BZ Grill

I had been reading about BZ Grill for a while and finally decided I needed to try it. Happily, the hype is correct - they do make the best gyros in town!

At least, the best I've tried... I have great difficulty imagining that there is better in NYC. No cylinders of processed mystery meat here - there is a rotating spit of layered sliced pork right up front, alongside its fraternal twin of sliced chicken. Although good, the chicken meats tends to get just a tad dry.  The pork gyro, on the other hand is fantastic... moist, perfectly seasoned, and just enough crunchy bits to keep the texture interesting. The sandwich is great (excellent tzatziki sauce):
 

The platter - even better:

Plenty of meat, along with rice, some non-iceberg lettuce, chopped and scrupulously fresh, tomato slices, thinly-sliced red onion, a good dollop of tzatziki sauce and one of kopanisti (feta cheese spread), and toasted pita bread - well worth the 13 bucks they charge for it.

They have a good selection of souvlaki, kebabs, and other simple Greek specialties, but there are other places one can get most of those things, although quality here is assured to be good.  There is NO place else one can get gyro like this.  Open until 11 p.m. daily.

BZ Grill 
27-02 Astoria Blvd., Astoria 11102 
718-932-7858
website

Uncle George's Greek Taverna (CLOSED)

I really should make an effort to get to Astoria more. Most of the time, though, I head that direction and...keep going to Flushing. Uncle George's Greek Taverna is the first restaurant that inspired me, years ago, to periodically make the trek to Queens for dinner - the one that started it all! But I hadn't been in a while (too much regional Chinese food to explore), and then I read somewhere on the internet that it had closed. That bummed me out, but it somehow never occurred to me to doubt the information. Then someone told me that it had not, in fact, closed, and I finally remembered to have a look for myself when I was I in the neighborhood this evening. Just goes to show - don't believe everything you read on the internet!

I'll be damned if I can figure out why there seems to be so much misinformation out there about Uncle George's. I have read more bad notices of this place than any restaurant that I love that I can think of. And I have never had a bad meal here. Keep it simple and traditional, and you'll be fine. And be sure that at least one meat from the rotisserie is part of your meal. Tonight proved that their kontosouvli (pork) - my single favorite menu item here - is still as great as ever. Fourteen bucks gets you a huge portion of 12-15 chunks of beautifully seasoned spit-roasted pork, plus a side dish (their lemon potatoes are excellent).

 I brought a friend from Portugal here a few years ago who, like most Portuguese, takes good food very seriously. He took one bite of the pork and said "It was worth coming all the way from Portugal just to taste this." The arni souvlas (lamb) is almost as good.

Also not to be missed are the dolmadakia, grape leaves stuffed with rice and meat, served hot covered in an egg-lemon sauce. My favorite grape leaves anywhere. Start with some traditional cold dips for an appetizer--the traditional trio of skordalia (mashed potato and garlic), taramosalata (fish roe spread), and tzatziki (yogurt, cucumber, and garlic) is uniformly great. Not that I'm an expert, but the texture of each one seems just right (unlike those of Taverna Kyclades), and the flavors are clear and strong.

The oven-roasted leg of lamb here is also very good, and I still remember a delicious orzo cooked in the roasting juices that came with it (this was years ago) - I'm not sure if that's something they have regularly, but it's worth asking. Although I've never ordered fish here, carnivore that I am, I'm told their whole grilled fish are good and I believe it. I also hear that this is not the place to get things like gyro and souvlaki, but I can't imagine why you would with so many other stellar options on the menu.

Oh, and it's open 24 hours.  But try to go during more or less normal eating times - at off times, things can rather obviously have been sitting around and warmed up.

Uncle George's Greek Taverna
33-19 Broadway, Astoria 11106
718-626-0593
(N or Q train to Broadway, then 2 blocks east)

Taverna Kyclades

Yet another excellent meal at Taverna Kyclades this evening. Although this place is hardly a secret, at least not to the Astoria locals, somehow not all that many people seem to know about it. For Mediterranean seafood preparation it has few peers in any borough, at any price. Scrupulously fresh seafood, simply prepared is the reason to come here. Scallops are especially good--get them fried rather than broiled--as are the grilled calamari. Here, if it sounds good it probably is, although on a past visit the sole fillet stuffed with crabmeat was rather dry (I wonder if one can ask them not to broil it quite so long...). Stellar lemon potatoes. The only slight disappointment this evening was the cold antipasto, which is the usual trio of Greek dips: skordalia, taramosalata, and tzatziki. They all seemed a bit over-processed and bordered on gumminess (the dips at Uncle George's--the Astoria Greek restaurant internet foodies love to hate, though I have never had a bad meal there--have been superior on every occasion).

Still, overall the best Astoria Greek restaurant I know, and the quality/price ratio is excellent.

Taverna Kyclades
33-07 Ditmars Blvd., Astoria 11105
(718) 545-8666
http://www.tavernakyclades.com/
(N or W train to Ditmars, then a block and a half east)