Do you like octopus? No? Well it doesn't really matter because you should order here no matter what because it was seriously one of the best octopus dishes I've had ever. In fact, everything here was top notch and incredibly authentic. I have always been a huge lover of Greek food so when Taverna Kyclades - an Astoria staple - opened up in the East Village I was all over checking it out.
The decor of the place is kind of blah but the food more than makes up for it. Everything on the menu sounded amazing - especially so if you like seafood. Nancy and I decided to split a bunch of appetizers and started with the grilled octopus ($18), spanakopita ($8), a variety of dips/spreads ($10) and a small Greek salad ($9). Our food came out literally in under 5 minutes. I'm not joking, it was kind of scary and that usually makes me question the food quality. But I guess nothing that we ordered really takes a whole lot of preparation. But it doesn't matter because everything was fantastic. The "small" Greek salad was huge and could be a full meal on its own. It had very little lettuce but TONS of red ripe beautiful wedges of tomato and a giant square of delicious feta cheese covered in olive oil. Delicious. The dips they had (the only one I really knew what it was was the Tzatziki but there were 5 different kinds) were all fabulous but extremely heavy on the garlic and salt. It's served with a plate of nice and warm pita triangles and this also could have easily been a meal on its own as well. The spanakopita was huge and delicious with a yummy mixture of spinach, leeks and feta in between flaky phylo layers. The addition of the leeks was perfection and really made it stand out as opposed to it just being spinach. But the star of the night was the grilled octopus. I don't care if you don't like octopus or think it's gross, you must get it here. First, they give you 2 huge pieces and when you bite into it, it's unlike any octopus you've ever had. It's perfectly grilled and beyond tender and juicy. When was the last time you could describe octopus like that? We were so full at this point and had tons of leftovers but the restaurant offers everyone complimentary pieces of this flan/cake dessert - which was the perfect way to end the meal here.
While I like the atmosphere at Pylos a bit more (it's gorgeous inside), the food here is just as good if not better. Besides the food, the prices are extremely reasonable for the quality and quantity of the food. It's in a very convenient location for me (right off the L train) and if I find out that they do carry-out, I am pretty sure I know where I will be getting my dinner from now on a very frequent basis going forward. Total bill: $33/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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