Agnanti: 19-06 Ditmars Bvd Astoria.  Greek, and an amazing find.  Right at the end of Ditmars, almost under the Triboro.  gets very crowded, so come early or late.  Nice outside terrace on a quiet street, and an absolute neighbourhood magnet.  Truly wonderful sausage, and tons of other fine stuff.  Here's the NYT review.

Agnanti, a spare room with stills from Greek films hanging on yellow stucco walls. It manages to attract hip young things and Greek Orthodox priests alike, and English is spoken only if you don't speak Greek.

We ordered a raft of meze that included a Santorinian dish of pleasantly sweet yellow split-pea purée slicked with olive oil and flecked with red onion, olive oil and garlic. There was a Constantinople-style dish, pastroumali, a buttery pie of house-made phyllo stuffed with fresh tomato, thin shards of spiced, dried beef, and aged kasseri cheese, that was alluringly tart, smoky and salty all at the same time. Maria Lambrianidis, who owns Agnanti with Spiro Sidorakis, held court over the timber-framed terrace, drinking dark coffee and greeting regulars. She moved to Astoria from Athens 26 years ago, she said, when she was 17.

"When I first arrived in this neighborhood," she said, "I was like, `This food is a joke.' " During the 80's she owned a kosher deli on Steinway Street and in the 90's worked in cafes in Astoria and sold insurance. She opened Agnanti (which means "gazing from afar"), she said, to serve the kind of regional Greek dishes her mother made
when she was growing up.  A waitress brought over a plate of Spartan kayianas: scrambled eggs studded with diced tomato, pieces of orange peel and cubes of smoked ham cured in orange juice.

718 Restaurant - 35-01 Ditmars Blvd. - Astoria NY 11105 - (718) 204-5553.  The only French restaurant in North Astoria, and one of only two I know of in this part of Queens, 718 was fantastic, and has now settled into being pretty good.  A nice room with outdoor seating, pleasant in summer and cosy in winter, with friendly staff, it's a real asset to the area.  Sophisticated European cooking, at reasonable prices by Manhattan standards, my only gripes are the unvarying menu, and the occasional off moment (usually eating late).

Taverna Kyclades. 33-07 Ditmars Blvd.  Astoria , NY 11105 Phone: (718) 545-8666 .  Another Ditmars location, just along from 718.  This is my favourite fish place, and everyone who I have taken there loves it.  The classic formula of whole fish, simply grilled with oil, lemon and oregano, but excellently done, with fresh fish, by nice people.  Sidewalk dining that feels really Greek, and a good range of fishy options, including red mullet and swordfish as well as the usual suspects.   My only problem is the vast portion size - it's too much for the single diner.  More than two however, and it's a blast and very reasonable besides.

Anna's Corner (23-01 31st Street, Astoria, Queens; 718-545-4000):  Greek.  Meaty Greek.  I had passed by this place many times, and eaten at it a few times.  Then I read Sietsima's review, and tried the Arni lamb.  Mindboggingly good.  Anna's  has risen to near the top of my favourite list, just for this dish.

The central delight of the menu is arni-spit-roasted baby lamb presented in a fragrant, boxcar-shaped pile, the crisp skin only micrometers thick, glistening with fat and flecked with oregano. One of the designated eaters raised the plate to his nose, sniffed and smiled, sluiced the one-pound plate ($19.95) with greenish olive oil, then dug in. We quickly ordered another portion. Almost as good was the roast pork, delivered in bite-size chunks. Occasionally, suckling pig is available. Also worth ordering are loukanika xoriatika ($8), a massive heap of savory grilled sausages sided as in Crete with pieces of toast.

Despite a complete lack of finned fish, seafood is available. The octopus ($12) is particularly distinguished, a pair of tapering tentacles that arrive charred and bathed in red-wine vinegar, obligingly sliced up at your table by the gruff but lovable waiter. The many short dishes called mezze make Anna's a good bet for vegetarians, of which our party included two-though the stench of roast meat hanging over the table required a certain intestinal fortitude on their part. The abundant plates of dandelion leaves and beets served with their greens, both bargain priced at $4, are wonderful when irrigated with olive oil and vinegar and vigorously salted. The french fries are killer, but skip the unbearably dull mashed fava beans. Among meat-bearing mezze, the stuffed romaine rules (maroullontolmades, $8), a quartet of dark leaves enfolding a stuffing of ground meat, bathed in a lemon-and-egg-yolk sauce called avogolemono.

Fatty's Cafe. 25-01 Ditmars Blvd, Astoria, NY 11105.  One more on Ditmars.  This is a sort of American/Continental diner, mixture of simple and sophisticated, but a place I like a lot.  Nice terrace out back with tables under umbrellas, and a great range of cocktails, wines and dinner items, it makes a nice change from Greek once in a while.
 

Philoxenia (26-18 23rd Avenue, Astoria, Queens; 718-626-9162):  Greek, nice but nothing special, or at least not when I ate there.  But it got this good review from Sietsima (I had the lamb and it was real average). 

The owners of Philoxenia-which means "hospitality" in Greek-come from Athens, and the menu displays none of the enthusiasm for whole fish found at most Astorian tavernas, which are mainly run by island folk. Instead of the fisherman, the shepherd looms large at Philoxenia. Hunkering around a table sopping wet, we warmed ourselves with a bottle of rustic Tsantalis wine from Macedonia ($18)-tart, purplish, with the merest suggestion of bubbles. Then the dishes began to arrive at intervals, giving us time to enjoy each one, and sit back a moment for a breather. The food was spectacular. As the last hurricane of the season howled outside, we bolted slices of salty haloumi cheese fried brown in olive oil ($7), so good we ordered a second helping; little hanks of loukaniko sausage stewed with peppers and tomatoes; a magnificent plate of fries ($4) sprinkled with oregano and dried cheese; a pair of meaty octopus tentacles dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar; crusty salt cod patties accompanied by garlicky skordalia; and, best of all, a quartet of perfectly grilled lamb chops ($16), which, as one diner wryly noted, "are moist and delicious rather than dry." Even the lowly Greek salad-festive under its crown of crumbled white feta-was wonderfully turned out and left us smacking our lips.