THE vivid blue and white color scheme, the airy dining room and even the typography on the sign at Kyma Greek Cuisine, a six-month-old restaurant in Somerville, primed my palate for the classics of that cuisine: succulent grilled meats and seafood, lemon, oregano, feta, ouzo, rich coffee.
Though Kyma, which means wave, did not entirely fulfill that promise, you certainly can experience those flavors there. Consider, for instance, a meal that might include a beautiful bulgur salad, with its jewel-like pomegranate seeds contrasting in taste and texture with pale green cucumber and crunchy celery and almonds; the almost-but-not-quite-burned, tender, juicy octopus tentacles laid on a bed of spunky arugula, all of it dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar; the plump mussels that we ate within moments of their delivery to our table; jumbo shrimp Santorini baked in ouzo-flavored tomato sauce with feta; and the lamb chops, first marinated in olive oil, lemon, wine and herbs, then grilled and served with lemon-roasted potatoes.
Xristos Stamataros, owner and executive chef at Kyma, comes to both the cuisine and the business naturally; his family is Greek and his father, Michael, is an owner of the Princetonian Diner on Route 1. “My father taught me how to cook, and my mother and my grandmother,” he said. “I wanted to show more of my roots — but in a modern atmosphere.”
Mr. Stamataros said that he and his chef de cuisine, Sotirios Kontos, made most dishes in-house, and those I tried were mostly ambitious and well flavored, though not uniformly well executed. I could not forgive the special of skate that exuded an ammonia smell undisguised by its monochromatic sauce and flavorings of raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, brandy and cream. I sent it back and received a sweet apology and ouzo on the house, but the experience rattled me. Also disappointing were the fish dolmades, a special that promised branzino and herbs but tasted chiefly of overcooked rice; and the nearly flavorless broccoli rabe.
Both visits began nicely with a small bowl of herbed bean spread accompanied by warm grilled pita. The carp-roe taramosalata — Mr. Stamataros makes his with potatoes, not bread — tasted agreeably of the sea. My portion of avgolemono soup contained a generous portion of moist chicken but suffered a bit from too much lemon and the slightly viscous quality of the broth. Spanakopita was well seasoned with leeks and feta, though its soft, buttery house-made country dough was a switch from the expected flaky phyllo.
The aforementioned mussels, sautéed with onions, tomatoes and peppers, then added to a broth flavored with Greek beer and garnished with bits of feta, were delicious. A side, which Mr. Stamataros calls briam pilaf, is a witty adaptation of a family recipe for stuffed peppers, with bits of peppers, zucchini, eggplant, tomato and dill amid the grains, and far more interesting than the ubiquitous white rice.
As for the other main dishes sampled, moussaka, usually an eggplant-rich dish dressed with béchamel, was light on the vegetables, heavy on the sauce and looked forlorn in its casserole dish with nothing but a napkin beneath it on the plate. The gyro platter was far more appetizing, with its generous serving of arugula salad, its hot and salty French fries and the typical beef/lamb amalgam. Grilled branzino was flavorful but overcooked.
The coffee was excellent, and the desserts, for which Mr. Stamataros seems to have a particular passion, were carefully executed; the runaway favorite was an exquisite house-made gelato flavored with ouzo and Kalamata dried figs, with a house-made yogurt with honey and almonds in second place. They almost, but not quite, made me forget that skate.
Kyma Greek Cuisine
24 East Main Street
Somerville
(908) 864-4730
kymacuisine.com
WORTH IT
THE SPACE Airy 95-seat restaurant downtown. No steps; ample space between tables.
THE CROWD Noisy and casual, with some children; servers are efficient.
THE BAR Bring your own beer or wine.
THE BILL Lunch items, $8 to $15. Dinner entrees, $14 to $35. MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover and Diners Club cards accepted.
WHAT WE LIKED Bulgur salad; grilled octopus over arugula; taramosalata; mussels in beer; country salad; roasted asparagus; rice pilaf with peppers, eggplant and tomato; lamb chops with lemon potatoes; shrimp Santorini; gyro platter; house-made gelato with ouzo and Kalamata dried figs; house-made yogurt with Greek honey and roasted almonds; Greek coffee.
IF YOU GO Open daily. Lunch: Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner: Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday noon to 9 p.m. Street parking next to and behind the restaurant, with a municipal lot nearby. Reservations recommended.
RATINGS Don’t Miss, Worth It, O.K., Don’t Bother.
Dining and Cooking