Alpha Astoria

2 german girls review greek cafes in Astoria Queens

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Grand Cafe -- 30th Ave and 36th St




Grand Café is the Café that sort of inspired this blog (well for Brianna at least) – it’s surprising that it has taken us so long to review it. Brianna will admit that she’s mostly just a sucker for the cute clock above the door. Once inside we found out they also have a huge salt water fish tank, another thing Brianna is a sucker for. Unfortunately the rest of the interior is vaguely tacky and the music a bit too loud.

The menu is eclectic, though probably no more so than most of the other Greek café that we’ve reviewed. The menu does contain some surprising options:

  • Nacho Supreme: We long ago gave up on Greek Café’s serving mainly Greek food (Grand does not serve gyros or solvaki or any of the other stereotypical Greek fare) but nachos? Brianna is a huge Mexican food snob and doesn’t really trust anything Mexican East of the Mississippi but even Amy wouldn’t trust the Greek version of Nachos

  • Tropical Rage Smothy (no that is not our misspelling -- shocking, we know.) (available in Strawberry Extreme, Orange Crème and… Tropical Rage (“I’d like a Tropical Rage Tropical Rage”, “Give me a double Tropical Rage”, “Trop Rage to the second power!”)): Are the tropics very very angry with us or is tropical just a very popular fad?

We were once again impressed with the glassware – the waiter brought us a huge bottle of water in this adorable bottle. The Frappes ($3.75 – just as sweet and milky as we like them) were served in the traditional Greek Frappe glass. We’re still wondering why everyone has the same glasses and where they’re buying them (they are NOT buying them in Greece where frappes are served in a wide variety of different glasses).





Amy ordered French toast ($6.50)(which is so nice that they’ve chosen to list it on the menu twice…) and Brianna ordered a Cobb Salad ($12 – wtf?). Both meals were served on cheery yellow fiesta-wear-like plate which probably bought them an extra .5 points. The French toast was served with an adorable teeny glass bottle of syrup, and topped with a few decorative strawberries. All in all, it was a pleasing aesthetic and culinary experience. The French toast was just the thing to put Amy in the mood for a Sunday brunch at Grand Café (until 4) sometime soon (no word on if they offer free booze as all good brunch places should). Fried carbohydrates covered in syrup top Amy’s list of favorite foods, and this did not disappoint with thick slices of bread toasted to a golden perfection. Brianna’s salad had a wide variety of greens, some perfectly ripe avocado slices, yummy grilled chicken, a ton of olives (way too many in Brianna’s opinion, perhaps this is the Greek touch) and mystery salad dressing (they said it would be blue cheese and it defiantly was not. It was also not ranch.).

Service was relatively good though it did take them forever to bring us the check. All of the waiters appeared to be male, something we can’t recall noting anywhere else. All of the boys were cute enough, though not as stunning as the girls in many of the other cafes.

Overall Grand Cafe was a solid experience but not really a stand out. We were happy enough with our meal but in the end their scores turned out to be just so-so. If you’re in the neighborhood, go ahead and check it out (if you’re not distracted by the 8 million other café’s that seem to occupy café-row near 30th and Steinway).

Patron Attractiveness: 3.5
Staff Attractiveness: 3
Food: 3.5
Ambiance: 3.5
Service: 3.5

14 Comments:

  • At 2:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Grand does offer a free mimosa or bloody mary with their $11 brunch special.

    Also, the dressing was blue wasabi.

    Grand is on my corner and I eat brunch there almost every Sunday!

     
  • At 5:00 PM, Blogger Jenn~*Firelight Jewelry*~ said…

    hey gals, been loving the site! great job...i plug you on my own from time to time.

     
  • At 4:13 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    just to give you guys a little lesson in ethnicity, why do you distinguish grand cafe to be greek? because they serve a frappe? i think you guys need to re-evaluate what is greek and what isnt...

     
  • At 4:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    just to give you guys a little lesson in ethnicity, why do you distinguish grand cafe to be greek? because they serve a frappe? i think you guys need to re-evaluate what is greek and what isnt...

     
  • At 4:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Love Grand Cafe...Delicious Food...Great Atmosphere...by far the Cafe with the most style in Astoria...

     
  • At 6:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    this is one of the most deliful dress up cafe that hit astoria. the food is top quality and the staff is very friendly. i go to grand for breakfast every morning. and late night for drinks. the crowd is mixed and very classy.

     
  • At 12:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    just went there this morning. kind of a drag. food was marginal at best.

     
  • At 10:57 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    they dont know how to make coffee.i dont think its a cafe.maby a restaurant!

     
  • At 11:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    they dont have night crowd because the place is very bright.you will see a lot of old people..O i forgat.dont even bother to drink coffee!

     
  • At 11:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    im from yugoslavia.i visit Grand with my cousins.i asked the waitress for water she came back 45 minutes later.then my cousin Mike wanted to re order a beer.nobody came for 20 minutes.i thought they were having a meeting or something.forget about the check.u get faster answer when you apply for a loan at the bank but to get the check in Grand.
    so the point is that this visit took as total more than 2 hours .how u expect to make money if you keep a table with 3 coffees (no good ) and a beer (the second never came and we got charched for).its simple.YOU NOT.
    I USED TO HAVE A CAFE IN MONTENEGRO VERY SUCCESFULL.

    NOT GOOD FOR A CAFE.I PREFARE THE WORLD D I N E R

     
  • At 11:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I love going to Grand. The food is very good and so is the staff. At night it becomes the place to be.

     
  • At 12:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    When it's very good, as in, not busy, it's great, but they do have waiter/ress issues. The food/price/portions are unbeatable for breakfast and if you can stand the loud thumping music on Saturday and Sunday morning, then this has a great vibe. Off-hours, as in before the major dinner crowd at 7, the service is much better and the food is just plain good-while not gourmet-it's always fresh. Beats cooking every night of the week.

     
  • At 11:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    wow the new hostess is HOT i go there
    every afternoon just to her!

     
  • At 11:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I JUST GOT BACK FROM THAT PLACE
    I DRIVE TWO HOURS,JUST TO BE THERE FOR ONE HOUR
    IT IS WORTH IT, REMEMBERS ME BACK
    HOME

     

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