Bahari Estiatorio

As we prepare to move further away from Astoria, we’ve been on a mission to try different Astoria restaurants that are the epitome of Astoria. The next one on our list is Bahari Estiatorio. This is conveniently located off the N/W Broadway exit, and it serves authentic, rustic Greek comfort food. The kitchen is open-air, so you can see the cooks making the food. When we arrived on Friday at around 6:30 PM, it was mildly packed, but we were able to walk in for 2 people.

Ambiance & Service

The ambiance of the restaurant was quite bustling and loud. They don’t have music on, but it was packed full of people. Every table was occupied except for a table for 2 people. Generally, it felt like a very family, neighborhood type of restaurant.

The service was very quick on everything, and the wait staff were very friendly.

Food

The complimentary bread was served room temperature and tasted like something you’d buy at the market.

The Kyra Pikilia (medium $17) came with an assortment of traditional spreads starting at 12:00 going clockwise:

• skordalia - whipped potato spread with garlic & olive oil. This is similar to Zankou’s in Los Angeles, where it’s just very garlicky but delicious.
• tyrokafteri - spicy whipped feta spread. I didn’t feel any spice to this, but the feta flavors were very prominent and not salty.
• tzatziki - Greek yogurt spread with chopped cucumber & minced garlic. This one had a very beautiful balance of fresh and crisp.
• taramosalata - whipped fish roe & potato spread. This one was the most “wet” spread. It felt like it was heavily pureed, so it was more silky than chunky.
• melitzanosalata - whipped roasted eggplant spread with garlic, herbs, and olive oil. This was our least favorite, even though it was good. It had the roasted flavors to it, and whatever spices they used were quite prominent.

Overall, my personal favorites were the skordalia and tzatziki.

The pita bread came on the side with this, and it was warm and toasted.

The Costa Lazaridi ‘Amethystos Fume’ ($15) was a Greek white wine using sauvignon blanc and assyrtiko grapes. This was a bright sauvignon blanc with some apple, cedar, and warm spice aromas. It felt somewhat juicy, with a bit of acidity to it. It paired fine with the seafood I was eating tonight.

The Oktapodi Scharas ($28.75) was octopus, grilled and dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar. The octopus was very tender, and it was one of the best we’ve eaten in Astoria.

The Galeos ($19.50) was grilled baby shark with skordalia. The portion sizing for this was smaller than expected, but it was pretty good. The meat was not too dry, and it had nice grilled flavors. It came with some skordalia to give it some more garlicky flavors and starchy textures, since the fish itself wasn’t seasoned much. The way they cut the baby shark was across the vertically into the spine, so as you’re eating the fish, the spinal bone is in the center. Meat wise, it’s not as much as what we had at Taverna Kyclades.

The Garides Scharas ($33.50) was grilled prawns with lemon and olive oil. The shell is edible, and the flavors of the prawn were surprisingly good. Like the shark, it wasn’t seasoned much, but you can use lemon to give it some acidity.

The lemon potatoes was a side that came with one of our 2 above entrees. Similarly to other Greek places, this had plenty of lemon flavors in it.

The rice was not much different than other rice preparations we’ve received from Greek places. The rice definitely was on the mushier than al-dente side.

The complimentary Greek Semolina Halvah came with semolina, cinnamon, and ground cloves. The texture of it was soft, but similar to a starch heavy cake. It wasn’t too sweet, and it tasted pretty rustic.

Overall Impression

Bahari Estiatorio was actually one of the more delicious Greek restaurants we’ve been to. The one standout course for us was the octopus because it was very tender. The other foods were all pretty good, and yuo can’t really go wrong with this place for the price. If you don’t care about picking the fish on the ice bath, I think this restaurant is a good affordable alternative to the other Greek places.

Yelp & Google Jabs

The food was ok/good but the service was deplorable. The server took his time to take our order and never even returned to check in or ask if we needed anything else.

With all the table turning and servers running around, you don’t need to stick to one server. The restaurant has a neighborhood-vibe, so they will help each other out.

But the servers shouldn’t work in hospitality. servers had a communication style that felt rude to me

Reading through the Yelper reviews, it felt that many Yelpists have some difficulties with the direct communication style that the servers do. I think if you take this was a grain of salt, you will find the restaurant to be just fine.

Revisions

1. May 22, 2026 - Initial revision.