Greek restaurant Symi opens in Northport 

It wasn’t so long ago that Long Island entrees broke the $40 threshold, but you get your money’s worth at Symi, the chic new Greek restaurant in Northport: The $40 fagri (Mediterranean pink snapper) is masterfully grilled — a little char on the skin, the flesh just past the threshold of opacity — then showered with capers and served with good olive oil and a halved lemon.

Any ambitious Greek eatery requires a display of raw fish on ice and a kitchen capable of grilling everything from branzino and snapper to giant shrimp to octopus. Symi fits these bills, and many more: The menu features five whole fish, Greek salads, saganaki, keftedes (meatballs) lamb chops, fried paper-thin slices of eggplant and zucchini and more classics. The elegant décor is Mediterranean-island cool and, as the night progresses, the capacious bar is the place to be.

If this description puts you in mind of Kyma in Roslyn, you’re getting the picture. Symi is owned by Irena Angeliades and her partner, Michael Wieczorek. Angeliades’s father, Mike Angeliades, is a founding partner at Kyma in Roslyn as well as at its two offshoots in Manhattan and an upcoming location in West Palm Beach, Florida. “Symi,” Angeliades explained, is the island where her father was born. “It’s my favorite place on earth,” she said, “and the name honors my father.”

Symi’s kitchen is under the command of two chefs. Chris Kletsidis was, until he retired a few years ago, the executive chef at Kyma and most of the menu’s traditional items are made with his recipes. Angeliades said she lured Kletsidis out of retirement by promising that much of the kitchen management would be shouldered by another chef, George Lambracos, whom she had met when he was cooking in Manhattan. “George’s food is a little more trendy,” she said. “He is the one who introduced our caviar service [$115], our lobster pasta, the beef tartare with black truffle and bone marrow, the tuna tartare with avocado, seaweed ‘pearls’ and edible gold leaf.”

Excluding the caviar, most of Symi’s starters are in the $18 to $28 range. And, excluding the lobster pasta ($68), extra-colossal Madagascar shrimp ($58) and prime steaks, most mains top out at $40.

The restaurant takes over the Fort Salonga Road location that was Vespa Italian Steakhouse until last year. Angeliades, whose day job is construction, undertook a renovation that divides the space into distinct sectors — a bar area surrounded an elevated area that she calls “the mezzanine.” Two more dining rooms can be closed off — individually or in tandem — for private parties. In the two weeks since it opened, she said, it seems to be appealing to a diverse group of diners. There’s a quiet lunch and early dinner for locals and their families. The vibe becomes more energetic as the night goes on. There’s a DJ on Thursday nights and, on weekend nights, bottle service is available at tables on the “mezzanine.” All told, Symi seats about 200 and about 30 more seats will soon be added outside.

Symi, 843 Fort Salonga Rd., Northport, 631-380-3252, symirestaurant.com. Open Sunday to Wednesday noon to 9 p.m., Thursday noon to 1 a.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 10 p.m. Closed on Monday.