Zenon Taverna

Zenon has always been one of my favorite places in Astoria.  It impresses my on all fronts.  The food is consistently excellent, well cooked, tasty and massive portions.  The service is perfect, its a family place and they are warm and friendly throughout the meal, one reason I've enjoyed birthdays and holidays here (thanksgiving 2009).

I visited here again Friday night with friends and family, we all loved it.  Everything in these pictures was included in the Meza Meat meal (aside from the Grilled Octopus which is a must order at Zenon).

 

Here is my review of Zenon from 2009:

I've been here twice in the last week and i absolutely love this place.  Its nice inside, like someones home, friendly, clean, busy, but the tables are far enough apart so your not on top of the next table as you might be in Manhattan.  You can take your time here, they wont rush you out at all, in fact, its slow food, as its excellent.  The wait staff is very friendly, knowledgeable about the food and attentive.  The prices are very good for huge portions.

The food is the best part, huge portions of perfectly cooked/prepared Greek food.  Excellent flavors, and textures, everything was fresh, nothing was disliked at all.  The first time we went to Zenon was on Thanksgiving for their thanksgiving meal.  Not your average thanksgiving dinner.  Started with a cream of turkey soup, and as expected it had lemon in it.  Great flavors, the lemon was a perfect fit.  The stuffed grape leaves are some of the best ive ever had, sweet and salty filled with i believe pork and other things.  The fried pork and potato meatballs are good, but not my favorite thing here.  The turkey was moist, included some dark meat which i enjoy and was accompanied by a great rice stuffing with raisins.  Great meal and at $22.95 or so, it was a great value.

The Meze platters are what they are famous for, and reading about them here on yelp, I had to try it.  It was extra special for me because one of the best meals i've ever had was at a well known restaurant in Rhodes Greece called Ta Kioupia , where they just kept bringing plate after plate of wonderful food.  This meze platter is the closest thing i've had to that.  A huge feast of a meal for 2 or more people, choosing from either fish, meat or vegetarian options for around $20.  A tremendous amount of food and an excellent price.  Appetizers were excellent, Tahini, tzaziki, tarama, salad too was excellent, few more items too.  We had the meat option and it was a huge portion of quail, pork and more pork.  Would have been good to have a little lamb with the meal, but thats my only complaint.  Smoked pork loin was excellent, so were the grilled pork meatballs or sausages.  Grilled hallumi was excellent and salty as expected.  Best quail i've ever had, very tasty.  We did not have room for desert but we ordered it anyway, both items we had were just alright, passable to say the least.  Fill up on the meal.

Overall a wonderful meal.  Very inexpensive for what you get, tasty, cooked well, excellent selection, friendly service, perfect meal.  I'll be back soon.