Restaurant Spotlight
Posted by estiator at 6 April, at 05 : 49 AM Print
Agnanti
19-06 Ditmars Blvd., Astoria, NY
agnantimeze.com
When it opened its doors in 2002, Agnanti (a curious word that means “to gaze across,” according to the general consensus of our Greek wordie authorities) held a unique place on Astoria’s Greek restaurant landscape. Its menu was heavy with small plates and filled with delicious treats from Greece’s regional cuisines. Surely, the restaurant was way ahead of its time, as the general restaurant-going public in the U.S. only began to embrace the small plates/tapas/ meze concept in the past decade.
Unchanged since its debut, Agnanti continues to charm guests with its delicious signature small plates, views of a quiet section of the otherwise bustling Astoria (it’s a stone’s throw from a park-lined area of East River, visible from its enclosed indoor-outdoor sidewalk space), and Greek island kafenio aesthetic. Movie stills from the golden era of Greek cinema line the walls, while assorted potteries and cooking implements add to the space’s charm. In cold months, a hearth brings warmth, while in warmer months, guests flock to Agnanti’s enclosed sidewalk café section.
Where the artwork conjures nostalgic feelings on the walls, the food does the same on the plate. Much of the menu brings guests back to Constantinople, with dishes that include pastourmali (phyllo wrapped around thin slices of dried beef and cheese), kefte mentite (patties formed with ground beef and yogurt), sigar bourek (cheeses rolled into a homemade dough and lightly fried), and yiartlou (grilled meat patties covered in tomato sauce and finished with a dollop of yogurt).
Other regional dishes represented include prasopita (leek pie) from Cyprus; dakos salad (whose highlight is a softened barley rusk) and mushroom kalitsounia (seasoned mushrooms baked in an empanada-like dough) from Crete; tyrokafteri (spicy whipped feta) from Sifnos; kolokythokeftedhes (zucchini fritters) from the Cyclades; and fava (a yellow split pea spread) from Santorini.
Cheese receives several wonderful treatments: In addition to the sigar bourek, Agnanti offers ravasaki (feta wrapped in phyllo and fried, drizzled with honey and sesame seeds), saganaki, and tyrokeftedhes (cheese fritters). Naturally, the restaurant serves up seafood, including swordfish kebabs, baccaliaro (fried salted cod) with skordalia, grilled sardines, and fried whiting (antherina). Rooster in red sauce with hilopitakia (small square-shaped pasta) is a house specialty.
Agnanti has not embraced the craft cocktail craze or looked to be on the bleeding edge with their cuisine or presentation; rather, they have stayed true to a wonderful formula of regional small plates and entrées, prepared well and served in a comfortable environment that brings back (and hopefully creates) happy memories.
