Ammos Estiatorio

Authentic Mediterranean experience from the salad of tasty chunk tomatoes, kalamata olives, and premium feta and olive oil. The grilled fish was outstanding and the ladies behind the bar were attentive and entertaining.

Our colleagues from England are here, and we’re looking for a happy hour. $ 6 wells drinks, beer, and wine for happy hour in downtown sounded nice to us. If you get a martini though, it’s $ 2 more. It’s just around the corner from grand central, so if you pop in for a drink before your train, it’s worth it. Very nice atmosphere, and the wine corks everywhere are very neat.

Came here for a work dinner and the service was great! The food was delicious, a bit pricy but definitely worth it.

Service was terrific. The tower of eggplant and zucchini chips were delicious. Another starter, Spanakopita was worth ordering. My sea bass was truly perfection. The rack of lamb was also good but the Moussaka fell flat.
Definitely a restaurant you want to try. Friendly staff and good food!

Been wanting to come here forever so happy I did !!! Yay ! This place is winner !!! I love the Branzino and lemon potatoes the bread was great and olives they brought to the table they give generous portions and I am so happy eating here with my friends !! I will tell everyone about this place it’s so cozy you never want to get up.

Came here for restaurant week and thought the food was ok. My friends and I shared the appetizers and one was overcooked, one was bitter, one was too salty. They were also not presented nicely in anyway like they were shown on their website (this shouldn’t count towards their rating, but still). For the main course I got the roast chicken and it was a huge portion, but again nothing too spectacular for me to come back and pay full $$$ price for. My friend got the catch of the day fish and that I have to say was the best fish I had ever tried. No kidding. The dessert was also pretty good

Had lunch there today. Boy this place has changed. since 2007
The bread they give u was eh.
The pre fix grilled squid. Ok. Very buttery
My snapper was ok a best. On the dry side with a little bit of veggie and spaghetti
Sad little gelato for dessert
Slowww service
Im on the train home n im not feeling well. Im certain it was this overpriced lunch…

Came here for restaurant week for 7 people. We expected the service to be slow due to our large party. To our surprise, the staff was very attentive, from topping our wine and water glasses to taking plates away in an efficient manner. Food was delicious as well! As a big party we had just about everything that was on the restaurant week menu. We also ordered the dip platter and fried calamari for the table to share which were also good. My favorite was definitely the Lamb Shank that I had as my entrée. Would definitely go back to this place!!!

Terrible Service. Host and Hostess were very rude. Table was not ready even 20 minutes after my reservation. Food might be good but the attitude makes me nauseous.

My friend and I came here for NY Restaurant Week. We had the soup of the day and I had the salmon. The soup was flavorless and needed salt and pepper. The sides on the salmon tasted like frozen peas from Costco. Long story short, everything was mediocre at best.

The host and hostess are completely rude! We had a 7:30 reservation and we got there around 7:25. As I walked up to the host stand the host turned his back and walked away without saying anything. Then as I stood there trying to get the hostesses attention, she rudely came my way. I told her about my reservation and she said it’s going to be bit. Okay… how long is that? She told me around 10 minutes with her oh so delightful demeanor. So I went to the bar to grab a glass of wine and the bartender was actually attentive, which I really appreciated. By 7:55, we decided to leave and check out Michael Jordans Steakhouse in Grand Central and got seated immediately by a super nice host. I think waiting 25 minutes when you have a reservation is ridiculous and they didn’t even attempt to update us and let us know whats going on.

Such an odd experience. I am in the city for work (live in Austin, TX) and wanted to have a nice dinner to catch up with coworkers. We decided to give Ammos a try so I made a reservation. This is when it all went down hill. When we showed up the hostess acted as if she would not seat us. She kept mentioning our entire party had to be present but when I pulled up the reservation confirmation it stated three people — and three people stood before her. Finally we were seated and decided to order a round of drinks. Almost 30 minutes later… still no drinks. Our drinks came out with our food which was pretty disappointing but we let it go. The food was great which was a plus (only reason it’s two stars). Except we were never asked if we wanted another drink, the food was taken before we were done and just an hour into arriving the manager asked us to leave stating he needed the table and was «so slammed». Please note we did not just order apps and hold a table all night. It was a Wednesday, we spent almost $ 200 between the three of us and stayed an hour. He offered us a free drink at the bar but it was too late to fix the rudeness of this night. The bar was cramped — nowhere for us to sit and continue catching up. All in all awful. I’ve experienced quick service in the city — but this was not that. It was simply rude.
Definitely not worth your time if you want to enjoy a meal and catch up with friends. Which is what dinner is supposed to be about right? Or maybe not according to Ammos.

We are waiting to be seated for 30 min… We had a reservation for 8? Can’t even comment on the food because we are still waiting for a table.

One of the best restaurants near grand central area. Offers authentic Greek fair alongside with the delightful selection of fresh seafood from Mediterranean. Complimented by wide selection of wines from Greece and great attentive service makes your dinner a truly stellar experience.

My mom and I came here for restaurant week knowing full well about the mixed reviews.
I agree that service was a little bit on the slower side but the food was amazing.
My mom and I shared the meatballs– 3 tiny meatballs that went well with the bread that were served.
I had the lamb shank with veggies and my mom had the seafood linguini.
We devoured our food. The lamb was perfectly cooked and the seafood in the linguini were perfectly cooked and seasoned as well.
The walnut cake/​loaf that we had for dessert was delicious as well.
Overall, we had a great experience here but due to the service being a little bit on the slower side, I am giving it 4 stars.
I would definitely come back again!

Came to the restaurant for a business lunch today. Total of 6 at the table. I asked to have the Marouli salad without feta and dressing on the side. This was not a problem until I asked if they could add cucumbers, an item on the menu. Well, I was told they don’t accept substitutions. We are not talking about a $ restaurant. My bill was over $ 200. And to boot, the waiter called me «honey» when he gave me the check. I called to talk to the manager but that was fruitless. Won’t be back!

I don’t know why this place isn’t more highly rated. Granted, the most recent time I went it was kind of empty so our service was extra attentive, but I’ve been coming to Ammos for years and I’ve yet to be disappointed.
Delicious fish at reasonable prices, especially for the Dover Sole. Their pikilia – the traditional selection of spreads like tzatziki and taramosalata with pita – is one of the best I’ve had in the city.
Tasty, unusual cocktails, too… all in a comfortable atmosphere decorated in tasteful shades of amber. A winner!

I’ve been a longtime reader of Unilocal reviews but I’ve never before posted a review. Unilocal has been my go to place when looking for a new restaurant. I realize you often have to read between the lines of some reviews as oftentimes the reviewer may have another agenda. Plus I feel reviews on restaurants during Restaurant Week or New Years Eve/​Valentines Day should be taken lightly.
I was looking for a restaurant to meet my sister & brother-​in– law for lunch near Grand Central this Saturday. Almost all of the favored ones were either closed for lunch or serving brunch. When I saw the Ammos review I was impressed by the photos of the restaurant but I was hesitant to suggest it because of all the poor reviews. I’m glad I didn’t.
It is a pretty and spacious restaurant… the reviewers who commented on the tight space must have never been to the small midtown restaurants. Plus the servers were attentive and very pleasant… which I find most are if you take time to engage them. And we all agreed our dishes were great. We stuck with the $ 33 (+6 for lamb) prix fixe lunch which we thought was fair. Mind you, if you compare it to the usual Greek places then it is pricey. But everything was fresh, simply prepared and tasty. My husband loved his snapper as we did our lamb chops. My brother-​in-​law thought the chops and the baklava was one of the best he’d ever had. The baklava was not super sweet or soaked In honey and the Greek yoghurt flan was delicious.
I felt this place needed a better review than most of the postings. Of course, understand if you go during their happy hour or busy lunch hour your impression may not be as stellar but they are definitely worth a try.

It’s a shame that with that huge space in one of the busiest areas, Central Station, they have this dying restaurant.
It was 2:00 pm. at it was almost empty, just four tables.
The décor is dire, we were impressed: shells from the beach, a fishing net in the wall. It looked like a school play stage. The dark brown color of the space didn’t help.
No music, no ambiance. The waitress had good vibe, but she was eating while taking our order. They need to redecorate it, the dirty umbrellas in the ceiling have to go.
The food was unexceptional. The grilled octopus was like a soup, with a lemon flavor and boiled red peppers. The texture was fluffy. For entrée i ate the Garides Salata, shrimp salad. It had persimmon, hard.
I have a bad feeling about a sooner than later closing…

Love coming to ammos for a quick bite before work. The olives, bread and olive oil are delicious. Ambience is great, service is always friendly and the seafood is always fresh. The salads are delicious! I always get the calamari, either fried or grilled and both are good. They have happy hour that starts at 3 pm and I’m currently obsessed with the Chardonnay. Will continue to go to ammos.
Ps: really good date spot! (I think)

Have to give a huge THANKS to Angel for gifting a bottle of Malbec!!! Thank you so much. This place is amazing!

Came for drinks after work and service was SLOW. We had to get up and find the waitress MULTIPLE times to make sure she didn’t forget our drinks. Isn’t one of the cardinal restaurant rules to make sure booze is always flowing?! Got a few apps… veggie sticks were overly greasy and the grilled calamari was good but tiny for the price.
We didn’t have time to wait for the second coming so we headed elsewhere after two rounds and apps. The waitress looked shocked that we asked for the check «so soon.»

Came here for happy hour with a friend. They have small, 2-​person tables by the bar near the entrance and larger tables further into the restaurant. My friend and I each ordered a glass of white wine and appetizers — calamari and fried zucchini and eggplant chips. Both were really good, and each came with it’s own special sauce. Only complaint is that sometimes the zucchini and eggplant chips were super salty on one side and other chips had no seasoning on it at all. Not a huge deal, but when you charge $ 20 for zucchini and eggplant sliced thinner than a penny, you really should season everything properly.
The service was really good, almost to the point of being annoying. Our water glasses were constantly filled and never empty, and our waiter came up to us 3 times asking if everything was okay. That’s 3 times in the hour that we were there, and then the bus boy literally circled our table like a shark before coming up to us and asking if we were finished with our food (we were not). Then our waiter came up a couple of minutes later and asked us again if we were done with our food (still not done). There were no lines for tables at the bar, and there were plenty of empty bar tables so I’m not sure why they kept coming up to us and interrupting our conversation.
Overall, it was a good experience here, but it wasn’t so great that I’d come back when there are so many other places to try in NYC!

I would have given this restaurant a solid 3 stars, but the TERRIBLE service brought it down to a 2, if not a 1.
I came here with some family friends to enjoy dinner after a long day at work and I immediately felt harassed by the staff who was whispering and giving us judgmental glares. Our waiter in particular made me feel so uncomfortable the entire time that I ordered as quickly as possible just to get away from him. When I tried to make a joke, he just stared at me and stopped talking for a minute while we all sat uncomfortably. Whenever he was near us, he would just stare so creepily like he wanted to murder us. I’ve never been so uncomfortable.
The food itself was EXTREMELY overpriced and mediocre. I had the fish of the day which was a tiny portion for the $ 38 price tag and it was covered in a peppery sauce. This is to be expected of restaurants near Grand Central so beware of price hikes. The one thing I can speak highly of is the sangria– the restaurant week special put it at $ 6 for your first glass and it was delightfully fruity.
Avoid coming here if you can unless someone else is paying or you don’t mind waiters who act like hit men.

I arrived on a Monday at 5’oclock for my reservation and was told that since I was the first in my party to arrive I had to wait. I was standing in front of the hostess desk for 20 minutes and was no offered to sit, or wait by the bar. Definitely unprofessional.
When my friend arrived and we were seated, we basically needed to ask for EVERYTHING. We asked for menus, for water, for bread, for the waiter to take our order. There are too many waiters on the floor doing nothing. Ridiculous service.
We ordered from the restaurant week menu:
Appetizers:
Spanakopita — very tasty
Prasini Slalata — simple salad
Entrees:
Mousakas — nothing special, plate was hot and the food was cold. After a long wait there was no way I was going to ask then to bring me a new dish.
Solomos– salmon– good but also cold
Dessert:
Karidopita– verrry delicious cake. The best dish of the night.
Overall, Dessert was good, everything else could have been better. Not going back.

It was a special day for my friends who got engaged. 6 of us went for dinner. We were pretty satisfied about the food. We loved The popular Greek appetizer pikilia, frouta salad, and octopus. We ordered shrimp, whole fish, tuna for the main course. For desert we love the Greek yogurt.
We changed our table twice cos of the weather getting chilly at night. The staff is very friendly and patient for that.

Pretty, well decorated space. It was a hot, muggy day and the windows were open. so the restaurant was warmer than I would have liked it to be. The waitstaff were very nice. We were started with pita bread and olives. I tried an Ammos martini and didn’t love it. There was a weird extra spice that didn’t do it for me. I’ve had feta cheese in a martini before and it didn’t bother me. As noted, prices are expensive here, but not out of the ordinary for this type of restaurant in Manhattan. Grilled fish ran about $ 30 per lb. We got to the restaurant at 6:00 and took advantage of the pre theater dinner, which is 3 courses for $ 38. We shared some grilled squid and melitzanosalata. Both were very good. We had mahi-​mahi filets that were quite good, served over risotto. For dessert, we shared «Greek gelato» and walnut cake. The coffee was noticeably worse than restaurant average.
Nice enough Greek restaurant convenient to Grand Central Station. The service was good, but it’s not a cheap evening out. Elias Corner and Taverna Kyclades have nothing to worry about.

Very expensive food and the service was only ok. Even for NYC this place seemed to be extreme. My friend wanted sardines and they recommended a $ 36 entrée that I would not pay $ 10 for.
The pita with 5 dips (appetizer) was good… I would recommend that if you find yourself trapped here.

Decent food but disappointed in the staff (hostess didn’t know where the bathrooms were), pricey food for the quality and expensive mediocre wine selection.

It was telling when my guest commented «at least the desserts were nice». A major disappointment.
I was trying to be frugal so we went with the $ 33.00 lunch special menu. My guest started with the calamari — decent but a bit overcooked. Followed by rack of lamb for a $ 9.00 surcharge — requested Rare came out closer to Medium. Not tender. The side dish of green beans was a combination of fresh bright green veggies and some that were leftover and more of a gray-​green. Obnoxious.
My starter was the caviar mousse which was fine. I had a lamb burger for my entrée — tasted bland. My Greek fries were served with no hint of oregano.
This place may do excellent fish but they screwed up the rack of lamb badly. Inexcusable. And they forgot how to serve Greek fries — huh?
Service staff was interesting. The place was half empty but we ended up with a table of six next to us with a chair in the aisle — so we had service staff brushing by for most of the meal. I should have asked to be moved.
I did not notice any background music.
Décor is nice enough but — perhaps due to the lighting — it seems subdued. If you want to see beautiful décor in a Greek restaurant try Pylos in the East Village or Periyali on 18^th Street. Now that I think about it, Periyali was great overall.

Even if my expense account were to pay for this place, I will NOT return.
Its expensive and they treat you like crap.
I came here for restaurant week and even though there was a coat rack, nobody offered to take our coats for us. We had to hang out thick down jackets behind our chairs although I would have rather used the coat check.
Our waiter was… interesting. He lacks common sense for sure. They brought out a basket of bread with nuts. My friend is allergic to nuts so of course she told the waiter about her food allergies. His response was: oh, I can bring you pita bread. That doesn’t have nuts in it. We were pleased to heat that. Then 2 seconds later, he said: But I will have to CHARGE you for pita bread.
Hell no. We said no thanks.
The food was decent, but who cares when the service is so horrible.
For desert, my friend indicated that she also had a berry allergy. The waiter kept insisting on putting the berries on the side of her pudding. What is his problem? Does he want to call an ambulance? When someone has a berry allergy, you do NOT bring berries to them on a plate. I don’t care if its on top of the pudding or next to the pudding, do not bring freaking berries.
Oh to top of our horrible dinner, we got there at 530pm, and had signed the check by 710pm. Just as we were leaving to attend a nearby event, another waiter came and told us we had to leave because they wanted our table. We were literally putting on our coats, it was a clear sign that we were leaving, and you still have to open your mouth to tell us to get out?
I am NEVER EVER coming back. Customer service sucks. Your waiter doesn’t understand allergies and you risk your life by coming here. Make sure you have your epipen ready because you might need to take a trip to the hospital. Oh and when you leave, they will still come over and ask you to leave, in your face. Don’t even bother about coat check. They don’t give a crap about you.

Expensivo. Expensive. Akrivá (that is expensive in Greek, *I think).
Expense account only place… I would never go here if I was on my own dime. Options for a business type lunch can be limited in midtown, so this is ok if you don’t care that you’re gonna spend $ 40/​head with no alcohol for a lunch.
Food is fine, but when you charge that much, it is hard to deliver value. I would rather splurge $ 12 on Roast four times than here once.