BZ Grill

The Harbour Logic Behind the Grill

Greek harbourside cooking has a discipline that separates it from the broader Mediterranean category. The format is spare: a live fire, the day's catch, lemon, olive oil, and the kind of seasoning that amplifies rather than obscures. The grill does not hide behind a sauce. Whatever arrives on the plate has to stand on its own thermal logic, skin crisped from direct heat, flesh pulling clean from bone, octopus charred at the tentacle tips and tender through the body. That is the standard set along the Aegean waterfront, and it travels poorly when venues overcomplicate it.

Astoria has long been the borough of New York where that standard holds. The neighbourhood's Greek population, concentrated along Ditmars and Astoria Boulevard since the mid-twentieth century, created the conditions for restaurants that cook to a local audience. BZ Grill, at 27-02 Astoria Boulevard, operates inside that tradition. The cooking answers to the neighbourhood first.

Where BZ Grill Sits in the Astoria Greek Scene

Astoria's Greek restaurant tier is more internally competitive than outsiders often recognise. Taverna Kyclades on Ditmars draws queues for its fish-forward menu and has held that position for years. The neighbourhood also feeds into a broader New York Greek conversation that includes Eléa on the Upper West Side, Kyma in Flatiron, and Pylos in the East Village, venues that operate at higher price points and with a different audience in mind.

BZ Grill occupies a different position entirely. Its recognition comes from Opinionated About Dining's Cheap Eats in North America list, where it ranked 111th in 2023 and 166th in 2024. That list functions as a signal for value-tier cooking that sustains attention over time. A ranking in that range, held across two consecutive years, is not an accident. It points to consistency and a clarity of purpose that the format rewards.

For context on the broader seafood conversation in New York, the city runs from Michelin three-star Le Bernardin (French, Seafood) in Midtown, where Eric Ripert's kitchen operates at an entirely different price tier, down through mid-market fish houses to exactly the kind of neighbourhood grill that BZ represents. The gap between those poles is vast, and BZ's OAD recognition confirms it is operating at the stronger end of the value-tier spectrum.

The Grill as Primary Instrument

Greek cooking's relationship with fire prioritises simplicity of technique over complexity of composition. Grilled fish, octopus, lamb chops, and the supporting cast of dips, salads, and mezze that frame them: the format has not changed significantly because it does not need to. What varies between venues is the sourcing, the timing on the grill, and the quality of the olive oil and lemon that finish the plate.

Under chef Serafin Ferdeklis, BZ Grill holds to that model. The restaurant runs seven days a week, 11am to 10pm. That consistency matters in Astoria, where the competition for lunch and dinner trade among local regulars is sustained and the bar for repetition is high.

The Google review aggregate of 4.4 across 1,316 reviews tracks with OAD's signal. A rating at that volume, over a thousand responses, reduces the effect of outliers and reflects a pattern of reliable execution rather than a handful of exceptional visits. Regulars order what the grill does leading: grilled fish, octopus prepared to the harbourside standard, and the mezze that precede them.

Astoria Boulevard as Dining Address

The stretch of Astoria Boulevard around 27th Street functions as one of the neighbourhood's working dining corridors rather than a destination strip. Restaurants here serve the area's residents first. That geography shapes the experience: less theatre, more substance, a room that fills with people who know the menu and return on a weekly rather than a monthly cycle.

That pattern connects BZ Grill to a global category of Greek harbourside restaurants. The equivalent logic plays out in Athens' Piraeus district, on the Thessaloniki waterfront, and in Greek diaspora neighbourhoods in Melbourne, London, and Paris. In London, venues like OMA are reworking Greek cooking for a contemporary fine-dining audience. In Paris, Mavrommatis has held a different kind of institutional position for decades. BZ Grill is neither of those things. It operates closer to the source material, the neighbourhood taverna where the grill is the kitchen's centre and the regulars are the quality control.

For readers comparing across the US dining spectrum, the point of reference is not the tasting-menu circuit that includes venues like Alinea in Chicago, The French Laundry in Napa, Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg, Lazy Bear in San Francisco, Providence in Los Angeles, or Emeril's in New Orleans. BZ sits in a completely separate tier, one where the OAD Cheap Eats list is the relevant ranking system and where the editorial judgement is about value and consistency rather than ambition and scale.

Know Before You Go

Explore More in New York City

BZ Grill is one point in a broader dining map. For a fuller picture of where Greek cooking sits alongside New York's other restaurant categories, see our full New York City restaurants guide.

What do regulars order at BZ Grill?

BZ Grill's OAD recognition and Google review pattern both point toward the grill program as the kitchen's strength. In the Greek harbour tradition, that means grilled whole fish, octopus, and lamb chops form the core of what repeat visitors return for, supported by the mezze format of dips, salads, and bread that precede the main grill items. The restaurant's consistent rankings across 2023 and 2024 on the OAD Cheap Eats list, alongside a 4.4 rating from over 1,200 Google reviews, suggest the kitchen executes these formats reliably rather than intermittently. Chef Serafin Ferdeklis runs a seven-day operation, and that daily cadence tends to produce tighter execution on a focused menu than kitchens operating at lower weekly volume.