This is great..I’d never heard of some of your stops. Agree about Milos; very solid spot but the apps are the best thing on their menu. I go about once a year as a chef friend from Bay Area adores the place…it’s always at the top of her list when she visits us here. Super expensive, and flashy, but good service.
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Was the Hudson yards Milos busy?
Iirc their bar is on a different floor and there are Views.
The original location tends to be mobbed most of the time, which is somewhat surprising given the price point, but maybe also not that surprising given location and consistency.
Day 4:
This brings us to the end of the conference and the beginning of the family visiting. My recalcitrant father had booked us a hotel on Roosevelt Island, so I bid goodbye to my friend, and took a cab there to meet up with my family, and then we drove over to meet him for breakfast near his apartment in Long Island City. Gorgeous weather persisted and we slowly strolled to Black Star Bakery, where the rest of the fam got bagels and pastries and I had a nice GF bread sandwich of salmon and avocado. We ate on the dock at Gantry State Park, and then boarded a ferry to Wall Street. For $2.90 fare, this is a really cool way to see Manhattan from the water.
There was no particular plan (did I mention the planning-adverse tendencies of my dad?) and we ended up walking to the 9/11 memorial. My dad meandered off from the bench where we’d left him near the dock, so while trying to reconvene, I bought the hungry Sprouts a plate of halal chicken and rice to avoid a meltdown and celebrate NYCs new mayor. Do I want a cheaper plate of food? Yes, yes I do. Especially since the South Street Seaport cart marked mine up to $12 when I’d been under the impression that $10 was standard, and Mamdani is going to bring back $8.
Because it was a beautiful day, my dad refused to go indoors. So we got lunch to go from a variety of counters at Jean George’s Tin Building food court, and I was actually extremely pleased with my salad with serrano dressing. A great salad is a work of art, and for a grab & go this rated pretty high. The rest of the fam shared a candy apple donut with a shatteringly crispy candy shell, yeasted donut, and a pastry cream and apple filling. I can still hear the crunch and see the ensuing glee.
Back to our hotel to recharge for dinner…with, you guessed it, no particular plan in place. We ended up going to Christos Steakhouse in Astoria, which is an old-school steakhouse with white tablecloths and a Greek bent to things. I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty, down and dirty, somewhat underhanded subterfuge that was employed to get all 6 of us (my family of 4, my dad, and his inappropriately young girlfriend) seated for dinner and still on speaking terms. Would this have been my first choice of ways to experience the wonders of the Astoria or Flushing food scene? No, clearly not. Was it going to be better than any presented alternatives? Yes, and in fact we really did eat like kings. Or at least 1990s-era titans of Wall Street. Who might or might not be currently treating our democracy as if they were kings. But I digress…
We started with cocktails, and my father was thrilled beyond measure with the coconut and rum mojito-adjacent concoction he ordered. There were nice bits of real coconut meat. My French 75 was fine. My one sprout is an octopus aficionado, so of course we had to share that, and we also shared an order of calamari. The octopus came as a nice salad. Calamari was fine but the red sauce was not the right choice. They should have done some Greek yogurt and lemon aioli. The standout app was the Greek sausage and shishitos which was unexpectedly delicious.
For mains, my dad took the lead and we ended up with a 63 oz Porterhouse for 3, the NY Strip special for 2, a side of garlicky spinach, and the lobster mashed potatoes which involve a giant scoop of potatoes introduced into the carapace of a whole lobster. Decadent! I will admit the steak was among the best pieces of red meat I’ve ever had and certainly the quantity allowed us to slake all carnivorous tendencies. They really did a nice job and the sauces were excellent too, especially the Bearnaise. We rounded the night off with cheesecake (forgettable) and a creme brulee (nice). Then we rolled back to our hotel to wallow in excess calories.
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Really good stuff here..thank you! Christos has been on my list for so man-years and after reading your comments, it’s moved up a notch on my list.
The MILOS I referred to was the original one in Midtown West; I did not know about the Hudson Yards address.
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That view is truly stunning, and what luck you had with the weather! Another highly enjoyable read. Are you a professional writer? If not, you should be.
Who knew a Greek-ish steakhouse in Astoria would supply the some of the best meat you ever had? Incidentally, I had the second best steak of my life in Harrisburg at an Italian eatery.
So random 
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Day 5:
The end of our odyssey! Thanks to those 6 or 7 of you who’ve stuck with this travelogue and complemented both my writing and our eating throughout! We woke up in need of some exercise, and did a family jog around the circumference of Roosevelt Island. While not strictly food related, this was a highlight due to a really cool art installation at either end. The north end of the island has a Nellie Bly sculpture installation with recordings which can be accessed by phone.
The south end is a permanent monument to FDR and a rather moving temporary exhibit referencing the 4 freedoms he was famous for wanting to procure for the American people. How we got from there to where we are today as a country, I don’t know. There is also a cat sanctuary at the south end of Roosevelt Island.
After our run and a shower, we took the cable car over to the mainland and found a coffee shop for breakfast. While the coffee was fine, they were quite disorganized and there were issues with the food so I cannot recommend this particular location. After a cable car ride back to check out of our hotel, we decamped back to New England. The cable car is really not to be missed if you are anywhere in the area and at $2.90/ride another total transit bargain.
There was a stop along the way in Connecticut for ramen, and I can recommend Kaliubon right outside Hartford as easy on-off the highway, and a tasty ramen or poke bowl which is far better than your average rest stop food, and only took a few minutes longer.
And thus, I leave you. Farewell and happy eating!
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Sounds like a fabulous trip, fraught family moments notwithstanding. And I echo others who have said you are a wonderful writer!
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No, no, thank you for the terrific reports of a terrific trip.
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Thanks so much for sharing, we are heading to NYC in January, and this is very timely info.
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Neither do I, as a guy who now carries his passport everywhere. For me our present state is a reality, not an abstraction. And I always attempt excellent English, as best me can.
ETA:
Just 4U @Parsnipity judging your literary proclivities, here’s something Pride and Prejudicial as I, masked-man (for health reasons), face a gang of masked thugs on Long Island:
I: You are masked, so am I – in that we are equal.
Thugs: WTF u say?
I: Read your Jane Austen.
Thugs: *$%%!_(()0
Next installment from El Salvador …
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