Christos Steak House

I've lived a few blocks away from here for over a year now and I had no idea this place was here!  I went in and was pleasantly surprised, this was a fantastic meal!  I love all the exciting new foods I get to experience in Astoria, I've been eating lots of Moroccan, Egyptian, Spanish, and Thai in particular so my father was thrilled to hear about a good steak house in the area.  He's a meat and potatoes kinda guy, thu he has really enjoyed Brazilian, Spanish and a few other styles in Astoria.  This place exceeded all expectations.

The ambiance of the restaurant is very nice, soft lights, nice size, you're close to but not right on top of the table next to you as you would be in NYC or at either Peter Lugar locations from my experience.  I only bring up PL because so many people have compared the two.  While I did not try the porterhouse, which is the real test of how this place compares to PL, I will say the rest of the meal exceeds PL.

As mentioned by others this place is like the best steak house you can imagine, only about "1/3 cheaper then Bryant and Cooper" as my father stated.  Even more exciting is that because it is a Greek place, they deserts, apps, and sides far exceed anything at most NYC steak houses.

The meal starts with cold bread, and an olive spread.  Decent, very unappetizing looking.  For starters we had the corn chowder with lobster and orzo which was very good thu not outstanding, the lobster was small and hardly noticeable and the orzo was kinda a strange combination with the corn soup.  We also had the lamp cigars which were excellent!  Ground lamb and vegetables wrapped in filo and either lightly fried or baked, I could not tell because they were not greasy at all, they way that type of dish usually is.  Very highly recommended.  They also has sweetbread which I did not get to order but will in the future.

For the main course I had the 14 ounce (!!!) filet minion with a Roquefort topping and a red wine garlic reduction.  Very very good, strong flavors, lean meat, not as flavorful as the ribeye, but I prefer my meat lean, so this was excellent.  My father also got the filet with a béarnaise sauce.  Another excellent cut of meat, perfectly cooked, although the sauce was a bit thinner than usual and not quite as flavor full.

As side dishes we shared the lemon potatoes and the creamed spinach.  The spinach was excellent, less of a blended item and more leaf's of spinach than PL does, which I really enjoyed.  The lemon potatoes were the only thing we did not like.  They were not very lemony and actually very very spicy, too much pepper I think.

Dessert was a real treat... I had the best Greek yogurt I've had since, well, my time in Greece!  Sheep's milk yogurt with honey, walnuts and quince.  Absolutely to die for!  Rich and creamy and worth the trip back is only for this one item!

Overall wonderful meal, friendly knowledgeable staff, nice location and vibe.  Highly recommended!

Telly's Taverna

This place is very loud and the staff is overwhelmed. Its a huge place, with few waitresses.  Hard to get anything at all, although they were all very nice when they did stop at our table.  They moved us twice during the meal, first when we sat down they moved us after a few minutes to the back where it was quieter.  Then before we were done they moved us to another small table in the middle of the room, kinda annoying.

The actual food was good to great, but took a while to get to us. Just like a few other Greek fish places in Astoria we were able to walk over to the grill and ask what was fresh and recommended.  I always like that, when i can see the fish up close and know its fresh and when i ask they give me an honest opinion.

The bread tasted fresh out of the oven, very hot and toasted on one side, so i'm assuming they actually grilled it for a minutes or so.  The sea bass was excellent, slighly charred on the outside, which i actually loved, its not often that i eat the skin but this was crispy and tasty.  Very fresh, great simple grilled fish.  The waitress removed the fish from the bone which is always a nice touch.  Came with excellent lemon potatoes, very starchy, particularly tasty, but arrived a good 10 minutes after the fish.  My father had the lamb  chops, nice sized portion, you get 4, decent sized chops.  He did not think they were great, but i enjoyed them very much.

Saganaki for starters was good but the batter was falling off and slightly burnt on the bottom, not quite the stuff i had in Greece, nor in other places in Astoria.  The grilled sausage was excellent, enjoyed by all. Complimentary desert really good, hot out of the oil balls of dough that reminded my of zepoli but with honey and cinnamon.  We devoured it!

Many of the Greek fish places in Astoria are similar, this one is not bad at all, the food was very good, but it is very loud, and its hard to get a hold of the waitress, still recommended, and enjoyed.