Locale

33-02 34th Ave.
Astoria, NY
(718) 729-9080

This is the second time I've been to Locale, and I have to say the food is quite good. We had salmon carpaccio to start. I had chicken marsala for dinner and Snowman had a turkey burger. The salmon was really nice, served with onions and capers (which I always thought I hated, but am actually coming around to now). The chicken marsala was delicious with great big mushrooms and a fantastic wine sauce, perfect for soaking up bread. Snowman liked his turkey burger, but the French fries, which they call "shoe string" were more like "dental floss." They were so thin it was hard to get even the faintest hint of potato out of them.

The atmostphere here is nice too. Rather upscale for the neighborhood, but not pretentious or stuffy. The real problem was that we went on Friday night and the music was blasting, even though it wasn't even 9 PM yet. And it was that awful kind of music without any words, just an obnoxious beat boring into your brain and making all conversation a chore. Luckily, after five years of dating, Snowman and I have run out of things to say to each other, so it didn't matter. But from now on, I'll be dining there during the week, to avoid the loud boom-boom-boom.

Grade: B- (docked for the music)