Astoria Seafood

The Counter at 33rd Street

Astoria Seafood is a casual seafood restaurant in Long Island City, New York City, with a $25 per person price point. The neighbourhood's appeal is practical: proximity to Manhattan without Manhattan pricing, a dense residential community with roots across the Middle East, South Asia, and Southern Europe, and a food culture that rewards regulars rather than tourists. On 33rd Street, Astoria Seafood fits that pattern with near-textbook precision. The experience is closer to a market hall than a sit-down restaurant, with fish displayed on ice, selections made at the counter, and the dining room filling with a mix of families, couples, and solo regulars.

That format is worth understanding on its own terms. The market-style seafood model, common in parts of the eastern Mediterranean and the Levant, asks something of the diner that a tasting-menu restaurant does not: you choose the fish, and the kitchen prepares it. The transaction is transparent, the inventory is seasonal, and the conversation happens before the cooking. In a New York context, where most restaurants curate that entire experience away from the customer, this approach lands differently, more direct, less mediated.

Recognition Outside the Michelin Bracket

The restaurant has drawn recognition from Opinionated About Dining. Opinionated About Dining ranked the restaurant #628 in its Casual North America list in 2024 and #639 in 2025. That the ranking moved slightly is less significant than the consistency: two consecutive years of placement on a continent-wide list.

The list operates differently from the Michelin Guide, which tends to skew toward formal tasting-menu restaurants in established dining neighbourhoods. Astoria Seafood's OAD recognition signals something more specific: it is taken seriously by people who eat widely and comparatively, not just locally.

That volume of reviews, sustained over time, suggests a restaurant operating with consistent appeal.

Middle Eastern Seafood in New York

New York's Middle Eastern dining scene has expanded considerably over the past decade, with serious operations appearing across Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. The category now spans a wide range of formats and regional traditions. Restaurants like Al Badawi and Ayat represent the Palestinian and broader Levantine tradition in Brooklyn. Kubeh brings an Israeli-Iraqi focus to the West Village. Mamoun's has been part of the city's fabric for decades. Mesiba operates at a livelier, more social pitch. For comparison across borders, Bait Maryam in Dubai and Baron in Doha show how the same regional tradition translates in the Gulf.

Within that category, seafood occupies a particular niche. The eastern Mediterranean tradition of grilling whole fish, preparing it simply with olive oil, lemon, and herbs, and letting the quality of the catch carry the dish is less common in New York than the meat-heavy expressions of Middle Eastern cooking that dominate many menus. The restaurant's positioning within this gap explains part of its appeal: it addresses a gap in the city's restaurant landscape, and it does so with enough consistency to sustain two years of OAD recognition.

Chef Spyro Christakos leads the kitchen.

Planning a Visit

The restaurant sits at 37-10 33rd Street in Long Island City. The market-style format means the experience depends partly on what is available on the day: arriving with flexibility rather than a fixed order in mind is the more productive approach.