Campus Restaurant Roundup, Summer 2008

Milto’s Mediterranean Cafe

George Milto opened Milto’s in 1977, and they were the first place in Austin to sell pizza by the slice. We’ve eaten there through the decades and driven by it probably 10,000 times, but it was only lately that we rediscovered it. Milto’s serves a mix of pizzas and checkered-tablecloth-style Italian, with a few Greek dishes thrown in for measure. You order at the counter and wait for your name to be called. Creative parking measures are called for, since the lot is small.

They have a daily special that runs in the $6 range, which seems to be popular with the UT staff and faculty folks, while students tend to lean toward the pizzas. My favorite is the souvlaki ($5.52) – grilled, marinated sirloin on pita bread with onions, tomatoes, and tzatziki sauce. The meat is tender and flavorful, the yogurt sauce is tart and garlicky, the vegetables crisp, and the flat bread is amazingly good. Pair this with one of their excellent Greek salads ($3.63/7.04), and you have yourself a top-notch meal.

The salads are served in chilled bowls and come with anchovies if you like; all of the vegetables and greens are fresh and crisp, the tart dressing is assertive with herbs, and they come with Milto’s superb hot yeasty dinner rolls made from their Sicilian pizza dough.

We’ve tried the lasagna, ravioli, stromboli, eggplant parmigiana, Italian sausage cacciatore, and the pastas and loved them all. The excellent pizzas come in two different crust options: a thin, crisp Neapolitan style and a thicker Sicilian style with a crisp finish and a yeasty interior. Both are available as white or wheat flour. You can get them with pretty much any topping you can think of and can order whole pies ($8-23, depending on the size and toppings; the largest serves eight people) or by the slice (starting at $1.60). It might be hard to park here, but trust us, it’s worth the effort.

This article appears in June 6 • 2008.