A Peachy's Pick Since 2011 and Best Greek Restaurant in Manhattan, Ammos Winter 2018 Our Coverage Sponsored by Fresh Origins
Trahana Garides Saganaki, for the Peasants of Park Avenue
Peachy Deegan and Owner Dimitris Nakos
Chips Lahanikon!
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Outside it may be cold, dark, windy and dreary, but if you pick the right venues to dine at like Ammos, a Peachy's Pick since 2011 (the first year that any restaurant was picked that continues to be recommended) and Best Greek Restaurant in Manhattan according to Whom You Know, dinner is a delicious beacon of light. You know we really love you when we are taking pictures of the bread basket. Ammos was last featured last summer:
Ammos earned a spot in Peachy's Picks in 2011:
In 2011, Ammos was one of the dozen venues that launched The Peachy Deegan cocktail:
http://www.whomyouknow.com/search/label/I%20Drank%20The%20Peachy%20Deegan%20at%20Ammos#.WYtCdVF97IU
http://www.whomyouknow.com/search/label/I%20Drank%20The%20Peachy%20Deegan%20at%20Ammos#.WYtCdVF97IU
Right now, the Peachy is not available and Peachy and Charles will relaunch it someday.
We began with a hearty, fragrant dish of Gigandes: baked traditional giant beans in tomato sauce, dill, spring onions and crumbled feta (you know cheese is our favorite vegetable.) This dish sounds simple but the taste is deep and amazing yielding wonderful notes of vegetables and just the right touch of dill to wow you in a big way. We particularly like the scallions/spring onions here.
How many meatballs do THIS WELL in a glamour shot?
They are no longer available for autographs as they are quite happily long gone in Peachy's stomach, and they are uber-fresh. Greek meat is delivered daily to Ammos and you can taste it in every bite that announces impressive. They are 100% beef and they are made twice a day. NOTHING IS FROZEN at Ammos. It would be truly impossible, as there is no freezer here. If any lesser venue feeds us something out of the freezer we can tell because places like Ammos set the standard. You will rejoice in these ground sirloin meatballs with barrel-aged feta and parsley cooked in tomato and basil sauce.
Our FAVORITE appetizer this visit was the Chips Lahanikon, which has best superbowl food written all over it. Crispy thin-cut vegetables flawlessly dive into yogurt garlic sauce, which is the absolute ultimate in rich and creamy. No one does yogurt better than the Greeks.
Broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, eggplant and sweet potato are perfectly fried to a crisp golden brown. We never edit pictures, you either look this good or you are jealous of Ammos!
The salad selection at Ammos is truly tremendous and you can choose to add any of four seafood accents or chicken. We chose the Traganao Avocado this visit, and it was spectacular. You cannot count on every Manhattan restaurant to have this kind of vegetable quality in the dead of winter, but you can absolutely count on fresh, colorful, nutritious produce at Ammos any time of year. Sliced avocados, beefsteak tomatoes, chickpeas, Kalamata olives, parsley, cumin, paprika (a huge visual plus as well!), crumbled pita chips and aged white balsamic vinaigrette and evoo create a salad that is a bastion of goodness.
They get all the details right, like putting the dressing on the side for Ms. Pretty Picky.
This next dish is a true winner! Dimitris's grandmother, his mom's mom, used to make this traditional Greek Dish that will make your day: Trahana Garides Saganaki. For anyone that is Greek and thinks this is a peasant dish, please be aware that this is for the Peasants of Park Avenue that dine with their pinkies out. An elevated, elegant Trahana, it is the ultimate in sophistication on a plate with its cretan cracked wheat pasta kneaded with fermented milk and four tiger shrimp that roar with flavor. It is served as a Santorini risotto style dish and is topped with barrel-aged feta, scallions and sun-dried tomatoes. Every bite is exquisitely delicious and this is one of the best entrees we have had at all this winter. We can't wait to eat it again.
Next in the batting order was another fantastic dish from the sea: Seafood Moussaka! Finely chopped seafood and fresh catch fish which was Striped Bass the day we visited, layers of zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant seared in evoo, and above these, a gorgeous feta bechamel sauce team up for a glorious combination. Feta brings the right amount of acidity to balance the sweetness of the bechamel, and a shrimp majestically tops it off.
Drumroll, please!
Meet Gourounopoulo. It's a Piglet!
We bet you've never had it before, and if you have, you haven't had one that has visited the Five Star Spa Dimitris yet.
This is the most luxurious piglet dish you could have in Manhattan; first, the piglet flys over from Greece three times a week. When it arrives at 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, it is promptly escorted to Spa Demitris to get its hair and nails done, so to speak. When it has achieved its ultimate in deliciousness through a bespoke seasoning and massage treatment that Demitris does personally to each piglet, the whole baby piglet is rested and refreshed and all set for its slow roasting process in its own juices, culminating in a lovely glazed patina. If you haven't eaten piglet before, you do probably eat veal, which is a baby cow. This is a baby pig, so it's the "veal" of pig. This traditional Greek dish is further highlighted by a rosemary sprig, and steak fries.
As you know, our policy is to only ever work with restaurant owners, and owners of companies. However, we will say that Jay Belhadfa is one of the most dedicated and genuinely caring managers we have ever seen. We bet you can't remember the last time we pictured a manager! Jay suggested the Yiaourti Krema for dessert, and the chilled greek yogurt flan with honey and sour cherries hit the spot.
Ammos continues to be Highly Recommended!
We look forward to seeing what they do next.
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