Why is Astoria, NYC the Greek Food Capital of America?

New York has some of the best greek food outside of the country. And Astoria, Queens is the epicenter today. We're going to eat at the best reviewed greek restaurants to see if they're worth it. Stop number 1. Polico. 4.9 on google reviews. The most underrated coffee shop in Astoria. The nicest owners in the world. Pastries and coffee are super on point. And reasonable prices. Run, don't walk here. Amazing pastries and boric pies. Homemade yogurt. Absolutely delicious and homemade. With fair price. I like the word fair price these days. I love this place. It's a real hole in the wall. It's a local favorite. As you can tell by all the greek men outside. It's the real deal. One spinach pie. And one bogatsa please. Two freddo cappuccinos. And one freddo espresso please. My mouth is watering right now. My mouth is watering. Oh you're getting excited too. This is the koulouri. Koulouri. Spanakopita. Bogatsa. Perfect. A caramel beets. Oh thank you. Thank you. I have some free chocolate bars. Greek hospitality. At work. I haven't drank a freddo cappuccino since I was in Greece. A year ago. I spent a month there. I drank one of these every single day. And i've been dreaming about having it again. Cheers man. Cheers. Just like I remember it in Greece. Just like I remember it. Put a little cinnamon on top. Some sugar. Perfect for a hot day. It's going to be like 90 today in the city. We're surrounded by about a dozen older Greek men. And they don't even have any care of what we're doing. I love this. This is called koulouri. I guess you'd say like a Greek bagel. Close thing I would compare it to yeah. Koulouri you find these all over Athens. I'd say it's the most popular street food you get in Athens everywhere. It's affordable. Delicious. Here it is right in Astoria. The Greek homeland. In fact New York City has the largest Greek population in the United States. And second only to Melbourne Australia. Right. For outside of Greece. Absolutely. Yeah my family came here back in the day. I grew up here in Astoria. Soft, doughy. Love the flavor from the sesame seeds. Yeah it's so good. Perfect complement to a little morning coffee. The Fredo cappuccino. Yeah it's great. This is we have the spinach pie. In Greek it's called spanakopita. Has a little bit of feta cheese inside. It's got the flaky phyllo dough on the outside. He made that look easy. This is what Toliko is very famous for. Is the spanakopita. And she actually put it in the oven for us to heat it up. So it has the earthiness of the spinach and a little bit of funky cheese in there. It's wonderful. Alright now I gotta grab. I gotta grab myself some. Alright let me take a big bite. A little spinach pie in the morning. Feta cheese, spinach. The Greeks know how to eat healthy. I gotta say. After you eat vegetables in Greece. Yeah. It's so hard coming back to the US and eating vegetables anymore. Oh it's so hard. And last but not least. This one's really calling my name right now. This one is bougatsa. It's very famous in the north in Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece. But you can find it all over the country. It's a custard pie. So you see that nice custard layer inside. There's phyllo on the outside. On top there's cinnamon, powdered sugar. You get to smell that aroma, that cinnamon. I can't even talk about it anymore. It's just That cinnamon hits you right away, that bit of sugar. And the custard is not too creamy. It's not a heavy berry flavor. It's a perfect balance. This is an incredible bougatsa. For New York, I think probably one of the best you can get here. This is one of the first things I ever ate in the country of Greece. When I was in Crete on a food tour. We got this in the morning. Look at me struggling. Look at this amateur. Alright there we go. There we go. Okay. Perfect morning. A mix of sweet and savory. Perfect breakfast. She's like oh I'll give you a fork. I'm like oh yeah we're eating with our hands. Like oh Greek style. Definitely doing it Greek style as you can see. Frankie's Souvlaki. 4.7 on Google reviews. Some of the best tasting and most satisfying Greek food out there. Unbelievable lamb gyros sandwiches. A staple in Astoria. Top spot to have a souvlaki in the hood. The very best souvlaki skewers I've ever had. This food truck is an institution. Alright i'm sold let's go. I swear you can smell that souvlaki down the block. Right as we park. It smells phenomenal. Like I love this place. Can we get three lamb sticks. Lemon, salt, oregano please. After holding one of these lamb sticks for a few minutes. My wrist is actually sore. There's like a pound of meat on it. They're very generous. So there's a lot of great souvlaki in Astoria. It's like the top Greek street food to eat in this neighborhood. The reason why we picked Frankie's. Not only because they're the best rated. I've actually been coming here since I was a little kid. Coming here Steinway 31st Avenue. I've been here for years. It used to be just a little cart. Now they're a bigger truck. They've been here since the 70s. And another reason they also have lamb souvlaki. Hard to get lamb souvlaki in New York. And even in Greece it's hard to find. Let's do this. So tender. Forget dollar pizza. I think I'd rather walk around with this. You? Oh yeah. I saw a dude just taking this to go. Walking and eating. Yep. Better for you. High keto protein. Yep. Keto friendly. As a kid I used to also get the big hunk of bread on top. We used to order that lemon salt oregano. That's the classic Greek way to get it. What this cost when you were a kid? I'm curious. Oh I don't remember. Like a dollar? Five dollars something. Two bucks. Back in the 90s. I still think this is a good deal for New York. Oh it is. And I feel like this place is so New York. We saw people of like every skin color, ethnicity. Showing up here. Supporting a local institution. Love it. I love Astoria. I mean I say this every time I'm in Queens. That Queens is the best borough in New York City for food. And I know you're not going to argue that. Oh no. Best borough for food. Best borough period. I'm biased. I'm a born and raised Queens kid. But I love it. And this is one of the places that make Astoria and Queens in general very special. This would have been so good on a July 4th barbecue. I know. Yeah. Get a bunch of lamb souvlaki. Like who needs hot dogs? Yeah exactly. I get asked all the time. Do I give tours of New York? I don't. But I always push people to Greg's Street Food Tours of Queens. One of the best tour guides in all of New York City. I vouch for this man. If you want to explore off the eaten path. Sign up for his tour. I'm putting a link down in the description. You're going to love it. Bahari 46 on Google Reviews. Definitely a place to visit if you're in Astoria. Food was delicious and fresh. Customer service awesome and friendly. Some of the best Greek food I have had in Queens. The lamb was cooked to perfection. The absolute best authentic Greek food in all 5 boroughs. I've been coming here for over 7 years and never looked back. I actually think this is perfectly fitting for a Greek taverna. Because in Greece eating outside is a big deal. It is. And just like this. Like the setup is just like that. It's like I'm on one of the Greek islands. Except we're on a different island right now. Except the entree is rolling by. Yeah. It's not nearly as peaceful. Instead of a nice ferry it's the entree. The pikilia large. Fried calamari. And we have the aguinares. Oh thank you. A little dip for the pita. Let's maybe. Yeah thank you. Yeah this is our tirocafteri. All right. You know man. You know. You don't have to have them tell you. I should have ordered this man. This is like the classic. That's also why I like Pahari. Because they include five dips in their platter. You have the melizana salata which is the eggplant dip. Kordaya which is a potato garlic dip. Tarma salata it's a fish egg dip. Tzatziki is the yogurt with cucumber dip. And then tirocafteri the spicy feta. Spicy feta to kick things off. Pita bread. Soft. Delicious. Feta's got a little bit of a kick to it. I don't know if I ever had spicy feta before. Usually it's pretty mild for me. But wow. Packs a little punch. For anyone who's never been to a Greek taverna before. Why is it such an important experience? Um it's definitely the food is great. But just the vibe of it. So like you know if you've been to Greece. Or if not been to Greece. Eating outside like this. Even the way they set it up here. They even put the little paper with these little metal hooks. To keep it from blowing away. Because the Greek islands can be quite windy. It's just the vibe of it. People usually hang out after the meal. Have their coffee. Dessert. It's usually a long drawn out affair. Oh wow. Got a lot of stuff. All right. It may not be fresh caught out of the Aegean. But seafood here man. Looks on point. Yeah this is really the classic Greek way to have fried calamari. It's lightly covered in flour and some herbs. Not a heavy batter. This is some lemon on it. Good to go. Sadly enough. I've had a lot of bad calamari in New York City. This right here. Some of the best calamari I've ever had in New York. It's easy to mess up calamari or octopus. But this is very tender. And very light. So this is orta. This is actually a very healthy. It's probably the healthiest side dish you can order. You get this a lot in Greece. Usually some sort of wild greens. Sometimes they use dandelion greens. It's nice just to drizzle some olive oil on top. And squeeze some lemon. Add that citrus. Let's try this out. Here we go. Some of that Greek healthy food like you said. I'm telling you. Greece spoils you with veggies. They spoil you so much. And the funny thing this dish here is called aginatis. It's not easy to find. Especially here in the U.S. These are artichokes with carrot. Peas. Potato with dill. It's a very comforting homey food. My yaya. My grandma. She makes this dish a lot. She actually came here many years ago. And she gave this thumbs up. She gave the seal of approval. Yaya approved. Aginatis. Yaya approved. Your yaya's got good taste. I'm telling you. Yeah. She makes it very similar to this. That flavor of the dill really makes it special. And a bit of lemon. Very homey. Like light. Comforting dish. As I look at this spread in front of us. I have to say I like your line of thinking. Because you have a lot of different types of foods. We're mixing it all. It's very social. Maybe it was a little later in the day to have a drink or two. Yeah. You might get some dessert though. Okay. Greek hospitality all day long. Courtesy dessert. Yep. Any good Greek restaurant worth their weight always gives you a free dessert. Whether in Greece or in the U.S. This is also a good sign. I'd pay for this. It's a Molino cake. A little cinnamon. Very nice. Not too sweet. Only thing we're missing is our ouzo shot right now. That or a raki. Raki or sed. This best reviewed series is turning into one of my favorites. Check out the one we shot about the best Cuban food. You're going to love it.