Former Pied à Terre head chef Asimakis Chaniotis has opened his first solo London restaurant – Myrtos, on the former site of Aubaine in Old Brompton Road, South Kensington.
The latest upmarket Greek restaurant to open in London, Myrtos is named after a famous white marble beach on the island of Kefalonia, where Asimakis passed his summers as a boy with his grandparents.
He spent 13 years at Pied à Terre in Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia – long one of London’s top kitchens and a noted proving-ground for chefs; he is also executive chef at restaurant Terre Mouikis in Kefalonia.
Asimakis describes Myrtos as a “celebration of Greek flavour, memory and spirit”, serving “simple, soulful” dishes – albeit at a more refined level than you are likely to find in an island taverna.
Dishes include prawn saganaki; taramasalata freshly made every day; and olive oil fried potatoes finished with shavings of Greek black truffle and graviera cheese. Larger sharing plates include whole poussin avgolemono; salt-baked Kefalonian organic sea bass; and lamb chops with smoked olive oil and oregano.
Asimakis is joined at Myrtos by general manager Vasilis Kristelas, a former area manager with the Real Greek chain.