taverna kyclades: greek feast in astoria, ny

sincere salmon and her boyfriend took us to this amazing greek place in astoria called taverna kyclades. it was by far the best greek food i've ever had. i'm drooling just looking at these pictures again. there are really no words to describe this; the photos should say it all.


we arrived on a saturday afternoon and had to wait about half an hour for our table. so when we were finally seated, we were of course all starving. this warm, toasty crusty bread welcomed us.


greek salad. fresh feta, tomatoes, olive oil, onions. seasoned perfectly.


this is the sampler appetizer plate. from left to right: skordalia, tzatziki, taramosolata. sometimes taramosolata can be really fishy and overwhelming, but theirs was just right.


i am a huge potato fan. naturally, this is my absolute favorite greek appetizer/side. the traditional roasted potatoes with lemon - i have to get these everytime. taverna's was very very lemony/tangy, and i really liked that. they were perfectly roasted and really soft; i couldn't stop eating these.


spanakopita/spinach pie. what else is there to say?? feta + spinach + filo dough + olive oil = amazing flavors.


sincere salmon had the scallops. this was very buttery and overwhelming, because i think there were seriously 50 huge scallops on her plate. we couldn't finish these.


sincere salmon's bf's lamp chops! mm. i had a little taste. very yummy.


ok, so to this day i cannot stop talking about this fish, because it made me feel really special. i love the style that the fish is typically cooked in: really clean and simple with a good dose of olive oil. i was probably pretty annoying because i asked the server to tell me all the fish they had that day and interrogated her on each fish (with destructor interjecting everytime and asking, "so is that a big fish?" because he was a hungry monster), and when she said "brazzini - a white fish from the greek isles," i was sold. why have some pedestrian snapper when you can have a fish from the greek isles?? i forgot to take a picture of it before they de-boned it for me. it was a beautiful longish skinnyish fish, but still very substantial. i loved this fish: it was such a good choice.



dandelion. actually not very good. kind of bland, bitter, unseasoned and blah! but it's okay - we had to try it.

destructor ordered the grilled quail. their portions are huge. i think there were 3 quail on his plate! isn't this picture kind of creepy?

this is the dessert the restaurant gives you at the end of your meal. so delicious, i ate all of it even though i was stuffed. it was some sort of rice pudding wrapped in a blanket of sweet doughyness.

greek dessert from sincere salmon: she bought this at the bakery down the street for us to consume after lunch!