it is hard to recommend it. Still, what do I know? The place was packed out on this Friday night.