Fine Greek Dining at Amali NYC

Dining in New York City provides thousands of options that one could spend hours obsessing over the perfect setting, food, location, and price point. We always love places that are cheery and have fabulous food but also look for locally grown and fresh ingredients on the menu. Recently, the Mom Central team had the opportunity to visit the newly opened, Amali Restaurant on 60^th Street and Park Avenue in New York City, and taste some items from the menu put together by owner, James Mallios and executive chef, Devon Gilroy.

Enjoying our lunch in an intimate, modern setting, we were impressed at how much the dining room felt like an airy outdoor patio space. This was particularly enhanced by the picket fence that marks the entrance, the ridged texturing on the walls and coral seating that brightened the room, and the skylight backroom with black brick walls. The owner later told us that the beautiful light wood tables were crafted from the original ceiling wood of the restaurant—how cool!

If the décor and setting wasn’t enough, the food wowed us with each savory bite. For appetizers, we first tasted two crostini, one with an artichoke spread with lemon and mint flavoring, the other with chanterelle mushrooms and white cheese, along with a char-grilled octopus. We were huge fans of the crostini, which were big enough to split between the 4 of us.

For the main dishes, we sampled a garlic and tomato pasta, quail with greens and olive oil, a light fish fillet with fennel, and a sweet and savory squash assortment with drizzled 25-year-aged balsamic vinaigrette and ricotta cheese. For this course, the fish and squash were the stand-outs.

By the time we were offered dessert, we were so full and happy with the other course that we almost hesitated to try. “Just a bite never hurt anyone!” we said. However, when the Greek version of a cannoli was put in front of us, we devoured the entire dish. Baked philo spindles were wrapped around the sweet, ricotta cheese, with honey and honeycomb bits lightly poured over the cannoli. The walnut cake that was also served was delicious and we never would have thought to pair it with a beet sorbet and Greek yogurt combo.

Our experience was pleasantly unexpected with the unique tastes and combinations of the ingredients put together with modern flair. This would be a lovely place for a special family meal or a gathering in their upstairs event room. Check out some pictures and their menu at http://amalinyc.com/.

See additional photos of our dining experience at Amali NYC in the gallery below.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Disclosure: Mom Central received a complimentary menu tasting at Amali.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.