NISI Greek Taverna

From The Land comes stacked with chicken, beef, and pork skewers and gyro meat over rice and potatoes; From The Sea answers with calamari fried and grilled, grilled shrimp, and breaded shrimp. The two platters at NISI Greek Taverna split the table's choice the way an island splits its larder — coast on one side, grill on the other. NISI is the Greek word for island, and that is the premise the kitchen runs on, a few steps from the water on Lakeshore Road in downtown Burlington: cook the whole taverna at once, and trust the table to assemble the meal.

The meal usually starts in the meze. Saganaki comes as pan-fried kefalotyri brightened with lemon and flamed with brandy; the calamari is fried or grilled and the octopus grilled, both with tzatziki; spanakopita folds spinach and mixed cheese into phyllo. The dips are their own course — tzatziki, hummus, roasted eggplant, and tirokafteri, the last one feta whipped with chilli and red peppers, all of it gathered into a Trio Dip served with warm pita. From there the menu moves to the grill and the oven. Souvlaki runs in chicken, pork, and beef; the gyro is house-made from beef and lamb; a house-marinated chicken fillet covers the plainer grill order; the braised lamb shank is cooked down until it gives. Moussaka layers eggplant, potato, zucchini, and ground beef under bechamel, and Solomos is a fillet of grilled Atlantic salmon for the table leaning seaward. The steak splits the difference: a ten-ounce striploin that takes optional seafood add-ons, surf and turf on one plate.