Largo: 63-20 Woodhaven Blvd.,
Rego Park

Phone:  478-1800

Cuisine:  Italian, American, and Seafood

Hours:  Sun.-Tues., 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.; Wed.-Thurs., 5 p.m. - 11 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., and 5 p.m. - midnight.  The bar at Largo is open until 2 a.m. Sun.-Wed., and 4 a.m. Thurs-Sat.

Credit Cards: All Major

Largo restaurant opened just over a month ago, and is already amassing a substantial following. The restaurant’s blue and red color scheme and ambience are a draw, but the food is what keeps people consistently coming from Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island. 

The restaurant, located on Woodhaven Boulevard in Rego Park, features Chef Ken Pulomena – formerly of Manhattan’s Blue Water Grill, Dock’s, and Bryant & Cooper Steakhouse – as well as a sommelier and live music from Wednesday to Saturday nights. 

The appetizer menu offers a variety of seafood choices, and the marinated grilled calamari and octopus with garlic, chili, fresh herbs, extra virgin olive oil, and white wine sauce is highly recommended.  Also delicious is the sautéed Maryland lump crabcake with roasted corn salsa.

For Largo’s vegetarian visitors, plenty of options are also available, particularly appealing is the house salad of kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, capers, and anchovies in a balsamic dressing.

For entrees, meat eaters can enjoy a grilled dry aged sirloin with blue cheese mashed potato haricot vert in a cabernet sauvignon sauce.  Fish lovers may select the swordfish, served “blackened like the tar on the street,” with sweet potato and crabmeat hash in voodoo sauce.  Another option is the crabmeat-crusted salmon with sautéed spinach and rock shrimp risotto in a chardonnay white wine sauce. 

With dinner, try a bottle from Largo’s wine list, with selections from as far away as Australia and New Zealand to a local flavor from the North Fork of Long Island.  Red and white wines are also available by the glass.

All of Largo’s ingredients are prepared fresh, as the restaurant refrigerates all, and freezes none of its food, except for shrimp, which must be iced.  The kitchen features a mesquite grill, which allows Chef Pulomena to add several wood flavors to meals. 

Largo also has a bar backed by blue lights and metallic columns, and a lounge with cushy chairs and sofas for less hungry visitors.  A drink recommendation is the “Largotini” – a sweet, martini – and for dessert Largo’s Cheesecake – a delicious chocolate and vanilla flavor blend. 

Kitchen hours are 5 p.m. - 10 p.m. from Sunday through Tuesday, 5 p.m. -11 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, and 5 p.m. - Midnight from Friday through Sunday. The restaurant’s manager said, “You don’t have to cross any bridges or tunnels because you have the food of Manhattan on Woodhaven Boulevard.” 

While Wednesday nights feature a quiet piano and bass duo for diners’ entertainment, from Thursday through Saturday night a singer is on-hand to perform all your favorite Sinatra and Tony Bennett tunes on request.  Largo also hosts private parties.

— Jonathan Kivell