Abuqir — Restaurant in New York

Astoria’s Steinway Street is a carnival of smoke and neon: hookah bars in a row, Arabic cafés lit like living rooms, Greek diners holding their corners with quiet stubbornness. Lately, a new refrain has crept into the neighborhood: Dubai pistachio chocolate, advertised in window after window, café after café. It’s a good thing, undeniably — pistachio folded into chocolate rarely disappoints — but its omnipresence feels almost scripted, as if pleasure itself had been focus-grouped and sold back to you. You wonder if every shop is sourcing from the same distributor, if the quality is consistent, or if ubiquity is the real product.

Abuqir fits neatly into this landscape. An Egyptian seafood restaurant, it draws people like moths to a flame — or like shoppers to a bar of pistachio chocolate. From the outside, it looks like a scene more than a restaurant. Tables spill onto the street, the crowd curated by the algorithms of Instagram. There is genuine beauty here, but also the faint suspicion that you’re watching a commercial at the same time you’re living it.

The ritual, though, has its own gravity. You stand at the counter as though in a market stall, pointing to shrimp, octopus, bass. You choose grilled or fried, and wait. The striped bass arrives blistered and crisp, tender to the bone. The octopus, so often ruined elsewhere, is supple, smoky, persuasive even to a skeptic. The shrimp are solid, though less memorable. A dip — halibut, or maybe herring, the memory blurs — fills the table but not the imagination.

Eating outdoors is half the pleasure. You sit at the edge of a current: Steinway’s voices, the perfume of shisha, the occasional rev of a car. The staff keeps things brisk, unadorned. And yet, when the bill arrives — $146 for two, no alcohol — the spell falters. Seventy-three dollars a head for a fish, some octopus, shrimp, and a dip. Not ruinous, but unsettling. You wonder how much of it was the price of seafood, and how much the tax of trend.

On the way out, it is a relief to duck into Titan Foods, the Greek grocer two blocks north, with its feta stacked in brine, cookies and canned sardines neatly arranged. Here, the pleasure feels quieter, sturdier, unadvertised.

Abuqir offers real joys: a bass that lingers in memory, octopus handled with rare care, the vitality of Steinway itself. But like the pistachio chocolate that now stares from every window, its sweetness comes with the aftertaste of calculation. You leave not hungry, not unhappy, but faintly aware that what you consumed was as much performance as...

I was disappointed. Having passed by before and read the reviews I expected better. The whole experience was off, I think that might be due to them possibly being understaffed/super busy.

It was my first time dining there so I didn’t know the protocol to approach the front and order. I waited sitting inside until I could be sat outside. The waiter didn’t think to explain anything to me for over 10mins until I asked for a menu which is when he told me that I had to just go to the front and pick my fish. I want to note that all of the staff members were very sweet and kind, just not super attentive - again that may be because they were overwhelmed.

I was dining alone so my order was pretty small, a few shrimp, a few scallops, few squid, baba ghanoush and salad on the side. The baba ghanoush was out fast and it was delicious! It was so good I ordered some to take home, it was my favorite thing they served with the crispy bread. I waited, waited and waited for my seafood. I’ve made scallops and shrimp before, I know it doesn’t take 30mins. I tried to be patient until I noticed others getting their food then I asked. I waited close to 45 minutes for two small plates of seafood that should have taken 5 minutes to make. I understand that they were busy but I saw tables that ordered after me with bigger orders get their food. This made me feel forgotten and undervalued as a customer.

Finally when I got them, non of it was mind blowing or worth the wait. I could have made better scallops at home with less oil/butter. The seasoning on the shrimp was good but it just didn’t hit the mark, and the squid was a bit flavorless. I think that if i was given a wedge of lemon or two maybe the flavor would have been there. But given my overall experience and the outcome of the food unfortunately I won’t be rushing to come back, expect for the baba ganoush! Maybe it was just how things unfolded that night but unfortunately that was...

I had lunch with my friend and our kids today, everything was great in the beginning, we arrived when it was not too busy yet, had a nice table, ordered (no menu, no price), and got our pita bread (everything went down later because of the bread) and side dish. 2 pieces of bread were served in the beginning and we asked for more, because there were 4 of us so we finished fast, and then they gave us 2 more pieces bread. Food was good, and then the Tajin (seafood stew in tomato sauce) was served, I asked if they had rice (remember seeing that they had rice from Google) and was told that rice was not ready. Okay then I asked for more bread because we would like to eat the stew with the bread, the waiter said sure, and then he started ignoring us, so after few mins I asked again, he said sure again and kept on ignoring, when I saw him bringing bread to other tables and I realized that he was doing it on purpose and I got upset and asked him again where’s our bread? And I said I already asked you three times and our food is getting cold, do you not want to give to me? I don’t understand. And then, He said sure again, and went away to discuss with someone back in the kitchen, then he came with only 1 bread!!! At this point my mood was already ruined, my friend said maybe the bread was free of charge so they didn’t want to give more? I said that then they should’ve just told us and I would pay for more! Instead, they just ignored us and let my food get cold while waiting, I let my friend have the one bread and lost my appetite, when we got the bill, it showed that we got charged for extra 3 bread, not a big deal we never expected it to be free especially we ordered more than $100 seafood (which was a surprise too tbh). I haven’t had this bad experience for a long time as a customer. I would never go back to this...