STATION HOUSE

STATION HOUSE

106-11 71st Avenue

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 544-5000

The age of the Forest Hills gastropub has arrived. First, Jack and Nellies, which while technically a wine bar, has a great beer selection and an impressive menu. Then, Banter shows up, renovating a space that I thought could only make money as an AT&T store. The Flying Pig is in the process of being built in the old Johnny Rockets space and Station House just opened to throngs of drinkers on 71st in what used to be Marianella's Taqueria. I guess that, when it comes to beer and whiskey, if you build it, they will come.

I call Station House a gastropub because of their menu, which inlcudes a range of small plates similar to bar food, but which are different enough to demonstrate that there's some effort going on in the kitchen. Still, in the range between bar and restaurant, Station House is much closer to being a bar. The interior is unrecognizable from it's taqueria days, with lots of wood, the yellow glow of Edison bulbs, and heavy wrought iron replacing the bright, fast food yellow walls of old. The central bar dominates the interior and at night it's standing room only - crowds of thirty-somethings pouring out into the street. There are no less than ten flat screen televisions playing sports. Station House's lamentable TV addiction notwithstanding, its beer list is impressive and the odds are that you haven't heard of half of what they offer. Dozens of beers are in bottles or on tap and the whiskey list isn't small. The off-menu rotating list is displayed on two of the flat screen televisions, rotating through the selection of about twenty temporary brew options. Not to beat the flat screen horse too severely, I wish that the owners, who run George Keeley in Manhattan, stuck with the chalk board for beer rotations. It's just less tacky.

Anyway, horse beaten.

Pike and I showed up smack in the middle of happy hour for an early dinner and drinks. The crowd this evening ranged from yuppies just out of the office to guys in hockey jerseys sitting at the bar glued to ESPN to hipsters covered in tats to older couples chatting by the window.

My starter was the Smoked Meat Tacos. Three tacos, one each of "in house smoked" chicken, brisket, and pulled pork. The appetizer was very large (maybe that's why they call it a shared plate) but not very good. Bland and dry, to be honest. I like tacos, but won't get these again. My dinner was the Buttermilk Chicken Sandwich, a huge piece of chicken, buttermilk battered and fried, with cole slaw on a brioche roll. And this, unlike the tacos, was incredible. It came with french fries, which were good, but the real experience was the chicken. I can't recommend it enough. Pike ordered Poutine, fries with cheese curd and gravy (Pike grew up sucking down disco fries on Long Island so the Canadian original was right up his alley), and the Turkey Grill Sandwich, a turkey sandwich with gruyere cheese on texas toast. Dipping the turkey sandwich in the poutine gravy, Pike said "y'know, this was a really good sandwich without the gravy, but now it's a great one." Not having tried the turkey with or without any gravy, I'll take his word for it. I did steal some of his poutine, and I liked it a lot. If I ever want to put on a few pounds, I know what I'll order to do it.

If you like beer bars with lots of variety and enjoy or at least don't mind very crowded spaces, then Station House is the gastropub for you. If you want a more restauranty atmosphere, then you probably won't like it very much. Pike and I didn't stay late. We left before 8pm. But it was filling up, if not full, and in the rear table section, because of the fifteen or so office guys hanging out, we might have been then only people sitting down. Maybe our experience is unusual, but it was certainly loud. Station House is the kind of bar that only a few years ago, I never would have thought would have appealed to the demographic of the neighborhood. And yet there it is, packing 'em in.

Maybe Forest Hills can be a barhop destination after all... That'd be pretty awesome.

Beer prices range from about what you'd expect to way more. Appetizers average $9 and sandwiches average $12.

BANTER

BANTER

108-22 Queens Boulevard

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 268-8436

Twice this week I headed over to Queens Boulevard to try out Banter, the brand-spankin' new Irish restaurant/pub that takes over the Old Vienna Cafe space. Immediately there's one thing that Banter has going for it that Old Vienna was sorely lacking. CUSTOMERS. Both nights that I visited, once with Pike and once with Seth, a buddy from out of town, I was glad that we arrived early because later on getting a table would be tricky. And I thought the location was cursed.

I won't lie. When I heard that Banter was going to be an Irish place, I thought it was a failed plan. Irish Cottage, an established Irish restaurant with loyal regulars and decent food was only a block away. Well, providing that the crowd flooding Banter aren't just people being curious, I admit being wrong. Banter has managed to create a completely different feel. Where Irish Cottage is dark and "traditional", Banter's floor to ceiling windows and less claustrophobic space make it brighter, even when they dim the lights. My only complaint about Banter's interior is that if you sit at a table right beneath the long bar-like table opposite the actual bar, you kind of have another diner hovering directly over you. Some kind of screen that would be nice. In any event, come warmer days, when the sidewalk tables can open up, I expect it to be an extremely pleasant place to go.

Banter  has about a dozen beers on tap, which they'll serve in a cutesy Williamsburgesque mason jar, but none of the beers are terribly unique. Brooklyn Lager and Smithwicks and Guinness and... Miller Lite. No microbrews, no cask ale (but Corona in a bottle? Tsk tsk). The food is also about what you'd expect from an Irish restaurant. Pot pies and burgers and fish n' chips and salads but Banter does give a little bit of artsy flair to the presentation, which I always enjoy. So what did we eat?

On my first trip with Pike, I started with the Jameson Spring Rolls, whiskey marinated steak with tomato and onion in a deep fried asian-style spring roll. This was awesome, like an empanada that spent the last twenty minutes doing blow in the bathroom. If you order it and don't like it, save it and give it to me. Pike ordered the Banter Mussel Bowl. It comes with a choice of broth: curry or Guinness. He went with curry and it was also amazing. I stole a few, but they were legitimately inhaled. "This either needs way more bread or a spoon. I can't stand seeing this broth go to waste. It's too good. Hell, just put it in a bread bowl." On my second voyage, I partook of the Baked Guinness Mac and Cheese: smoked bacon and and Irish cherry wine cheddar baked crust. Banter scored another hit. The pasta was a little al dente for my taste and I'd have chosen a softer cheese than cheddar, but you know what? Though I've never seen a syrupy wine used to top macaroni and cheese, it worked.

Overall, I was less blown away my the entrees. Pike ordered the Pan Seared Chicken Breast. The chicken was cooked to give it a crisp, but tasty golden crust, on a bed of sauteed potatoes, smoked bacon, and leek in a sherry cream sauce. It was quite good, and he loved it. I thought that the chicken was too dry. Maybe it was an off day. I'm sure we'll be back and try it again. Seth ordered the Traditional Irish Stew. Lamb, potatoes, pearl onions, carrots, and celery in a Harp ale broth. It was traditional. I didn't think it was bad; I didn't think that it broke any new ground or stood out from other stews, either. My first entree was disappointing, a Shepherd's Pie made from angus beef, peas, carrots, under a mashed potato top. I normally love shepherd's pie, but if the chicken breast was just a wee bit too dry, the shepherd's pie was as parched as a Bedouin exile left to wander the Saudi desert. In contrast, the Chicken Pot Pie, made from chicken, corn, pearl onions, carrots, and celery under a puffed pastry top, was quite good... and I'm picky about my pot pie. And I liked the fresh thyme that poked out of the pastry shell. Don't dismiss it as a mere garnish. Pop off the leaves and toss 'em in.

Service is exceptional and friendly, the atmosphere is spot on, the food is very good when it wants to be, and if my experience with Seth is any indication, the beer is ever flowing. I expect Banter to continue to pack them in. Good. The area needs more places like this.

Appetizers average $10 and entrees average $16. Burgers and salads average $13.

NARITA

NARITA

107-08 70th Road

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 263-2999

If there's one thing that Forest Hills doesn't lack, it's Japanese restaurants, though those numbers dwindle once you cut out the ones that are primarily sushi bars. Narita on 70th Road, between Austin Street and Queens Boulevard, is less a sushi bar (though they do have sushi) than it is the kind of place you'd go when you want something hot.

Diners enter through a traditional Japanese sliding door and are given a wide range of dining options. You can sit at the sushi bar, sit at a standard western table, sit at a kotatsu table (the very low-to-the-ground tables), or grab a seat at the hibachi. Soon, a waitress will arrive with hot towels, which, even if they don't really clean your hands at all, are a nice relaxing way to start your meal. Pike and I ate here twice recently, both times midweek, and both times Narita was neither packed to the brim, nor deserted. Lively would be a good description, especially considering that every so often, a fireball would erupt from the hibachi table.

As I said, we dined at Narita twice. The first time, I ordered sashimi and it was fine, but really only because I wanted to eat healthy. Looking at the menu, I felt bad. I could get sushi at literally ten other places in the area. From now on, I said to myself, Narita was where I would go when I wanted a Japanese dinner that wasn't cold and when I wasn't interested in making the the schlep to over to Katsuno. Pike loves oysters so he ordered the Kaki-Fry. Nine times out of ten, if you deep fry something, it just gets better. This was that tenth time. The oysters were squishy and overly breaded, in my opinion. "One thing I hate", Pike began, "is when people criticize seafood for tasting fishy. Of course it tastes fishy! It's fish! That said, I will now hypocritically criticize these oysters for tasting too fishy." I would have said that they tasted too much like salt water. Boiling hot salt water that you finished eating largely because something died for the privilege of served to you. On the other hand, my appetizers (yes, I ordered two) were both pretty good. I got the Beef Negimaki and the Baby Tako. Beef negimaki is thin strips of steak wrapped like a sushi roll around a cluster of sauteed scallions and under a sweet honey-ginger soy sauce. It's hard to imagine this tasting bad and it didn't disappoint. The baby tako are baby octopus marinated in a sesame sauce. We both felt that the octopus was a little bit tougher than we'd have liked, but on the whole, I give it a thumbs up. I've met more than one person who will only eat the o-shaped pieces and won't eat the legs in a fried calamari appetizer because they find it too gross. So I'm certain that the more squeamish among you will be put off by the fact that the octopus still looks like octopus. I say man up and order it anyway.

Pike's entree was the Teriyaki Combination II, which includes lobster and anything else on the teriyaki menu that strikes your fancy. He fancied shrimp. The plate is mostly taken up by bean sprouts, so you don't really get very much for your thirty bucks. Pike felt that the shrimp and the lobster were left on the grill for too long and had been burned. Admittedly, there was a noticeable ring of char to the edges of the meat, but it didn't bother me. Also admittedly, this was the second time that Pike ordered this particular entree and it wasn't charred the first time. Still, I actually kind of liked it. I felt that it gave a bit more depth to the dish. However, whether by accident or design, it's still too expensive and if for nothing else, I can't recommend it. My dinner I completely recommend. I went for the Miso Glazed Chilean Seabass, which was delicious. There was a small, bland salad that took up half the plate, but the seabass itself, served on a small pillow of fried onion, was excellent. The miso glaze was sweet without being overpowering, the fish was perfectly cooked, and since I think that I inhaled it inside of five minutes (despite trying very hard to pace myself and even recruiting my nemesis, rice, in the process) my biggest complaint was that it was simply too small. If I have any advice for Narita, it's to reduce its menu size, drop its prices a bit, and then reposition itself as a small plates restaurant where everyone can share things.

Desserts at Narita were pretty standard and not very Japanese. So we skipped them. Our meal (a pot of tea, three appetizers, two entrees) plus tax and tip, came to somewhere in the $85 range.

SUSHI AKIO

SUSHI AKIO

71-45 Yellowstone Boulevard

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 544-0942

In the space that was once upon a time Sushi Yasu is now Sushi Akio. It looks the same on the outside, it looks the same on the inside, and, just like Yasu was before it moved to Austin Street, it's BYOB. Plus it's cheap, just like Yasu was. In fact, if no one told me, I'd just assume they were the same place.

Sushi Yasu had fantastic sushi served in an intimate, albeit low-rent setting out on the edge of the neighborhood. This distance from the beaten path added to the relaxing nature of the place and it adds to Akio's. Since most people who travel to Forest Hills prefer to eat at Friday's, Aged, Corfu or any of the other restaurants on the Austin street strip, there was always a sense (false though it might have been) that the Yasu crowd were from the neighborhood. It's not that the tables all talked with each other or started singing the sushi version of drinking songs, but this illusion of eating at a community place seemed to make the Yasu feel more homey. When Yasu moved to Austin Street, it lost that and became more conventional. So it's nice to see that Sushi Akio has taken on its mantle.

For a starter, I had to have a cup of Miso Soup. This particular night was one of the cold ones and a piping hot miso soup, along with a few pots of piping hot green tea, makes a world of difference. It didn't hurt that the soup was damn good. Sometimes you get very thin or very salty miso, but that wasn't so here. Bro tried the Gyoza, a deep fried pork dumpling. It's a standard Japanese restaurant appetizer and Akio did a good job here. The dumpling shell was thin, making the dish an overall light one, rather than dough heavy, and the pork was fantastic. It just about exploded with flavor. I also tried the Spicy Kani, a seaweed wrap with crab, eel, and spicy mayo. This was delicious, though I think that just about anything with eel tastes good. Hardly spicy though.

Bro and I split three large rolls. Each was very good and very heavy. Usually, the nice thing about sushi is that you don't fill yourself to bursting. You feel sated and not guilty. But these were big. I'll describe them in a bit, but first, a quick price rundown. As I said, Akio isn't expensive. It's sushi, so it's not free, but relative to say Narita, you could easily be paying more. The a la carte pieces go for about $3 each and the small rolls go for about $5. The larger rolls like you see above will range between to $10 and $13 each. The Little Delicious Roll (closest) was the first we agreed on: spicy tuna, crab, cucumber, avocado, and cream cheese, deep fried. It was the holiday season so we also had to try the Christmas Roll: shrimp tempura, eel, cucmber, tobiko, and avocado. And finally, the Forest Hill Roll, because you have to: spicy shrimp, seaweed salad, and avocado with eel sauce. I liked all of them, but an excessive dependence on avocado makes them a little too similar. Next time, I'll have to be more cognizant of that. But I will absolutely return. 

If your idea of getting sushi involves hitting up a local liquor store for a bottle of wine or sake, and then moseying up to the counter to watch the chef do his thing, in a relatively quiet (without being desolate) setting, then I recommend Sushi Akio.  

Our meal of tea, soup, apps and three large rolls came to about $70 with tax and tip. 

Brunch Report - AGORA TAVERNA

Brunch Report

AGORA TAVERNA

70-09 Austin Street

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 793-7900

If any restaurant in Forest Hills looks like it should serve brunch, Agora Taverna is it. Bright white walls and tons of windows allow sunlight to pour in, a necessity for a decent brunch. So it's with a sigh that I wasn't impressed with my brunch here this past Sunday.

This past Sunday around one-ish, Elbie and I showed up and, despite being rather crowded, there was no wait for a table. We sat by the window - great for people-watching - and a plate of warm mini-blueberry muffins appeared in front of us. It was a nice start and we enjoyed them as we sipped our coffees while deciding what we wanted. Agora Taverna's brunch comes with a coffee (or tea) and a brunch cocktail (or juice) as part if its $14 fixed price.

The brunch menu is a fairly standard one (which I like): steak and eggs, french toast, crepes, omelets, mimosas... Elbie ordered the Classic Benedict, an eggs Benedict: poached eggs on an English muffin with Canadian bacon and Hollandaise sauce. She was offered an option of sides: a small side salad, home fries, or lemon potatoes. She chose the lemon potatoes. I ordered the French Toast. Agora uses "healthy" seven-grain bread and tops it with strawberries and blueberries and vanilla honey.

Neither of our extremely typical brunch choices were bad. But both are in serious need of improvement. The eggs Benedict, for starters, didn't come with Canadian bacon, just slices of ham. Not a huge deal, but still. And it was literally swimming in Hollandaise sauce. Swimming in it like soup. On the plus side, the Hollandaise sauce was good and not super tart as though made by a chef who went berserk with the lemon juice. But, speaking of lemon, the lemon potatoes are a little much. Though when I say a little much, I mean you get what looks like two whole boiled potatoes. At least make the pieces smaller. Next time, the salad.

 

The French toast was made fine but I'll never understand why anyone thinks that using seven-grain bread is healthy after dumping sugar and syrup over it. Agora should shitcan the healthy crap and go straight for taste. Lose the seven-grain and choose challah. But truth is, the real issue wasn't their bread choice. It was the vanilla honey. Apparently, vanilla honey tastes identical to fake-o Log Cabin maple-flavored pancake topping. Unless, and I know that this can't be the case, they actually just gave me fake maple syrup instead. But no. Probably the honey went bad. Yup. That's gotta be it.

On the whole, the experience was a pleasant one. Our waitress was super nice and the setting is spot-on. The coffee was good and I liked my Bellini. The food could have been perfect if only they didn't turn turn eggs benedict into a hollandaise stew, didn't use whole grain bread, and - and this is important - kept the menu descriptions accurate. It's sort of a let down when you're hoping for one thing and get Log Cabin.