Sac's Place

 Had a wonderful filling meal here recently with family, we all enjoyed the food tremendously as well as the service and ambiance.  I like the look of the place, the wooden tables appear to be made from the wine cases, very slick tables, great reminder of Italy.  The place is well staffed and friendly.  The vibe is relaxed, great neighborhood place.  It also smells good and is quite warm from the pizza ovens.

The meal started with fresh bread of the oven, great crisp bread with a dash of tomato.  I would have preferred Olive Oil instead of butter to dip, but we loved this as a start.  For an appetizer we shared the Fried Artichokes.  I was glad to see that they were not deep fried as it would have been too oily, although the version they served was not exactly light.  Very well seasoned tender strips of artichoke in oil, memorable dish, recommended for sure.  It was however a bit expansive and not a large portion for $12.  The pasta fagioli was decent, not memorable and under salted but not bad at all, the table enjoyed it.  The linguini inside the soup maintained some of its texture, it had not boiled to mush in the soup as sometimes happens.

For entrees we enjoyed them as much as the start of the meal.  The Fettuccini with shrimp and caramelized portabellas in alfredo sauce was excellent!  Likely the best alfredo I've ever had, it was not just a thick creamy sauce, there were subtle flavors in it, the shrimp itself had flavored the sauce too which was nice.  The caramelized portabellas were a perfect unexpected sweet component that helped to counter the rich cream sauce.  A well balanced meal with a great portion of about 7 large shrimps, great value.  The shrimp parmesan special with prosciutto was also good, the sauce was pungent and thick, enjoyed by all.  The last entrée we had was a red pepper fresh ravioli stuffed with I believe shrimp and lobster.  Another great dish, the ravioli was large and thin, well stuffed and delicious.  Memorable meal, great, simple Italian food.  I look forward to returning to try the pizza's, they looked amazing.

Chirping Chicken

Most of this food is not good at all.  Under-seasoned, overcooked, bland food.  I've had the ribs, which were alright, not a lot of meat, on the small side, boring ribs.  The fried shrimp were terrible, don't order these.  For the sides it was all terrible.  The corn was extremely overcooked, actually i bet it was swimming in a warm bath for the majority of the day by the time they sent it over to me.  The rice was very bland, even for rice!  Mac and cheese, well you can guess, soft mushy pasta with a bland cheese sauce, same for the lemon potatoes, which although boring were the best of the sides i tried.  Overall, not a good value at all, and terrible quality.

Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company

As far as bagels go, this place is about as good as it gets.  Huge fresh bagels cooked the traditional way (boil first, then bake).  Great selection of cream cheeses and other goodies.  Fresh orange juice, great coffee, nice service.  They pile on the toppings so much, that it feels like an order of cream cheese with a slight topping of bagel!  Too much for me, so i usually ask for just a smear.  They even deliver which i appreciate on Sunday mornings.  Highly recommended for a huge NYC bagel.

El Mariachi Restaurant

My favorite Mexican place in Astoria, I would give this a 3.5 were it possible, but I'm always so satisfied that I'll bump it up to a 4.  The food is very good, taste fresh, huge portions and its cheap!  I've ordered in from this place a few times, but have yet to eat in the restaurant so this review is mainly about the food.

I really enjoy the tacos.  Queso is excellent, its grilled white cheese, i usually get it with guacamole.  Its a nice size taco with tons of flavor for 2.50.  The carnitas is very good.  Its lean, cooked well and tasty.  The rice and beans are very good, standard.  I've had the green and red tamales, they are excellent and taste fresh, with lean chicken or pork inside.  The nachos are standard, very good, and the chips were not stale, which is the norm when I get mexican in Astoria.  What we usually order are the Tortas.  They are HUGE, excellent value for $6-$7.  I enjoy the Piernas Torta, the spicy pork leg is very good.  Excellent sandwiches, big enough to have 1/2 for lunch and 1/2 for dinner.  Their fried shrimp is a dish I like very much, they use large shrimp, fried well in I believe breadcrumbs until crispy. 

If you are thirsty they have an excellent Mexican hot chocolate!  Its warm and perfectly seasoned, really unique hit sweet drink.  They also carry large bottles of Jaritos, Tamarindo is my favorite.  They are very nice over the phone and the food arrives very fast.  Huge portions and cheap prices, highly recommended for delivery!

Nuevo Jardin De China Restaurant

Good Chinese food, decent Cuban style food, not much mix.  I guess i expected more of a mash between the two styles, instead either one or the other, not really fusion.  Still good food overall.  Better than the usual Chinese food in Astoria.

The meal started with hot bread which is certainly not usual.  We started with the fried dumplings.  Not enough meat, all breading, thu it tasted good.  The Yat Gaw Mein Roast Pork was my favorite item of the night, the port was very tender, lean and tasty.  The broth was simple, a tad salty, but good.  The Corn Chicken soup was decent, also a bit bland.  For entrees, the Shrimp and salmon were not very good.  Both overcooked, bland and not as fresh as they should have been.  The General Tso's chicken was good, typical.  The Arroz con Pollo con Jamon was not very good.  Bland, boring.   The platanos were exactly the same way you would get anywhere, they gets points for that.

The service is good, they are nice and attentive.  They make good mix drinks, surprisingly.  The prices are a bit high for food of this quality.  Recommended if you love Chinese food.  If not, its not really worth it.

Ristorante Ponticello

I had a very nice meal here, but it was very expensive.  The food was very good although nothing was excellent.  I ate here on a Wednesday night with 3 family members, the place was busy.  Nice looking restaurant, very high ceilings, mirrors all around.

The meal started with cold bread and butter.  Kinda strange not to be offered olive oil.  I don't think i had butter once in the 3 months I lived in Italy, to be fair this was northern Italian and i lived in southern Italy, so for all i know this is typical, although I doubt it.  I ordered the Stuffed Avocado with Crab, it was good.  Crab was good quality canned crab, on a 1/2 avocado with some onions, red peper and lemon.

Others at the table ordered the Lobster Ravioli, which was a very small portion even some a heavy dish, there were only 3 ravioli's.  My fiance had the Eggplant Rolatini, which she liked very much, but it was not actually rolled it was more like eggplant parm.  The table also had the Pasta Vongolette, it was very good, huge portion of small New Zealand clams.

For the main course i had the Stripped Bass with a light tomato and Onion sauce and polenta.  This would have been great if the fish was better, it was not as fresh as i would have liked.  Good but not great dish.  The polenta was a huge disappointment, because i was expecting the traditional version, and instead it was more like polenta cakes, still good but not the best way to enjoy polenta in my opinion.  My father had the Chicken and Filet Minion combination, you would have thought he died and went to heaven.  He loved the meat, very nice size piece of filet with surprisingly a marsala sauce that worked real well.  The chicken turned out to be fransais, well done.  The Swiss Chard potatoes were very good and something i've never seen before.

4 people had apps, entrees, desert and a drink each and the bill came to a little over $200.  The service was  very good and they were very accommodating turning entrees into apps and vice versa.  I would not go out of my way for this place, but if your in the area its worth a visit.

Pollos A La Brasa Mario - 5/13/2008

The chicken is really amazing.  When they are done cooking it, instead of keeping the chicken under hot lights to maintain temperature, they keep the chicken in some kinda steamer.  The result is a very moist chicken.  Lots of flavor.  One of the best chickens i've ever had.  The yuka fried are great also, much better and less greasy than regular french fries.  I don't enjoy the soups or the rice porridge at all, but the yellow rice is very flavorful and moist.  I recommend this place for take out, i doubt i will ever cook a full chicken again, when this is about the same price and much better than what my oven could do.  Corner of 41st Street and Broadway in Astoria, 24 hours a day on the weekends.