Before describing the best Greek meal I’ve eaten in a decade, I want to mention that today is kick-off day for Vegas Uncorke’d, the biggest local food event of the year. Several cocktail parties and Master Series dinners will culminate in a Grand Tasting at Caesars Palace Garden of the Gods tomorrow evening at 7:30 p.m. Every notable chef who cooks here, great and small, will be there. A few tickets are still available.

The last time I visited Greece, I dined, with my wife, in a trattoria, or taverna, as they are called in Greek, at the bottom of the steps of Ia, a famous village on Santorini where everyone goes to see the sunset.

The taverna had several fresh fish on hand, one of which, red mullet, called barbounia in Greek, happens to be my favorite European fish. I’d pay a pretty penny for one of these fish, but not what the owner at this joint was gouging for it. I speak enough Greek to negotiate how much I am going to spend before ordering, unlike the foursome from Chicago at the next table, who got stuck with a five-kilo sea bass, at $40 a kilo.

You won’t have that problem at Milos, though, the best Greek seafood house in New York City. The restaurant is a soaring room popular with jetsetters, starlets and Wall St. tycoons. Tourists seem few, in spite of a location in the heart of Midtown. The restaurant, also with a location in Montreal, will come to Vegas when the Cosmopolitan opens late this year. I can’t wait.

So let me give you a sneak preview of what to expect. My friends and I started with a dish called the Milos Special, a foot-high stack of lightly fried zucchini and eggplant, sliced paper thin, with chunks of saganaki cheese flanking it, and the surprise of runny goat cheese in the center.

Then came Spreads, three of the best Greek spreads I have yet tasted, the cooling cucumber and yoghurt dip called tzatzaki, skordalia, garlic and almond paste created to spread on the hot house pita bread, and a taramosalata for the ages, creamy cod roe whipped with olive oil.

We all wanted sardines, but the European ash cloud cut into the style of the kitchen, and they were sold out, with no incoming flights. What I did have instead was premium quality white Gulf shrimp, grilled simply and brushed with garlic, lemon, olive oil and oregano. The shrimp were the best I’ve ever had, but now, we have to deal with the oil spill in the Gulf, so the long term impact on products like this can’t be rosy.

Sashimi quality octopus came next, charcoal broiled, and butter soft. Then came a perfect horiatiki, or Greek salad, minus the lettuce which is never part of an authentic Greek village salad. (For the record, what you get is tomato, cucumber, Kalamata olives, feta cheese and onion.)

The barbounia came next, red, crisp and intense, served whole, and a grilled lavraki, another type of sea bass, served skin on. Almost as an afterthought, we were served Colorado lamb chops before dessert, but were too full to eat them.

The dessert was simple and to the point. Greek yoghurt with walnuts and thyme honey, and the freshest baklava this side of yia-yia’s rolling pin, a buttery, multi-layered affair chockablock with crushed walnuts.

Milos is expensive, but unlike some unethical tavernas in Greece, you will know what you are paying before the check arrives. This is one of the most beautiful rooms in New York, with huge Doric columns, white walls, and an enormous fresh fish display next to the open kitchen.

Vegas will finally get a quality Greek restaurant on the Strip. It’s about time.

Milos, 125 W. 55^th St., New York City. (212) 245-7400

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