ELO (The Restaurant, Not the Band)

ELO is a lot like a Jewish grandmother.  A little gaudy with the accessories but never boring and always eager to feed you.  With every wall covered in undulating mosaics, the restaurant's patrons will never want for distractions.  With the low prices at this 31st Avenue joint, diners are treated to an exceptionally cheap brunch with plenty of selection for the hungover contingent.  The facility itself is rather beautiful with an expansive bar and an attentive waitstaff.  

 The lamb burger is truly a masterful creation with quality meat and delectable seasoning.  It's surprisingly sweet and melts into the Tzatiki sauce's chilly cream without much prodding.  Rivaled only by Sparrow's bifteki, the spices of ELO's lamb patty will keep you coming back for seconds.  Unfortunately, the pesto-encrusted chicken offering is less than stellar and serves as a cautionary tale for any eatery that thinks dribbling sauce on a piece of meat constitutes some form of preparation.  Here, the poultry is merely slathered in a pesto puddle and limply stews next to two patties of dry polenta.  The desserts go a small distance in rounding out the meal and bookend a menu that infuses Greek with splashes of Italian and American cuisine.  All in all, ELO is worth the trek beyond 21st Street for brunch that won't drain your wallet and a phenomenal lamb burger or two. If you're feeling particularly lazy or just skeptical, free delivery is also available.  

INFO:
ELO
12-14 31st Avenue
718.726.4412

 

Petey's Burger: Ungodly Delicious

Forget about tweaking recipes, Petey's Burger is creating an entirely new vernacular in local burger-dom: juicy, flavorful and fresh. These are not words typically used to describe New York's legion of beef patty slingers. Goodburger serves a dry, overpriced wad of mediocrity and calls it a combo platter. Better Burger does slightly better with their respectable sliders but they'll break the bank and leave you starving for, well, a real burger.

Two brothers in Astoria have heard your rumbling stomachs and answered the call with Petey's Burger. With the same meat purveyor as Danny Meyer's famed Shake Shack, Petey's Burger may turn out to be New York City's long awaited response to the west coast's In-n-Out Burger.

The prices are low enough that if you paid for the double cheeseburger with a stack of quarters, it wouldn't reach the top of the bun. This is due to the cheap prices but also the tremendous value you get for a skyscraper of meat and fixin's. Cheese, special sauce, lettuce, tomato and thick sliced onions. Diners were observed panting/grinning after attempting, in vain, to finish their double burger combos. They're that big and that good. The fries arrive crispy and bursting from their bags, begging to tear you away from the burger-induced trance. Succumb. They're worth it.

The interior is exceedingly spotless and combines exposed-brick ruggedness with a colorful comic book motif. For diners resistant to the idea, remember that (1) it's a nostalgic throwback not a McDonald's and (2) you can't eat ambiance. But you can scarf down an ungodly delicious burger while kicking back to ESPN or people-watch the catalog of humanity as it traipses by on 30th Avenue. In another welcome change for Astoria, Petey's delivers and isn't just geared toward one crowd. As a testament to its near-universal appeal, it attracts plenty of diverse patrons: a random weekday afternoon sees college-age kids, young professionals, older men who look like extras from Cheers, neighborhood girls, and others examples of Astoria's vibrant burger-craving scene. Basically, Petey's makes exactly the kind of freshly-prepared, expertly-appointed, quality burger you'd lavish on yourself if every day were Labor Day and you had the backyard space for a Weber. Instead, you can just leave it to the professionals on 30th Ave.

INFO:
Petey's Burger
30-17 30th Avenue (at 30th street)
Official Website

Ristorante Ponticello: Where the Ghost of Marlon Brando Eats

The waitstaff is straight out of The Godfather: subtly intimidating yet paternal figures with sage menu advice. Under their tutelage, diners are directed to the impressive list of daily specials and well-appointed wine list. The baked artichoke arrives encrusted with bread crumbs and wading in a light buttery sauce. Meaty and mild, the appetizer is a good introduction to the increasingly heavy entrees. Moving on to a pasta dish, patrons will find the mushroom risotto worth lingering over. With three kinds of mushrooms including delectable porchinis, the risotto is quite substantial and is best shared between two people with bottomless pits for stomachs. The sauce is pungent and envelopes the taste buds in a delicate dance between the musk of mushroom flavors and the pasta's supple texture.

For the third course, an eye towards splitting is also recommended. Filet Mignon and chicken are offered as a single dish that arrives with the two meats separated by a single stalk of reduction-drizzled asparagus. The chicken is browned to perfection with a delicious egg-y Francese sauce that strikes an impressive balance between lemon notes, buttery taste, and white wine undertones. The Filet is the perfect, hockey puck size to enjoy its juicy tenderness. Prepared sparsely and served with minimal window dressing, the two elements make this a dish a must-eat. The prices are on the high side for a Broadway restaurant but between the front bar, piano player, and impeccable service, the premiums are more than worth it. The atmosphere is definitively upscale but never stuffy. If you're looking for a night out in Astoria to savor, Ristorante Ponticello will make you an offer you can't refuse.

INFO:
Ristorante Ponticello
4611 Broadway
(718) 278-4514

Gandhi: Ambitiously Named

30th Avenue's stalwart Indian restaurant, Gandhi, is named after the famed civil rights figure who starved his way to a just society. However, there's no need for Astorians to take the same route at this reliably good curry outpost.

On the whole, Gandhi's fare is pretty average and redefines the term "inoffensively good." Without much flair for spice or eye for seasoning, the menu items don't bound off the page but will satisfy a craving for Korma or Vindaloo should the mood strike. There are plenty of vegetarian options and the mulligatawny is delicious. The Tandoori chicken falls off the bone and the raita delivers a nice punch. Gandhi's nan is not a cut above, but offers a number of flavor options and is a tasty accompaniment to most dishes.

Gandhi's interior is an ode to rich reds and oranges with plush drapery lining the sidewalk windows. With its table clothed dining, the small setting is complimented nicely by reasonable prices and attentive service. With Seva's homemade Indian delicacies just down the street, diners may find themselves lured a block away and never look back.

INFO:
Gandhi
3414 30th Avenue
Astoria, NY 11103
(718) 956-7555

Nuevo Jardin de China: Not Worth the Trip

The first thing to strike diners at Broadway's Nuevo Jardin de China is the menu: a multi-page affair brimming with photos of soft-focus dishes, none of which look particularly appetizing. There's something slightly disconcerting about their plastic, Playskool quality on the page and, in person, there's little evidence to the contrary.

The salt content in most dishes is enough to rival the Dead Sea and threatens to overrun any actual flavor. The beef is chewy, if marginally tangy, while the veggies are oil-logged and lifeless. The chicken fried rice, a staple, is good but nothing distinguishable from the hordes of cheap Chinese take out joints lining Astoria's streets.

Nuevo Jardin de China boasts flat screen TV's in the dining area which is decorated with an eye towards warm-and-cozy instead of the sports bar crowd. This is not the only incongruous feature of the place as its menu reveals: the cuisine is not actually Latin American-Asian fusion but just a collection of dishes with bilingual descriptions. Rosetta Stone for foodies, really. The service is prompt and makes it clear that the 'China' in the restaurant's name remains the dominant culinary influence. Ultimately, the value is reasonably good and the portions are big enough to take home. You just may not want to.

INFO:
Nuevo Jardin de China
3205 Broadway
(718) 726-0819