Trattoria L'Incontro

I was all set to order the fettucini with shrimp, mascarpone and leeks, when along came the waiter.

"Wanna hear our specials? We have fifty of them." Fifty!? I thought I'd heard wrong, but the waiter began to recite a list so long that if there were such a thing as the Waiter Olympics, he would've won. The specials included polpette: cheese-egg meatless "meatballs" in a tomato sauce, grilled sardines, a salad of thinly sliced beets with greens in a truffle vinaigrette, a quartered ball of fresh buffalo mozzarella, shrimp mango salad, lobster salad, venison, spinach ravioli, branzino, short ribs, chicken paillard under a tomato-avocado dice, Dover sole in lemon butter, sea bass livornese with mussels, grouper stuffed with spinach and mascarpone. I could have sworn I heard the word "ostrich" in there somewhere, but I can't remember.

I ended up with the very light polpette, and the whole branzino, which I generally prefer to fillet myself; I love the slightly charred skin. This particular specimen was stuffed with fragrant herbs and grilled to perfection. I wasn't a fan of the the side, a stew of mushrooms, tomatoes and peppers, but I didn't need it anyway after I finished poaching from my friends' sole, bass and chicken. The richly sauced sole was presented in a very interesting way: the spine fenced off each half. Maybe this deterred me from taking too much of my friend's entree!

Because we were stuffed beyond all reason at this point, our dessert choices were light: lemon ricotta cheesecake and tangy lemon sorbet. We ended with double espresso.

Although I haven't yet been to Manducatis, as of now, Trattoria L'Incontro is easily the best Italian food I've eaten in Queens.

Trattoria L'Incontro: 21-76 31st St., Astoria, (718) 721-3532.