This French restaurant is located at the southern part of Vernon Blvd right across the street from Cafe Henri. We were able to walk in without reservations. The interior is quite cozy in this COVID environment as it has this very French (Paris) cafe feel to it. Each table was separated by a plastic wall. Be warned though that this place only accepts cash or AMEX. More on that later, so onto the food…
Pio Pio actually has several stores in the greater New York City. This one is number 8 and is located in Manhattan a few blocks north of Hudson Yards. Remember that the COVID protocols are still applicable. When we walked in, we were seated in an alcove to the left before the stairs that led down to a larger open space dining room. This alcove was pretty nice and it seemed to be catered for parties of 2. The lights were dimmer here for more intimacy.
Even though there had been a large number of Asian restaurants in the Long Island City and Astoria vicinity, vietnamese restaurants are still fairly limited. I was kind of craving for some pho since it’s been a few years, and this one was within walkable distance. The city recently allowed 25% dine in, and the reviews for this restaurant seemed fairly decent. The interior was decorated pretty homely, and the tables were spaced decently apart with screen separators. Let’s move on to the food.
We were stoked that New York City has reopened indoor dining albeit @ 25% capacity. Yeah, some people say it’s not safe, but they are usually the same people that go visit their friends and family. The restaurants, believe it or not, do an excellent job sanitizing and giving space to diners and each other. Today was Valentine’s Day, and they had a few prixe menu options. We ended up going with Cupid’s Arrow Menu which we shared and was just a tasting of many of their items on the menu.
For New Year’s Eve, we were fortunate to book this restaurant in Midtown East at the very last minute. This was always on our list since outdoor dining was a thing as the pictures of its settings looked quite appealing. Most tables have their own electric heater that sat directly above the table, so it wasn’t too cold compared to other places. For what it’s worth, it was in the high 30s with some wind chills. We did dress warmer just in case though.
For this very special occasion, I had originally made a reservation for indoor dining at a Michelin restaurant. Unfortunately earlier this month, the governor and mayor disallowed indoor dining, so restaurants can only do outdoor dining for take out. This lovely night turned out to be around 31 degrees F (feels like 25F). They did set up heaters near each table, but it barely helps with the nasty wind chills. Despite this frigid day, let’s checkout the food we ordered.
Astoria has a lot of Mediterranean restaurants and is seldom appealing for its Asian food. However, in the last few months prior the pandemic, there have been several Korean and Chinese/Taiwanese restaurants that were opening, so it’s starting to make a presence. We’ve walked by this neighborhood Japanese sushi joint several times and were surprised about how low key it is. After looking at the menu, we decided to give it a try.
As we enter the end of the year and NYC indoor dining is forced to be shutdown due to a COVID uptick, we wanted to get some last fixin with Korean BBQ. Even though we have tried many of the major Korean BBQ restaurants near Koreatown already, this is one of the few remaining ones to try. When we visited, they check your temperature and had glass dividers between tables. We were fortunate to be seated in a little cubby hole meant for a party of 6-8.
You know what’s one of the great things about Astoria? It’s the excellent Greek seafood restaurants that are within walking distances of each other. We had been to Taverna Kyclades before, but it’s been a while since we’ve dined at their competitors. This was a restaurant that was within walking distance from our Food Bazaar trek on the way back home, so we thought to stop by and give this a try.
To the outside world, the pandemic is wreaking havoc like wildfire. However for me personally, the only difference is that people are much more careful about cleanliness. In North Williamsburg, the brunch hipster spots are still thriving, and as you can imagine are very meticulous to avoid any type of spread.
Cafe Mogador has been one of those frequent brunch places that many flock to for weekend brunch. This is not the first time I’ve been here as I’ve always been neutral, but at least this time, I’ve taken pictures of some of the food.