Telly’s Taverna
“A much loved neighborhood Greek taverna that features grilled octopus, fried squid and the usual line-up of grilled fish.”
“So my good friend prefers Telly's over Kyclades and I decided to finally check out Telly's with my man friend to see how it stacked up.”
“sea bass or Branzini) with a side of horta (boiled dandelion greens, with olive oil, lemon juice and plenty of salt).”
Telly’s Taverna
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Accepts Apple Pay: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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A nice little Greek restaurant with an impressive entrance exposing both the selection of seafood as well as their grill. The great thing about Telly's is the size. They can easily accommodate both large and small groups (and they take reservations). This isn't an easy thing to find in Astoria.
The food is good but service takes awhile so order a bottle and prepare for a bit of a wait. The portions are a bit on the smaller side especially for the price. I wasn't blown away by their fried potatoes like people were saying. They definitely know how to grill seafood. The seasoning was on target and delicious. Possibly a bit rushed being put together but I guess that comes with a restaurant who serves big groups. We weren't a big group so maybe that was a disadvantage on our part.
But the staff was very warm and welcoming. Overall a nice option for large groups in Astoria in the mood for Greek.
The food was amazing! My favorite was the octopus and the cheese. Customer service was good except that as soon as we order they brought everything at once. My friend felt rushed and got into a bad mood.
next time I would ask to bring the apetizers spontaneously or wait a bit.
After Taverna Kyclades cited a 1.5 hour wait, we decided to find another local Greek place where I could have grilled octopus. Telly's Taverna ended up being an excellent choice.
We dined on imported branzini, grilled octopus, tomato-cucumber salad, and horta. Checking in via yelp resulted in a free carafe of wine.
The service and attention to the food preparation were top notch. The grilled octopus was the best part of our meal. I wish Boston had authentic Greek fare like Telly's Taverna.
Whenever my husband and I are craving Greek seafood we come here. Sure, there's Kyclades right around the corner, as well as a half hour wait to be seated and eat. We don't have that problem at Telly's. We can always get a seat (this place is so roomy, there are usually large parties taking place here) and the quality of the dishes are comparable. We also come here after we got some attitude from the waitstaff at Elias' Corner. We've never had that problem at Telly's.
Food here is mostly grilled with minimal seasoning, so the ingredients have to be fresh. We love the grilled octopus appetizer ($18), plenty of octopus tendrils, cooked just well enough to be sliced with a butter knife. We're fans of Nana's Green Salad, not just lettuce and feta, this salad is spiced with dill and scallion, and is usually topped with a pair of peperoncini. Even a small ($10) comes in a small boat. We wish they had something between a Greek salad and a Nana's so we could have some cucumbers and tomatoes with our greens, but we like both. My husband usually orders a half carafe of house red wine and the fried potatoes ($8). These rounds of potatoes are fried until they're crisp on the outside, but with some give on the inside. You won't be sorry you ordered these. We ordered the grilled sausage appetizer ($9) recently and fell upon it like a pack of hungry dogs. If you like the swordfish kebab at Kyclades, we recommend them here. The swordfish kebabs ($20) are cooked to tender perfection, with the consistency of pudding. If you're craving a whole grilled fish we recommend the Porgy, Dorado or Branzini. These are all tasty, white fishes. We don't recommend the St. Peter's or the fried cod (overcooked to the point of dryness). And if they're busy enough that they're frying up their loukoumades fresh (these come free on the house) and you're too full to eat them on the premises, at least take them home. Telly's will wrap them up for you if you ask. I admit, I've consumed a whole plate of these honey smoothered fried dough balls- even after a full meal.
It took us almost an hour to be seated because they had "lost" our reservation on a busy Saturday night. We were teased throughout our whole wait as plates of giant shrimp and grilled fish kept passing us by from the kitchen up front. When we finally got a table, we hastily put in two orders of the octopus appetizer.
The free small karafe of wine with a Yelp check-in was a nice little freebie. Split among our party of eight, it came to about a gulpful a piece but normally fills up three full glasses. The waitress mentioned we can use it at each visit, nice. We decided to share everything and got the green salad, Greek salad, the seafood and meat platter, and ordered two white sangria pitchers. Being a cheese lover, I was ecstatic about the green salad that was abundant with little clumps of feta. The sangria was delicious! It was sweet and was full of fresh cut apples and oranges. The octopus was really tender and had a nice acidity to it- the best I've had in a long time. Our meal was accompanied with pita bread and tzatziki sauce that was addicting, but the pita was too burnt. Nothing else really stood out during the rest of our meal. Again, everything was a little too charred for my taste and seemed like it was simply grilled with some lemon juice, while the shrimp did not disappoint in size.
Nice atmosphere.. Sit outside (in the back area) if you can- permitting the sun isn't beating on you.. Just had the most delicious saganaki, Greek salad, meatballs, fried calamari, Branzini (de-boned) and lemon potatoes – all amazing! Ask for extra lemon! It def enhances the Greek flavors of these staple dishes mmmm check in a get a free "small" carafe of retsina! It's actually not even small which makes it that much better and they give free desserts!! Last time I had gone there it was free halvah and this time it was freshly made loukamadessss (delicious fried dough ball shaped pastries drenched in honey) … Will be back and would def recommend ! Staff always attentive and polite !
The food here is ok. You leave feeling extremely heavy that you wish you haven't eaten anything. We ordered appetizers and main dishes. It was just ok. The service is slow. The place is big so there isn't a wait usually.
We've been to Telly's a few times so we decided to go back and have dinner with the family last night.
When we walked in we were greeted by the waitresses and hostesses who. We were seated when all of us arrived. It didn't take long for us to decide what to order. For apps, we went with a large Greek salad and the fried calamari. Both were good.
For entrees, we ordered fried sardines with fried potatoes, 2 ordered of the chicken kebab with lemon potatoes, spinach pie, and the seafood platter for two with lemon potatoes. My husband and I shared the seafood platter which was 4 grilled shrimp, salmon, and flounder. I'm not much of a salmon fan so the salmon was nothing special to me. The shrimp was OK, and the flounder was a little bland. I have had their flounder before and loved it last time. Yesterday's flounder wasn't as good. Need some more flavor to it.
Telly's also gice s you complimentary loukimades. Fried balls of dough with a sweet honey syrup drizzled on top. So good!
All in all the food was good but I've had better food from them before.