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.
We’ve seen this restaurant Hamido Seafood on social media all over the place. Like many Astoria restaurants, they pride themselves in having the freshest seafood, and they are somewhat close to Taverna Kyclades down the street. We went to the original Hamido Seafood restaurant at 4 PM on a Saturday late afternoon, and we were lucky to be seated right away before the crowds came. They are located very close to the N/W train off the Ditmars train stop.
Loukoumi Taverna was recommended and suggested online for a nice Astoria Greek restaurant. Since we’re planning to be exploring Brooklyn more, we wanted to try more quintessential Astoria restaurants. We’re huge fans of the mainstream restaurants like Taverna Kyclades and Hamido Seafood, so we wanted to see what else there was to offer. This one was raved about for the food, so we took the N-train to Ditmars and walked about 10 minutes to this restaurant. We were able to walk in for 2 people at 4:30 PM on a late Saturday afternoon.
A few weeks ago, we went to Le Petit Pecheur because we were on a mission to try all the various seafood places in Astoria. Abuqir was on my list because it was highly rated for its “Egyptian” flavors, freshness, and value. All the NYC food blogs and Queens food crew for some reason feel this is a hidden find and offers good value. We went to this place around 4:00 PM on a Saturday, and there was a late afternoon crowd already.
Le Petit Pêcheur is one of the highly rated Astoria seafood places where you can pick your seafood and they will cook it for you. We’ve been to Hamido Seafood and Taverna Kyclades several times, so we’re wondering how this place stacks up. This restaurant opened nearly 1 year ago, and it has been low key on the radar. We were able to walk in without reservations around 4:30 PM on a Saturday afternoon.
Lately, we’ve been looking for budget type of restaurants outside of the main areas of Manhattan. This restaurant came at a suggestion from my partner’s friend. It’s located pretty close to us on Broadway in Astoria and fairly close to the N subway. It really is a no frills restaurant with a lot of local take out and dine-in traffic. We arrived here around 5 PM on a Sunday evening, and finding a seat for 2 people was pretty straight forward.
Whenever we go to Food Bazaar, we always frequent the area right across Northern Blvd to see what other restaurants might be decent. Some highlights around here include: [Pig Beach BBQ]({{ relref “pig-beach-bbq” }}) and SVL Souvlaki Bar. I saw that there’s this little quaint Spanish restaurant Cafe Olé even closer to the market, so we checked this place out. We were able to walk in without reservations around 3 PM on a Friday afternoon.
We tend to go to Food Bazaar on the outskirts of Long Island City often, and the easiest way to get there by train whilst having dinner options would be to exit off Steinway St in Astoria via the M/R train. This area has a mix of random restaurants ranging from national chains like Applebee’s to Mediterranean and Latin options. This restaurant is literally right across street from the subway entrance, so it was very easy to access.
We have been here before prior to the pandemic when it was a weigh by the pound buffet-style. My partner took me here once because they had been here before several times and said it was their favorite. However that one time, I didn’t really enjoy it because the meat was all overcooked, and the rest of the sides were very mediocre. They agreed with me and were surprised by how mediocre it was on that day. Years later, we decided to try it again to confirm if it was a one time mishap.
This Peruvian restaurant was also on my partner’s list of cheap eats to try. The menu was quite similar to the prior Peruvian restaurant, Caravan Chicken we went to a few weeks ago. It’s conveniently located off the Ditmars N/W train on Ditmars itself. We arrived here at 7 PM, and there was no line nor patrons inside. We were not sure what to make of this considering how much we enjoyed the last restaurant.