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We found another restaurant that we like on York Avenue, which puts the tally at exactly two. Between Tanoshi Sushi and now Yefsi, we're gonna start lobbying the MTA for a York Avenue subway soon. It will run the entire 30 block stretch of York, cost roughly 17 billion dollars, and will be useful to only a very small percentage of the population, two decades from now. And that's exactly why it will probably get approved.
Until that day comes, you'll have to take a taxi all the way to the east side of the island to eat at Yefsi, but we think that's something you should do. At least, that is, assuming you get down with Greek food. We certainly do, and so do our Greek friends who introduced us to this place recently.
Yefsi is one of those Upper East Side restaurants that you usually walk by and wonder who eats there, assuming you notice it at all. It's a non-descript room that looks like it came out of the "So You Want to Open an Upscale Restaurant" handbook from ten years ago, meaning there are lots of wood finishes and halogen lights, and I'm pretty sure the host checked in my reservation on a Gateway. But what Yefsi lacks in aesthetic personality, it makes up for with excellent food. For all of the disappointing modern Greek restaurants that we've been to, Yefsi is one of the few to get it right. The food is predictably simple but still highly flavorful, the people are nice, and the prices are reasonable. Could you get more authentic Greek eats in Astoria? Absolutely. But we're betting there's a better chance you'll like your meal at Yefsi than you will at some of the more well known spots in Queens, and you'll certainly like it a lot more than most of the other restaurants in this neighborhood. That is, until the new York Avenue subway changes everything. Mark my words.