Sabry's

So glad i took the 10 minute walk here from my house, absolutely loved this meal, as did my company.  We sat outside, perfect summer evening, not to humid, not to hot.  Great relaxing atmosphere, great attentive service, friendly and calm.  We could have sat there all night if we wanted to, that's the impression i got.  The food was outstanding, simple, and excellent.  The Tahini was excellent and the Babaganoush was the best i've ever had!  Served with excellent toasted thick round bread.  I like these dips so much i ended up ordering more to take home.  We also had the grilled octopus which was excellent and very fresh.   The shrimp soup was spicy and packed with shrimp in a great broth.  For the main course we had the Branzino which was as expected excellent.  Perfectly cooked, slightly crispy skin, great garlic and oil sauce, just a perfect dish.  Even with the extra 2 appetizers to go, we spent about $65 for all this food, fantastic value, and makes this place a must visit.

Astoria Diner (Closed)

I have eaten here once.... And ordered from here about 100 times!

I live this dinner.  I would give it 4 stars, but its just a diner.  Almost nothing they do is excellent, but nothing is ever bad.  Fast service, very friendly people taking orders, large portions and cheap prices, basically its your typical dinner.

One thing you have to try is the large fried shrimp as an appetizer, its amazing.  Excellent large shrimp, really good portion and well cooked always, worth the price.   They seem to always have cream of turkey soup, which is alright, a bit bland, but the red peppers in it add a nice touch.  The french onion soup is very good, and the matzah ball is ok.   The turkey burgers are good, standard.  The burgers are better then usual dinner burgers, i really enjoy them.  Panini's are great, good bread.  The crazy fries, like the Disco fries or the lord of the (onion) rings are good but arrive soggy most of the time, those may only be good for eat in, avoid smothered fries for take out.  Shakes are fun, the Elvis shake with bananas and peanut butter and chocolate... yea its great.  The baklava is usually very fresh and excellent, this being Astoria i would expect no less.  Salads are great, fresh quality ingredients.  I usually order a turkey sandwich of some sort, its always lean.  Good turkey.  

24 hours, cheap, fast, and about a million items on the menu.   Love it.

El Jamon (CLOSED)

One of my favorite places in Astoria, never ever busy, closed not long after it was open, but it was amazing...


Review #1
I called up, the person on the phone was really nice and explained a few items to me, being one of my first Spanish meals.  For appetizers or Caciones we had the Datil (Dates stuffed with almonds and wrapped with bacon), this was incredible.   Really rich, and layers of texture.  The outside bacon was perfectly crispy, the date was soft and juicy and the almond was a nice crunch to finish it off.  Really unique flavors, excellent appetizer.

The Queso Frito De Cabra (Fried  Goat cheese with honey and Sweet onion) was also very good.  It amazes me how many countries have a fried cheese dish... This was great, i like the combination of honey and cheese.  It was not greasy at all either.  Although we did not order it, in our bag was something that might have been the Patatas Bravas, (Fried Potatoes with spicy sauce)... Although it was more like sweat potato and there was no spicy sauce.  This was very rich, kinda heavy, but not greasy, good stuff.

We skipped on main courses and instead got 3 Tostas (toasts).  I really did not know what to expect, they were offering expensive ingredients for cheap.  I was really impresed with what arrived.  Each  order was 3 peices of bread with topings... We had Hogaza De lomo (Melted Manchego Cheese topped with grilled marrinated pork loin and piquillo pepper).  The meat was very lean, flavorful and jucy.  The Pechuga De patp (Grilled Sliced duck breast with a balsamic vinegar and shallots soy sauce) was excellent, the duck was cooked well, and it was a generous portion on each piece of toast.  I like soy sauce in dishes outside of asian cuisine, it made this dish really stand out, compaired to the other flavors.  This was my favorite of the three.  The last one was also very good thu, Gambas al ajo blanco (shrimp sautee with scallions and almond puree).  No suprise here, a very nice portion of small juicy shrimp.  This one was the lighest on flavor, but still very good, maybe some lemon would have helped.  The bread used for the toast was excellent, very fresh.

Most of the food was inexpensive, the Tostas were $6-7 each, the dates were only $5, the fried goat cheese was expensive at $8.  I want to sit down for dinner and check it out, the pictures on the website look nice. Highly recomended at least for delivery/takeout!

Review #2:
Since writing my first review, i've ordered take out 3 times as well as visited the restaurant for a sit down meal.  I cant speak highly enough of this place.  First off its owner is a very nice person who is a great host.  I brought my father here who is very picky and he described the food as "phenomenal", which is rare for him.

Beside what i have previously mentioned, i've tried many other things.  The shrimp with garlic app is small perfectly cooked shrimp that arrives at your table in what i would describe as an oil bath! its bubbling hot and very garlicky when it arrives at your table, nice presentation.  The lentil soup is the best i've EVER had, its smokey and meaty due to the churizo they added.  For only about $11 we had a half chicken with crispy potatoes and what i believe was broccoli rabe, fantastic juicy chicken for cheap.

Kabab Café

 
After hearing so much about this place, and since i live walking distance i had to try it.  This was not just a meal, it was an experience.  Knowing it was small and imagining it would be busy, my fiance and I arrived at about 6:30 which is early for us.  We dined for about 2 hours, gotta expect a long meal here, Ali takes his time, as he should, this is slow food.   When we arrived there was one other person getting take out, but he left and for the majority of our meal we had the place to ourselves.  When others did arrive it was clear that they were all locals who knew Ali well.

The place itself is like walking into a kitchen or a living room,  When you walk in your surrounded by amazing looking food right in front of you... and the smells!  It smelled incredible.  Such a small place with not much of an outside, i never even noticed it before.  But i'm glad i went.

Awesome meal!  We tried the sweatbread of i believe lamb, thu it might have been veal,  for the first time and loved it!  It was heavy on the salt, but rich with flavor.  The lambs cheek was good, not great, kinda this big black mushy stew with an egg in it, very strange and not appealing in appearance.  The appetizer plate with hummus and apples, falafel and a few more dips was amazing.  Not oily at all, and most dips were a bit chunky, which i enjoyed.  From where i was sitting i could watch Ali cook, it was really interesting.

After the appetizers Ali left to go to the store or something so we hung, thankfully he was back 10 minutes latter to take our dinner order.

"What are you in the mood for?  We have fish... Whole bronzini, porgies, grilled sardines, soft shell crab... meat? Lamb, goat, duck..."

No menu, which was fine as it was an experience and i imagine he is telling me whats best and fresh and recommended.

My fiance ordered the duck.  Very tasty and moist with rice and Asian broccoli, which i really enjoyed, and i generally don't enjoy that stuff very much at all.   I ordered the stuffed lamb.  It was very good but not great.  Not enough meat for me, and to many carrots, but the flavors were fantastic and the spinach was really good too.  We both enjoyed our food very much.  Had a crepe type dish with yogurt and fig jam for desert, it was fantastic, smooth, rich, hot, perfect way to end the meal.   Which was good to because we were totally stuffed!

One thing i really liked was the music, it was like i was at home! fantastic mix of jazz, drum and bass, and world music, really enjoyable to listen to for 2 hours.

Including tip we paid exactly $100, which is kinda expensive, but we ordered alot of food, 3 apps, 2 drinks, 2 entrees, and 1 dessert, so i guess $100 is not that bad.  Very memorable meal, we will return for sure.  Highly recommended for unique food and for a unique experience.  The place is so small you have to interact with the other patrons, which is kinda nice.  I'm not giving it 5 stars because the lamb and the lambs cheek were not great, but if i could give it a 4.5 i would, this is one of the most memorable places i've ever eaten in, i cant wait to go back! 

(I've been back 3 times after this first visit)