Dinner at the Re-Opened Taverna Nikos!

As will be no surprise to my readers, I had to go to Taverna Nikos as soon as I possibly could. It looks pretty much the same inside, except for the disappearance of the recently painted maroon paint, which had been repainted a nice dark blue, not too different, but darker than the original turquoise. I've been going to Taverna Nikos since 1992 and I'm fairly obsessed with color, so I tend to notice such details. Matching blue napkins and a few new photographs are the only other changes I observed.

The menu, however, is completely new. Many of the dishes from the old menu are there, but some of them have different names. For example, the old Village Salad is now the Nikos salad. Thank goodness it's still there. Co-owner and executive chef, Georgios Kastanias assured us that he would be more than happy to make any of the old dishes that have been removed from the new menu.

Very hot out of the oven, sesame and poppy seed encrusted bread was served with herbed olive oil, which is a change from the basil butter that they used to serve. The new combination was very good.

Some things are exactly the same, except even better. My Most Faithful Reader ordered the calamari and it was perfect. It was tender and finely sliced, just the way she likes it. I admit to stealing several pieces and some tzatziki, too.

My Second MFR ordered bacon wrapped shrimp stuffed with crab meat. This was wonderful. I'm pretty sure that the primary herb used in the stuffing was parsley. I will definitely be ordering this entree in the future.

I ordered the Fisherman's Pasta, which was mussels and shrimp in a tomato based sauce over linguine. This was very good, particularly the mussels.

I thought the new dessert tray was so beautiful that I thought I should photograph the whole thing.
We ended up sharing the chocolate-cappuccino mousse cake, which was as decadent and delicious as it sounds.

Overall, it was a very pleasant experience. We even had a visit from our favorite roving Mt. Fuji waiter, who wanted to make one more (very welcome) political comment. I am looking forward to being a regular at Taverna Nikos once again.