George’s Souvlaki of Astoria

 

George’s Souvlaki of Astoria

7006 Fort Hamilton Pkwy,

Brooklyn, NY 11228

Oh where do I start with George’s Souvlaki of Astoria other than saying this place is so legitimate I can’t even begin to explain how yummy the food is. The owners use real meat and the traditional way of making good Greek cuisine. They don’t cut corners on anything and that’s the reason why the food always tastes the way you expect and it’s hearty. The food at George’s tastes authentic to the bone and my family and I all agree its the best we’ve had in Brooklyn.

I always come here with family and we eat everything family style because the portions are very generous and its a good way to try everything. Our go to salad is the mixed green salad topped with an abundant amount of feta cheese. It’s a really refreshing dish that opens the palette.

Mixed Greens Salad

For entrees sometimes we go with various meat kebabs and sometimes we go for the gyro platters. Both are equally filling and full of flavor. The gyro meat isn’t the typical meat one would get if they ordered from a halal cart. This meat is quality meat.

Gyro Platter with Rice, Salad, Pita

If you’re looking for a quick option to grab and go, my go to is the Chicken Gyro Pita served with Lettuce, Tomatoes, Onions and Tzatziki Sauce.

Chicken Pita

Here’s a look at what our usual spread looks like if we’re not ordering the gyro platters.

Now I know this post has a lot of food coming at you all at once but these pictures were from 2-3 different visits. There’s so many things we like to try here and obviously we can’t try all at once so I suggest you take your time and order slowly, start with a meat kebab with some pita and hummus and then start your way from there. After you eat the kebab I guarantee you’re going to be wanting more cause the flavors are just that good.

All Spread Sample (olives, feta cheese dip, eggplant, tzatziki, hummus, peppers)

 

HAPPY EATING! -SHANNON Z

Chikurin

Sushi Lunch (Chef’s assortment) with California Roll

Chikurin

 1105 Quentin Rd,

Brooklyn, NY 11229

Chikurin has been one of my go to American style Japanese restaurants for the past 10 years. I started going to their location on 86th street between 23rd and 24th avenue when I was in high school and I always enjoyed the quality and taste of the lunch specials they served. Coming to the Quentin Road location is no different. The sushi is always fresh and of decent quality. I never spend more than $15 for lunch at this spot and that includes me getting a soup or a salad and an abundant amount of sushi rolls.

Walking into Chikurin, it’s a bit dark inside and you can be a bit intimidated with how the atmosphere is if you’re used to brightly lit restaurants however just go with the flow and enjoy the atmosphere because it will slowly become more comfortable and in about 10 minutes you truly do feel like you’re not even in the hustle and bustle of the city streets. There’s a very tranquil feeling when you’re inside the restaurant.

My family and I all ordered something from the lunch special menu since it was lunch time (who can pass out on a good lunch special right?!) and the food we received did not disappoint at all! We ordered the Sashimi Lunch which came with 12 pieces of sashimi. The types of fish that were in the pre-selected lunch option were salmon, ahi tuna, yellowtail and white tuna.

Sashimi Lunch (12 pieces)

In order to try a range of maki rolls, we decided to go crazy and order a range of different rolls. Pictured below from left to right is the shrimp tempura, salmon mango, and Philadelphia roll.

Pictured below: Tuna Avocado, Salmon Avocado, & Eel Avocado Roll

Considering Chikurin has been in the Brooklyn area for such long time, it’s pretty safe to say it’s because they’re great at what they do which is serving the community good tasting and affordable non traditional sushi. If you’re ever having massive sushi cravings and don’t want to go the ‘all you can eat’ route, Chikurin is a great option to have in your rotation.

HAPPY EATING! -SHANNON Z

A Salt & Battery

 112 Greenwich Ave,

New York, NY 10011

A Salt & Battery is one of its kind In New York City. The food origins of this shop is from England. British fish and chips is like our American burger and fries. It’s street food in a fast setting. In England, they’re called Chippy shops, an abbreviation for fish n chips. I’m super happy that they have one close to my vicinity because the fish I ate at Salt & Battery was heavenly. I ordered the 8 oz cod and my boyfriend ordered the 4oz of haddock with chips to share. The fish came with home made tar tar sauce which was a bit mellow on the tang and more creamy, which complimented the fried fish superbly.

Top: 4oz Fried Haddock and chips

Bottom: 8 oz Fried Cod with tartar sauce.

The fish is cooked so well! No piece was dry and the outer coating of the fish was crunchy and crispy. The batter doesn’t seem to be seasoned either so when you receive your fish, you can put the amount of salt and black pepper that you wish. They also leave a bottle of ketchup for you to use on your chips. The pictures below show just how flaky and fresh the fish are. They’re cooked to perfection without any dryness, simply amazing!

Look at that Juicy Piece of Fried Haddock

Fried Piece of Cod

It’s a nice experience trying something new. We usually eat a lot of chicken, beef and pork in America and to have a different protein that is normally eaten in sit down restaurants offered as a fast food is really exciting. I hope you will enjoy this shop as much as I did.

HAPPY EATING! -SHANNON Z

 

Like Cafe 樂其

Like Cafe

 6205 18th Ave,

Brooklyn, NY 11204

It’s rare to find a good HK cafe in Brooklyn these days however Like Cafe has really shined and impressed me the moment I ate there. They serve a mix of authentic Cantonese styled dishes and some items are a fusion style that ranges from Thai, Malaysian and Japanese. I came here on a Saturday afternoon with my sister and we came into a pretty busy brunch crowd. The wait for a table for 2 people wasn’t too bad though; we waited approximately 15 minutes. Once we were seated, we received the menu and took around 10 minutes to explore the menu and then to order.

Now on to the foods, a regular hk cha chan tang enthusiast will always know that you cannot go to a hk cafe and not order the milk tea there. Judging the hk milk tea is crucial because it shows how well they are able to replicate that taste and texture of the milk tea. My sister and I both decided we wanted hk milk tea to start so we ordered one each! (the milk tea was pretty darn tasty at $1.75 a cup!)

Myself (Shannonfoodie)

My Sister (Candice)

We then ordered the fish balls and siu mai rice noodles ($6) because you can never pass out the fish ball rice noodles at any hk cafe. The rice noodles give you carbohydrate sustenance and the fish balls give you the protein, and then the extra siu mai (a type of chinese dumpling) Like Cafe gives you in this dish is an extra surprise in which I enjoyed.I like having variety in my dishes so to have both the fish balls and siu mai with the rice noodles, Like Cafe gets extra brownie points for that!

We also ordered the green curry katsu rice ($8) which is now my go to dish whenever I come to Like Cafe. This dish is similar to a regular Japanese styled pork katsu dish but instead of the brown Japanese styled curry, you get a heaping scoop of their Thai styled green curry. This dish is literally dreams! It’s so good and can fill two hungry adults easily!

Then as more of a side dish we ordered our favorite sautéed string beans with garlic sauce. We did not leave out our veggie option out for it is very important to eat your veggies! This veggie dish is a staple at any Chinese household. My mother makes it all the time because its delicious and easy to make. Like Cafe’s sauteed string beans were a bit heavy handed on the salt if solely eaten by itself, but we mixed our white rice from the green curry dish with the sautéed string beans and it balanced out very well.

Overall, I really really enjoyed Like Cafe and I see myself coming here often from now on for any meal of the day. It truly is THAT good. The prices are just right and the food is made extremely well. It’s an overall great eats spot.

Update:

I went to Like Cafe again after I posted this blog and I wanted to show you more pictures this time of what Like Cafe has more to offer, ARE YOU READY?!

Pictured Here from left to right is: Cold milk tea topped with 2 scoops of coffee ice cream ($4.59), an Oreo milk shake ($3.95), soup dumplings with pork and crab ($7.95), Portuguese coconut cream chicken ($7.95), chicken pan fried noodle ($7.95) and Ho Fun Satay Toss with beef ($7.95).

HAPPY EATING! -SHANNON Z