April 2, 2015 By Michael Florio
A Turkish immigrant has opened a Mediterranean restaurant right next to the Ditmars Blvd subway station.
Truva Café & Grill, located at 22-41 31st Street, offers traditional Greek and Turkish fare—from gyros to lamb chops.
The owner Rahyi Aydin said that Truva is his first restaurant. He said that he has plenty of experience as a chef–having worked in restaurants in Turkey as well as in New York. His last employer was Deniz, a restaurant located in Brooklyn.
Aydin said that he was instantly drawn to Astoria when he decided to open a restaurant. He checked out 30th Ave, Broadway and Ditmars Blvd, before finding his 31st Street location.
“There are no Mediterranean options here,” he said, referring to the Ditmars Blvd area.
Aydin immigrated to the United States 11 years ago. He spent two of those years living in Astoria.
“I’m very familiar with the neighborhood,” he said. “I saw a need for Mediterranean food and wanted to fill the void.”
He said that there was no great buzz about his restaurant prior to its opening. However, people are now coming inside and checking it out, he added.
“A lot of Greek and European people live in the community and will enjoy it,” he said. “We just want to offer another option to people.”
The menu includes gyros, kebabs, falafels, lamb saute, lamb chops, pasta, salads, soup, wraps, Turkish-style pizza and sandwiches.
The restaurant can seat more than 40 people and is open from 8 am to 1 am, seven days a week. It also offers free delivery from 11 am to midnight.
For deliveries, customers can call at 718-932-6400.
9 Comments
We are all grateful it’s not some whitey white middle of the country yuppie hipster place.
I had a quick bite last week and it was delicious. I had a falafel and it was very good. I will go back again. Thank God that this is a real place that serves real food and it isn’t another annoying Brooklyn Bagel & Co. or coffee joint that caters to the mid-west transplant and clueless Hipsters. Keep those joints and those creeps in Brooklyn!
Yeah, I thought the same thing… does astoria, especially this side, needs another restaurant? There’s like 2 of them right next to each other. But me and my wife decided to try it out. And well they did not disappoint. Fresh delicious food!! We ordered there twice in the same week. Definitely will go back. Sure you can find similar things nearby, but you can taste the quality at this place. Well worth it and very affordable.
Hmmm reminds me of the people the work at Greenbay Organic shop on Broadway. No customer service whatsoever. It’s like the only reason they are working there is to pay the smuggler who got them into this country.
I am so disappointed in this new ‘restaurant’, if you can call it that! My family and I visited this place a few days ago for the first time with high hopes. We weren’t event welcomed with a smile nor was the service good. We ordered breakfast, the vegetable scrambled eggs were burned and after I complained to the waitress she argued with me and denied the fact that the eggs were over cooked. I asked the lady to take it back and she did. Then I asked for the check and the burned order (which I didn’t eat) was still on the bill. Good luck with staying in this neighborhood.
Yawn, Astoria needs another “Mediterranean” restaurant like it needs another pizza joint.
Unabashed hipster!
What is your definition of a hipster, James? What is it with this neighborhood’s prejudice of a “hipster?” Are you people that ignorant?
Anyway, I’m waaaay to old to be a hipster. More like a cranky old man who would kill you all for some good Vietnamese or Korean food by Ditmars.