Today was our second anniversary, and it’s somewhat difficult to find a decent restaurant that has an outdoor garden that is away from the crowd. After staying up till 4 AM looking for one, I finally found one that was decent. The garden seating area is actually in the back of the restaurant, so there’s very little foot traffic from random people. Luckily the weather wasn’t hot at all.

This is a place along Ditmars Blvd in Astoria, relatively close to Taverna Kyclades. There is a lot of interesting outdoor setup on this street. The menu itself appears fairly simple, but this place had been highly recommended to us for the easy going vibe. For this COVID environment, the tables are organized north to south along the side street instead of the main street of Ditmars. It definitely felt a little safer.

We were visiting the Edge, which is a touristy spot where you can see the NYC area from 100 floors above, and in this COVID environment, it’s been hard to find some decent outdoor restaurants. We had passed by this place, which is a Jose Andres restaurant, and it seemed interesting. It’s a quasi-indoor place in that you’re eating in the building, but the area feels like you’re in a garage.

This place is across the street from Food Cellar. It’s nestled in a garage and used to serve a lot of steak dishes. The menu has changed into a more casual patio like experience (I am guessing just for the summer). When we arrived, there was no table service. Instead you have to go to the counter and place your order there. The menus are shown via QRCode. After you place your order, you carry the utensils, dishes, and drinks back to your table.

It’s been difficult to restart eating out again. Usually we just resort to delivery or takeout from various places nearby. However, it seems that many restaurants that are trying to outlast the pandemic by coming up with ideas to do the outdoor dining experience. Some restaurants don’t have a real patio, and you’re seated outside on the sidewalk within reach of people. And some restaurants like this one have a legit patio experience away from bystanders without worry.

This is the first outdoor restaurant experience in the COVID-19 temperament where we had waiter service. We were walking around looking for something to eat with a friend, and this was nestled in a small street with a group of restaurants. It had space and tents set up to span all of their tables. I won’t talk much about the ambiance at this particular restaurant because I loathe eating outdoors in humid NYC heat in the city.

This is a restaurant from the same people that brought Maiella. Even though that restaurant was modern Italian, this one was more of a modern French. It sits across the park near the Hunters Point library. We came here on a Sunday, prior to the day that New York City had to shutdown dining in restaurants due to the corona virus. Because people weren’t really out and about, the restaurant had many empty tables.

Astoria in the last few months has seen an uptick on Asian restaurants that aren’t fusion and are more authentic. This one just happens to be on Broadway near my partner’s old neighborhood. We’ve been around this area before going to eat Shanghainese food. Today, it’s for noodles. This was the braised beef tendon. It was marinated in chili oil, garlic, scallions, sesame oil, and other things that I probably missed.

As usual, the North Williamsburg area is a pretty hot spot for restaurants to eat at. I had lived in this area for about 2 years, but I still come back time to time to get a haircut. Usually after the haircut, I’ll check out something. I’ve been looking for a decent pho place that is close enough to me such that I don’t have to travel to Flushing.

Typically when we walk north on 6th ave towards Trader Joe’s for groceries, we stop by Cava across the street for a snack. We saw this seemingly new interesting restaurant opened with no one in it. The space is very bright, modern, and definitely has a Japanese cafe-chic vibe to it. This dry “ramen” place just opened along 6th Avenue between 20th and 21st Street. This is another one of those “pick X of this and Y of that” type of restaurant except the theme here is Japanese.