Astoria Grill — Restaurant in Jackson Township

The reason for my low score review is because of the entree I received. I ordered lasagna with meat sauce. The entree description listed that it had spinach in it. This is fine most lasagna dishes have spinach in them. But what I received was more like spinach lasagna. It felt more like I was eating a spinach salad that somebody placed a lasagna noodle on top with some cheese and meat sauce. I had about four bites and that was all I could take. My date ordered the chicken parmesan. It was very good. Two big thick chicken breast that were cooked perfectly. Also ordered a margarita. It was a bit on the skimpy side and way too strong. My date ordered for dessert a coffee drink that had ice cream in it. It was different but tasted good. I will say the dressing on my Caesar salad was excellent. All of the staff members that I interacted with were excellent and friendly. Towards the end of our meal the manager came over and asked how our dinner was. If I had not been on a date I would have complained about the lasagna. I did not want to embarrass her. The building they are in is the old Brown Derby. Other than a bunch of wine bottles in the entryway they really haven't changed its appearance. I did bring the lasagna home as a leftover and a few days later tried to pass it off to one of my friends. They also could not eat it because it was more salad than pasta. I wish I had taken a photo of the entree because it's appearance was more green and salad like in appearance then any lasagna dish I've ever encountered. If this is how there cook makes lasagna it should be listed on the menu as spinach lasagna. There was more spinach in my entree than any other ingredient. In the end this leftover ended up being thrown away. Menu pricing seem to be fair for what it is. If I ever end up back in this restaurant I will...

Where do I begin? I had high hopes of a delicious, exceptional dinner. Sadly, I was grossly underwhelmed and disappointed. Our waitress was wonderful, and her attentiveness to us was top notch! I believe her name was Tara! My review should not negatively reflect her at all. The atmosphere is cozy, but they definitely did not replace the sinking booth seats from the Brown Derby days! I had the French onion soup and garlic bread for starters. The soup was subpar and lacked overall flavor, and had very few onions, and the cheese topping wasn’t char-broiled. The marinara sauce for the garlic bread was oddly acidic and tasted more like salsa than marinara. The salad was average. The mushrooms for the steak topper were cold and not cooked!! The filet was fair, but dry. It took them an extended amount of time for our steaks to be brought out. The whipped mashed potatoes, as my side, were actually delicious. Additionally, we paid roughly the same amount (and we had multiple alcohol drinks) as we did at Lucia’s Steakhouse. Word of advice, skip this place and head to Lucia’s. Overall all, 2/10. Will not be returning.

Edit to add, since the owner doesn’t know how to take collective criticism here is my response to him: I don’t think stopping the kitchen to rewrite the recipes on the menu, on the spot, or asking them to rip out the booth seats would have helped the situation. I was always taught to be truthful. Should I lie to stroke someone’s ego? Absolutely not. Being an overindulged adult isn’t a good look.

I am just saving others the trouble of wasting their time and money! Thanks for offering Lucia’s number, but it’s already saved. Have the day...

I love this place!! My family and I have come here twice now and I was so pleased with this restaurant. We finally have some NYC Italian eats in our own backyard!

The first time we went the weight staff was a little all over the place, but they were really friendly and I still enjoyed their service. The second time going our server was incredibly kind and very attentive.

The food here is quite good. The first time I went I got chicken piccata and I have had this dish many times before from many different restaurants-this one was delicious but could've had even a little more flavor. I was still impressed by the bread, salad, and calamari. It all had great flavor. Everything that was supposed to come out hot did. The second time I got Aglio E Olio which I have never had before. WOW that is the best pasta I have EVER had. It was surprisingly spicy to me, but in a tasteful way. It is not a saucy pasta but had more flavor then I think saucy pastas do. I ordered chicken with it and it took me back to when I was a kid and I would get grilled chicken from restaurants and it would have that classic grill flavor that was so good. I was very pleased with this dish.

The portion sizes for some of the pastas are just HUGE. Which is awesome!!

The atmosphere is great. As someone who has traveled to NYC quite a few times- this place does a great job at capturing that NYC fancy dining experience. They even have the lights at each table that you tap to turn on!!

And the gm is always coming around and being very friendly. He complemented my family last night and it was very sweet.

I can't wait to go back and try...