Full Review: Hellenic Snack Bar - East Marion, NY/ Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Mr. Guido Says: ****

The Hellenic Snack Bar has become almost a North Fork landmark. Almost everyone knows about "that Greek place on the North Fork". Despite the name, it is actually a fairly large restaurant, with multiple rooms inside, and a large covered outdoor tile patio. I highly recommend eating outside if the weather permits - Greek food is best enjoyed outside...this type of Greek food anyway. It isn't the fanciest take on Greek food, but rather simple, fresh (maybe a bit crude) versions of all of the Greek classics. For appetizers, the Skordalia was appropriately garlicy, and served over eggplant. Saganaki, fried Greek Kefalograviera cheese was the best I've had at a restaurant, and very similar to my own version. Many restaurants now serve the melted cheese breaded in flour, and barely melted. Hellenic snack bar serves it right in the pan it was fried in, all melted and soaked in olive oil and lemony goodness. For the main meal, Chicken Souvlaki, served as an open faced pita with grilled tomatoes and onion was above average, but nothing extra special. Pastitsio was also standard. I highly recommend trying the fresh squeezed lemonade, something this place is famous for. For dessert, I felt the Baklava was subpar (but even subpar baklava is pretty good). The walnuts were a little large for my taste, I prefer when they are ground up smaller. Also, the waitress should be better informed regarding the menu. Most of them do not seem to be Greek, but they should still know about all of the Greek stuff on the menu. The waitress seemed puzzled when Mrs. Guido ordered a Samos, the super-sweet golden nectar-like Greek dessert wine. All in all, the Hellenic Snack Bar serves slightly above average Greek food, with a few great offerings (Saganaki!), along with a nice atmosphere if you chose to eat outside. Sipping Samos on the marble tiled patio, one can forget that they are on route 25 in East Marion, and for a moment imagine they are on a Greek Island somewhere.

Mrs. Guido Says: ****

The Hellenic Snack Bar is something that I would definitely call a "summer restaurant". Sure, it's open in the winter as well, and has more than adequate indoor seating, but the location, atmosphere, and type of cuisine is best enjoyed on a sunny summer's evening. We've gone there now 3 times over the past 2 and a half years, with the first time being the most ideal. I was a young, newly-Mrs. Guido thing, and it was a beautiful summer evening. We had just taken a stroll around nearby Greenport, and had planned to come for dinner afterwards. We had to wait for a table on the outdoor patio to become available, but i'm glad we did. The atmosphere was absolutely charming; fragrant hanging baskets of brightly colored flowers, beautiful granite and marble tiles, and the chatter of neighboring tables. For the first visit, we started with the skordalia, which was super garlicky, but of a thin consistency. Making up for that was the fried eggplant it was served over, which I got to eat all myself because Mr. Guido is finicky. I think I poached half of Mr. Guido's lemonade, I opted for water because I felt guilty that something as menial as lemonade cost so much. The avgolemono soup I was dissappointed in, more avgo than lemeno, and no spices. the chicken souvlaki pita was tasty, with big chunks of chicken and stewed onions and tomatos. The tzaziki was tasty as well. The perfect evening was topped off with a nice glass of Samos; this is one of the only places that serves you a full glass of the super sweet, super strong dessert wine. 1 glass will make you happy, and since i also had half of Mr. Guido's as well, those granite tiles became hazardous. Our second visit was in the fall, over a year from our first visit. This time we obviously had to sit inside, but it just wasn't the same. We started with the saganaki, which is melted cheesy lemony goodness. I tried the falafel pita with a side of sweet potato fries. The falafel was good; not great, not bad, but good. The sweet potato fries were very good, but I would have preferred to put my own salt on them, as they were a bit too salty for my taste. We finally just got back from our latest excursion. Since I had a relatively large lunch before we headed out east, I wasn't super hungry for dinner. I opted for the fried calamari dinner as a result, which came with skordalia for dipping, and a soup or salad. i got the avgolemeno, because it had been almost 2 years since i had it last, and i had forgot that it was nothing special. In hindsight, I should have opted for the salad. the calamari was tender and had a nice breading, but there were a lot of leggy bits that went uneaten. For the price, it wasn't a lot of food, and had i been more hungry i would have been very disappointed. but for that day, it was the right amount of food. we finally got to try dessert, yay! i didn't think the baklava was that bad, nuts don't bother me, but I see what Mr. Guido means. It could have been a bit sweeter maybe. And yes, a nice glass of Samos to wash it down. Overall, there are more pros than cons, I just wish it was a little closer so we could enjoy it more often.