Istria Sport Club - Broad Channel

Good place for family party. Food is excellent, event room can get a little tight if you have a lot of people.Food: 5/5

This is a hidden gem in the middle of Astoria. The restaurant is downstairs. I came here with a big group for a family style dinner. I highly recommend the gnocchi, the kielbasa style sausage and the broccoli rabe. The grilled whole Branzino was delicious. Oh and the blintzes with fruit jam was good too. It was very affordable and the service was great.

Great Croatian Italian food and comfy dining experience and the food is amazing and great place for events, just parking is a issue use the parking lot.

I happen to be in this area and as I had never tried food from Istria, I decided to step in a bit earlier than my usual meal. Istria is one of the areas of Croatia and the food there is more influenced by Italian apparently which can be seen very evidently from some of the courses here. The food overall was simple but very tasty and the staff was pleasant. I ordered a beer to start and they lacked the beers from Croatia/the surrounding area so I went with a Peroni which was 7$ (I guess get the wine instead as this was easily the only overpriced thing I got. They brought out some bread with some good olive oil to start out with which I gradually ate with the courses I ordered. I started off of the Domača juha or juha in short which is a chicken soup with noodles. This had a tasty chicken broth and I think it would be a wonderful winter warmup. The noodles inside were very small and different with a nice texture. They served the soup with some powdered cheese (I believe it was Parmesan but unsure on the side which I added to which was a unique tasty way to add flavor. The soup overall was fine but I would try a different appetizer next time I go there. My main course was the fusi or fuži. This is a local pasta found in in Istrian region and it is served with a light pink veal sauce along with pieces of veal. The veal in it was clearly cooked for ages as it was incredibly tender while the noodles had an interesting tasty texture. This was a savory delicious dish with the cheese from before adding some extra flavor and the bread was quite useful for mopping up the rest of the great sauce. I would highly recommend it. Afterwards he asked whether I wanted dessert and the only dessert here is crepes (aka palacinke and there were three varieties; marmalade, nutella, and walnuts. He recommended the marmalade over the walnuts and I went with that. The dish came out with 2 crepes and they had a good texture. I believe the flavor of the marmalade inside was sour cherry but I'm not sure and it wasn't overly sweet or sour. They were also very good in short. Not really many complaints about this place. Even though I'm not Croatian or Istrian, I felt welcome here from the nice staff though I'm not sure if this was also because it was quite early but it did seem like the people here were genuinely nice. The food overall felt homemade and comforting. Mid 4.

Unfortunately I can't give this place 0 stars. The selection of dishes is poor. Several in our party ordered fish and asked for cloth napkins but the waiter claimed that because of Covid it was not allowed. Absolute lie because then it would mean that several restaurants we ate at were breaking the law because table was set with cloth napkins. Also it is inconsistent wyCovid regulations that cloth tablecloths are permitted but no napkins. Sarme (stuffed cabbage)I had were very salty and definitely defrosted. Also several times throughout the years we and other friends were grossly overcharged and when we inquired about the bill we were all told that it was a mistake and bill was reduced. A friend was recently presented with a bill that was reduced by almost half when he inquired about the charge. Interestingly that they never erred on the side of undercharging. We are done with Istria Sports Club. Never again!