Barril Grill

Barril Grill is a new Brazilian restaurant in Astoria on Broadway. From what I've heard, the past two ventures there have been unsuccessful, but I think the location is good and the food—particularly the meat—is great. Hopefully this restaurant will stick around for a while.

The restaurant is a little more casual than I had expected, the lighting is too bright and the cafeteria style buffet isn't exactly romantic - and I came here on a date. I guess I was hoping for candlelight and something a bit more exotic. Really though from what I've heard of Brazilian cuisine, the thing to go for is the meat. And we got meat.

After picking a few things out from the buffet including spinach salad, black beans with some kind of meat, and a few other items both hot and cold, we proceeded to the grill window. There, a friendly cook offered us a wide selection including pork and chicken sausage, tenderloin, skirt steak and several other meats, he even gave us little free sample tastes. Everything we tried was very good.

The skirt steak was tender, juicy and flavorful (better than what I had at Novecento). The chicken sausage was flavorful, but not as tasty as the pork. The tenderloin was perfectly medium rare and was also tender and very tasty - my only complaint was that I got too much to eat before it got cold, I should have saved room for seconds.

Best of all, the price can't be beat: the by-the-pound buffet is $6.99. Our entire dinner was $7.00 each (plus a bottle of Argentinian wine, which brought the total cost for my date to an affordable $40). And furthermore the clientèle provided us with some nice entertainment: the restaurant owner was climbing on the tables to clean a water feature in the middle of the dining room, one guy on a date was unknowingly wearing his sweater inside-out, the Brazilian guy at the table next to us wouldn't get off his cell phone, and there seemed to be a DJ setting up but no one there to dance. All in all it was a delicious dinner, next time I'll probably skip the buffet and go straight for the meat counter.

Mezzo Mezzo

Mezzo-Mezzo might mean “half and half,” but this place gets the whole Hellenic taverna thing right. - Time Out New York

Valentines dinner at Mezzo Mezzo was cool, literally. Each of the five courses of the fixed price meal were delicious but some could have been served hotter. My guess is that a lot was pre-prepared for the menu and the holiday and was simply waiting under heat lamps - the service of each course was speedy and right about on time if a little early.

The lobster bisque had enormous chunks of lobster meat and was quite tasty. I wished it were warmer. The salad was nothing special, but tasty and refreshing before the stuffed portobello mushroom caps. These had a crab/cornbread stuffing with some melted cheese on top and were very tasty. I expected the mushroom caps to be larger (just 2.5" across) but in a five-course meal, portion size is important and this was just right.

The main course was "flounder stuffed with crab" which used the same cornbread/crab stuffing as the mushrooms. Very tasty, a little sweet, a little buttery. I found a few bones in the fish, but nothing outrageous. We also got mixed vegetables and mashed potatoes making it a very filling course. I brought home leftover fish, which was great for lunch the next day. Finally, baklava for dessert was flaky and sweet and delicious.

The service was friendly and the manager/owner even came by to see how the meal was. He seemed like a good person to know (I saw him offer another table a free round of drinks). The decor was warm with log-cabin style exterior walls and heavy wooden tables and chairs. The stone/brick walls added to the look. Apparently the weekend scene is big too with bell dancers and what appeared to be a dance club upstairs.