Astoria Seafood
Seafood restaurant · Long Island City ·
Pick your fresh catch, pick your prep, BYOB, enjoy
Pick your fresh catch, pick your prep, BYOB, enjoy
"Astoria’s most popular BYOB institution is also our top choice for eating platter after platter of seafood with a big group of people. The Greek restaurant is always buzzing with birthday parties and family gatherings, so you should always check before you put your bag on a chair, because there could be a baby sleeping soundly on it while her parents work their way through their branzino. You should also always over-order—and stay late if you can for the last hurrah, when they turn the music up, and groups of uncles wave their paper napkins around as they finish up their last six pack." - willa moore, will hartman, sonal shah
"Astoria Seafood is always busy, but it’s still our top choice for a pick-your-own-seafood party in Astoria. From open to close, the fluorescent-lit, cafeteria-like room buzzes with BYOB birthdays, three-generation family gatherings, and people making casual meals out of round after round of fried, blackened, and grilled seafood. The family-run Greek restaurant started as a wholesale fish company and retail market in 1993, before opening a sit-down spot in 2012. We’d call it a New York City rite of passage, similar to eating a slice of pizza standing on the sidewalk. photo credit: Alex Staniloff photo credit: Alex Staniloff photo credit: Alex Staniloff photo credit: Alex Staniloff photo credit: Alex Staniloff Pause Unmute The undisputed best part of a meal here is right at the beginning, when you and your friends slip plastic bags over your hands and grab whole red snappers, fistfuls of sardines, and debate the number of scallops you need. Continue until you have amassed an amount of seafood that might shock you, but will never shock the person behind the counter. After that, a gruff but effective server helps you find a table under a blue ceiling with sea creatures painted on it. You might sit next to a baby, sleeping soundly on a chair while her parents work through a plate of grilled shrimp. If you stay late enough, you’ll get to be there for the last hurrah, when they turn the music up, and groups of uncles finishing up their last six-packs wave paper napkins around as a closing salute. Food Rundown Free Bread Don’t eat it all at once. You’ll need it to sop up all the lemony sauce under the scallops, and the garlicky olive oil surrounding the blackened fish. Greek Salad Industrial-sized bowls of Greek salad sitting behind the counter get constantly replenished and retossed, so that the feta crumbles into an almost-dressing. A nice place to start before eating the ocean. Blackened Fish You have to eat a whole fish at Astoria Seafood, and you should order it blackened and smoky, with a mess of fried garlic on top and a respectable glug of olive oil. It'll come out towards the end, when you're not sure you could ever ingest another type of seafood. But you'll make room. photo credit: Alex Staniloff Fried Sardines The bar snack of seafood. If you're here with a group, get a handful of them. Sautéed Scallops Amidst all your fried and blackened items, these delicate scallops are just about perfect, and your fork will slide through them like butter. Fried Shrimp The fried shrimp have a breading so thick you almost can't taste what's inside it. We'd skip, or opt for the grilled shrimp with textbook grill marks. photo credit: Alex Staniloff Fried Squid This is the fried item you should kick things off with. Squeeze lots of lemon over it and then eat as it soaks into the craggy crust. Octopus Octopus is the only thing you don't pick yourself. When they're tallying up all your seafood at the end, they'll ask if you want any grilled octopus, which is sold by the tentacle. The answer is yes." - Willa Moore
"Astoria Seafood combines a BYOB experience with the thrills of grocery shopping. In the back of the cafeteria-like room, you’ll find displays of sea bass, shrimp, squid, and more arranged over ice. Choose what you want—six sardines and a branzino, for example—then bag it yourself, and tell the kitchen how you’d like it cooked (grilled is never a bad idea). To supplement, there are also some Greek sides available, like spanakopita and lemon potatoes." - bryan kim, willa moore, molly fitzpatrick, will hartman
"Astoria Seafood is a seafood market that happens to have a grill and a bunch of tables where you can sit and eat. Pick what you want from the display of fish, hand it to the staff, and tell them how you’d like it cooked (grilled, fried, baked, etc.). This is a fun spot, and you’ll spend less than you do on seafood elsewhere. Be aware that you might have to wait for your table." - molly fitzpatrick, bryan kim, willa moore, will hartman, sonal shah
"If you want dinner to feel like an activity but you don’t want to go to one of those places where you paint while you eat because you’re afraid that your art won’t be appreciated in your lifetime, go to Astoria Seafood. Part fish market, part restaurant, this place is an interactive experience where you choose your food from a seafood display then tell the kitchen how you’d like it cooked. Want exactly eight grilled shrimp, three squid, and one fried snapper? Not a problem. Don’t forget to BYOB, and be sure to show up early to avoid waiting for a table." - willa moore, sonal shah, bryan kim, will hartman