A Beguiling Greek Spot for Groups on a Budget

Astoria remains the city’s best neighborhood for Greek food and seafood, especially great for groups dining on a budget.

By my count, there are still around 30 Greek restaurants in Astoria, a number that has dwindled over the years. Trying to keep track of them — which ones are still good, which ones never were — could be a time-consuming task, but I have my handful of favorites that I check on from time to time. The seafood-heavy menus often feature local fish expertly prepared, and the prices have remained low by today’s standards. Where else can you get a whole black sea bass cooked over charcoal for $26?

A longtime favorite, Agnanti from Maria Lambrianidis and Spiro Sidorakis, is located across the street from Astoria Park, a green meadow under the Triborough Bridge that slopes down to the East River. Situated at 19-06 Ditmars Boulevard, at 19th Street, the corner restaurant is a nine-block hike or bus ride from the last stop on the N train, but parking is relatively easy if you can commandeer a car.

The place has a dining room with that antique taverna feel, and a glassed-in dining area adjacent that opens to the sky; there are few cityscapes so serene for dining in the evening. Inside the main room, Greek movie stills and painted pottery hang along rustic white walls with plenty of arching brickwork. Sound-damping tiles flank the ceiling, a modern touch that guarantees a noise level low enough to have a conversation. Greek is still the first language of many patrons.

If you’re a semi-regular to just about any of the city’s Greek restaurants, you likely know what you should order before taking a seat: First, there’s a Greek salad ($17), lightly dressed with pungent olive oil and a splash of wine vinegar. Lettuce is omitted in favor of crunchy cukes, decent tomatoes, creamy feta, and a sprinkle of dried Greek oregano. Yes, the red onions are sweet enough to eat.

Next marches in the dip plate ($30) with warm pitas: taramosalata tinted orange with roe; tzatziki with an equal measure of shredded cucumbers and yogurt; the spicy cheese spread from Thrace called tyrokafteri; and my favorite, skordalia — potatoes mashed with enough raw garlic to take the enamel off your teeth, here amplified with almonds.

Agnanti is one of the few Greek restaurants that offers a handful of Turkish dishes from the now-exiled Greek community of Istanbul, who once numbered 300,00 but are now reduced to 2,000 or so. We picked a delightfully crunchy and squishy rendition of the cheese-filled tubular pastries sigara bourek ($13), and there’s also yogurt kebabs ($17) and kefte ($14). Other notable apps we skipped this time, included loukaniko, a pork sausage dotted with orange peel, and flattened zucchini croquettes.

When it comes to mains, chances are, you’re here for the fish. Here, the smaller ones get lightly breaded and fried, while the larger and more impressive ones are grilled over charcoal. We had the black sea bass, with the coarse, white, smoky flesh that pulled easily away from the large bones (if you prefer, a server can do it for you). We also got a plate of fried whiting (four for $17), so fresh they might have jumped onto the plate.

A companion who prefers meat to fish ordered the beef bourek ($17), another Greek-Turkish specialty that featured seasoned meat and rice between layers of crisp filo; we all demanded bites it was so good. Main courses come with a choice of lemon potatoes or Greek French fries sprinkled with dried cheese. Both are excellent, so if you go with a group arrange to have both.

We washed the meal down with the tourist favorite retsina, a white wine that tastes vaguely of tree sap — or maybe burning creosote. At $18 for a half-liter bottle, it’s a bargain. All sorts of other Greek wines are available.

Another delightful feature of Agnanti — besides the sound level that allows for conversation, inexpensive fish, and liberal use of garlic — is the free dessert which arrives at the end of a meal. In our case, it was cinnamon-dusted, semolina-based halva politiko, and some squares filled with nuts topped with powdered sugar. We also had cups of Greek coffee sweetened with sugar, as an aid to navigating our way out of a neighborhood to which we will soon return — now that we know how great Agnanti remains.