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This month’s new restaurants include an instant noodle factory, a spot inspired by Bangladesh, and a Nepalese restaurant
Eater editors are asked one question more than any other: Where should I eat right now? While many people still consider Manhattan the locus of New York’s dining scene, some neighborhoods in Queens have become dining destinations in their own right. Here, see a map of the latest Queens debuts drawing NYC’s dining obsessives.
New to the list in September: Spicy Nepal in Sunnyside; Instant Noodle Factory in Long Island City; Hello Bangladesh in Astoria; and Taste of Himalaya in Jackson Heights.
For more New York dining recommendations, check out the new hotspots in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Hamptons and our guides to brunch, food halls and Michelin-starred restaurants, many offering outdoor dining.
The buffet at this all-you-can-eat hot pot spot is mind-bogglingly expansive. Each guest gets their own pot with a choice of six broths like mala beef tallow and mushroom. Meats and seafood incur an additional cost, with beef tongue, Spam, and baby octopus on the menu. In the back, the buffet is bountiful and beautiful: There are seven kinds of mushrooms, nine leafy greens, boiled eggs, twelve meat and fish balls, and eleven noodles. The sauce bar opens yet another door to flavors.
A Colombian Peruvian restaurant has taken over the former Venezuelan Arepas Cafe at the shopping plaza on 21st Street and Broadway in Astoria. The menu mainly pulls in traditional plates — like the Colombian bandeja paisa (a smorgasbord of steak, pork belly, beans, arepa, and more) or the Peruvian causa de pollo (layers of shredded chicken, avocado and potato). The leche de tigre comes loaded with shrimp, squid, and half of a crab, claw and all. Portions are hefty so come hungry or ready to schlep leftovers.
Step inside a Northern Boulevard storefront on the ground floor of a mixed-use condo, and lose yourself in a sprawling 5,000-plus square-foot space that replicates a yokocho, an alley in Japan, aligned with dining alcoves and karaoke dens. Gary Lin, TBaar bubble tea chain founder, has wanted to recreate the yokocho vibe since he started visiting Japan about seven years ago. The menu here is just as big as the space. Hits include yakitori, balls of sushi, decadent wagyu, uni, and foie gras toast. Izakaya Nana is open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. with happy hour specials on booze and oysters from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
The mother-daughter team behind Ooodles Noodle House — Deborah and Sabrina Yuan, both Bayside residents — serves authentic Taiwanese food from a small storefront with a couple of tables indoors. The menu runs from crispy fried chicken sandwiches and beef noodle soup with pickled cabbage to lu rou fan with soft-braised pork and gua bao (steamed pork buns).
The viral cake landscapers of Gong Gan have finally turned on the lights on the upstairs bar, and revamped the brunch menu. The new dishes from creative director BJ Kim and former Per Se pastry chef Anna Kim are still funky, ethereal, and Korean-inspired. A cheeseburger is sandwiched between a flat, flaky croissant; fried chicken is coated with a batter of minced perilla leaves and green pepper; and buttery salt bread, super popular in Korea, is served with a slab of honeycomb. Soju and makgeolli cocktails are infused with the likes of yellow Korean melon, red plum, and cilantro.
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This Roosevelt Avenue storefront is a step up for Old Luo Yang, which started off as a stall inside the Landmark Quest Mall. It’s still doling out its signature cold noodles, now with a small counter that runs along one wall for eating on the premises. Liang pi (cold savory noodles) are tossed with bean sprouts, cucumbers, and tofu and come in carrot, purple sweet potato, and spinach flavors. In addition to noodles, look out for a stewed pork burger (a bundle of tender meat in flaky flatbread) and a casserole with bok choy and juicy beef.
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There’s a new addition to the corridor of Bengali restaurants on Astoria’s 36th Avenue. The steam tables at halal Hello Bangladesh are brimming with entrees like beef talkari, fried salmon steaks topped with frizzled onions, and assorted meat-filled biryanis. The $12 combo includes an entree, soup, salad, and a small side of alu bhate (spiced mashed potato) — perfect for a quick solo lunch or a casual catch-up with friends.
Instant Noodle Factory serves 85 types of packaged noodles from around the globe that customers make for themselves in the space. It’s a futuristic vibe in the restaurant, even with its window decal of a dog and cat bobbing eagerly in a tub among waves of noodles.
Chao Wang, owner of Lower East Side destination, Hunan Slurp, has expanded his repertoire with Sofun, a small but sleek Long Island City noodle parlor that pulls in various regional Chinese flavors — from fragrantly spicy Hunan to numbing Sichuan to sour Guizhou. The depth of the broth in the beef brisket noodle soup comes from a dozen ingredients including dried orange peel, star anise, pickled peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, lime, and cilantro. Wang has added dim sum mainstays to the menu, too, like a durian puff pastry, and a translucent Chiu Chow-style dumpling with dried shrimp, mushrooms, veggies, and Cantonese sausage.
Owner Shikanai Nobuyuki of the Michelin-starred sushi omakase spot, Kanoyama, has launched an elegant garden-styled project in Long Island City: Vert Frais, a Japanese cafe serving yoshoku (European Japanese) classics like hamburg steaks, omurice, and souffle pancakes as well as a popular ramen once exclusively available between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. There’s also an extensive drinks menu spanning nonalcoholic cafe concoctions like the blue moon latte with butterfly pea flower and cocktails like the rose martini with vodka infused with rose petals in house.
Taste of Himalaya is catching local buzz in Jackson Heights for its mix of traditional and innovative Nepalese, Tibetan, and Indo-Chinese dishes. The crispy okra is a hit, along with crispy chile potato with honey and a glorious tsampa cheesecake that screams Nepal and NYC. Traditional thalis and other platters come straight from homecooking repertoire. The restaurant is a partnership among three chef-owners (two Nepali, one Tibetan) who were friends back in Nepal before becoming roommates in NYC and finally achieving their dream of opening a restaurant together.
Chef-owner Bhawani Rai closed Sumnima Kitchen in Woodside last year, only to open Spicy Nepal in Sunnyside, a casual spot with traditional Nepali and Indo-Chinese dishes. The chicken choila — like a shredded chicken salad — is smoky and spicy and dotted with fenugreek seeds. And the tofu chile is coated in a crispy batter slicked with dried, sliced red peppers and a hint of Sichuan peppers. On warm days, take a seat in the spacious back patio covered with a roof.
Every morning, inside a new no-frills Italian spot, owner Franco Raicovich cuts and curls various pastas. One of them is the traditional fuzi from the Istrian peninsula (a major part of which changed hands from Italy to Yugoslavia to now Croatia), just as his grandma used to make it. The folded diamonds of fuzi get served in a sauce with soft stewed chunks of beef and lamb. Another Istrian classic is the blitva, a side dish of garlicky Swiss chard and potato. What really stands out is the commitment that owner Raicovich — third-generation NYC restaurateur born and bred in Woodside — carries out in working with Queens producers such as Hell’s Gate Farms in Astoria, Mushroom Queens in Forest Hills, and Finback Brewery in Glendale. Find local ingredients in the pickled veggies, mushrooms with ricotta, honey and crostini.
Grill and simmer the meal of your dreams at the city’s newest Thai mookata parlor, a paradise of AYCE Thai barbecue-and-hot-pot-in-one. Cook from an endless spread of veggies, noodles, and meats like cilantro-marinated squid and chile-seasoned pork belly. Don’t know how to cook these ingredients? No worries, says co-owner Raweewan Chen. Staff is on deck with tips — as well as constant refills of chicken bone broth for the hotpot and new grill pans. Make room for hot snacks like creamy tom yum soup and pad krapow gai, in addition to desserts like grass jelly and jackfruit over shaved ice and mango sticky rice.
Datz Deli is the home to the city’s most viral beef patties, which are stuffed with mac and cheese and a range of meats, including jerk chicken, curried goat, and salt fish. Owner Joshua Dat set out to start a family business using their collective experience working at Sybil’s, his great-aunt’s beloved bakery in Little Guyana. He wanted to give back to Hollis, the neighborhood he grew up in, with a deli that stands out from the city’s many bodegas. His bacon, egg, and cheese is served on coco bread, his chips are Rap Snacks, and his candies come in rare imported flavors.
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The buffet at this all-you-can-eat hot pot spot is mind-bogglingly expansive. Each guest gets their own pot with a choice of six broths like mala beef tallow and mushroom. Meats and seafood incur an additional cost, with beef tongue, Spam, and baby octopus on the menu. In the back, the buffet is bountiful and beautiful: There are seven kinds of mushrooms, nine leafy greens, boiled eggs, twelve meat and fish balls, and eleven noodles. The sauce bar opens yet another door to flavors.
A Colombian Peruvian restaurant has taken over the former Venezuelan Arepas Cafe at the shopping plaza on 21st Street and Broadway in Astoria. The menu mainly pulls in traditional plates — like the Colombian bandeja paisa (a smorgasbord of steak, pork belly, beans, arepa, and more) or the Peruvian causa de pollo (layers of shredded chicken, avocado and potato). The leche de tigre comes loaded with shrimp, squid, and half of a crab, claw and all. Portions are hefty so come hungry or ready to schlep leftovers.
Step inside a Northern Boulevard storefront on the ground floor of a mixed-use condo, and lose yourself in a sprawling 5,000-plus square-foot space that replicates a yokocho, an alley in Japan, aligned with dining alcoves and karaoke dens. Gary Lin, TBaar bubble tea chain founder, has wanted to recreate the yokocho vibe since he started visiting Japan about seven years ago. The menu here is just as big as the space. Hits include yakitori, balls of sushi, decadent wagyu, uni, and foie gras toast. Izakaya Nana is open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. with happy hour specials on booze and oysters from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
The mother-daughter team behind Ooodles Noodle House — Deborah and Sabrina Yuan, both Bayside residents — serves authentic Taiwanese food from a small storefront with a couple of tables indoors. The menu runs from crispy fried chicken sandwiches and beef noodle soup with pickled cabbage to lu rou fan with soft-braised pork and gua bao (steamed pork buns).
The viral cake landscapers of Gong Gan have finally turned on the lights on the upstairs bar, and revamped the brunch menu. The new dishes from creative director BJ Kim and former Per Se pastry chef Anna Kim are still funky, ethereal, and Korean-inspired. A cheeseburger is sandwiched between a flat, flaky croissant; fried chicken is coated with a batter of minced perilla leaves and green pepper; and buttery salt bread, super popular in Korea, is served with a slab of honeycomb. Soju and makgeolli cocktails are infused with the likes of yellow Korean melon, red plum, and cilantro.
This Roosevelt Avenue storefront is a step up for Old Luo Yang, which started off as a stall inside the Landmark Quest Mall. It’s still doling out its signature cold noodles, now with a small counter that runs along one wall for eating on the premises. Liang pi (cold savory noodles) are tossed with bean sprouts, cucumbers, and tofu and come in carrot, purple sweet potato, and spinach flavors. In addition to noodles, look out for a stewed pork burger (a bundle of tender meat in flaky flatbread) and a casserole with bok choy and juicy beef.
There’s a new addition to the corridor of Bengali restaurants on Astoria’s 36th Avenue. The steam tables at halal Hello Bangladesh are brimming with entrees like beef talkari, fried salmon steaks topped with frizzled onions, and assorted meat-filled biryanis. The $12 combo includes an entree, soup, salad, and a small side of alu bhate (spiced mashed potato) — perfect for a quick solo lunch or a casual catch-up with friends.
Instant Noodle Factory serves 85 types of packaged noodles from around the globe that customers make for themselves in the space. It’s a futuristic vibe in the restaurant, even with its window decal of a dog and cat bobbing eagerly in a tub among waves of noodles.
Chao Wang, owner of Lower East Side destination, Hunan Slurp, has expanded his repertoire with Sofun, a small but sleek Long Island City noodle parlor that pulls in various regional Chinese flavors — from fragrantly spicy Hunan to numbing Sichuan to sour Guizhou. The depth of the broth in the beef brisket noodle soup comes from a dozen ingredients including dried orange peel, star anise, pickled peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, lime, and cilantro. Wang has added dim sum mainstays to the menu, too, like a durian puff pastry, and a translucent Chiu Chow-style dumpling with dried shrimp, mushrooms, veggies, and Cantonese sausage.
Owner Shikanai Nobuyuki of the Michelin-starred sushi omakase spot, Kanoyama, has launched an elegant garden-styled project in Long Island City: Vert Frais, a Japanese cafe serving yoshoku (European Japanese) classics like hamburg steaks, omurice, and souffle pancakes as well as a popular ramen once exclusively available between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. There’s also an extensive drinks menu spanning nonalcoholic cafe concoctions like the blue moon latte with butterfly pea flower and cocktails like the rose martini with vodka infused with rose petals in house.
Taste of Himalaya is catching local buzz in Jackson Heights for its mix of traditional and innovative Nepalese, Tibetan, and Indo-Chinese dishes. The crispy okra is a hit, along with crispy chile potato with honey and a glorious tsampa cheesecake that screams Nepal and NYC. Traditional thalis and other platters come straight from homecooking repertoire. The restaurant is a partnership among three chef-owners (two Nepali, one Tibetan) who were friends back in Nepal before becoming roommates in NYC and finally achieving their dream of opening a restaurant together.
Private Label Healthy Longkou Vermicelli Chef-owner Bhawani Rai closed Sumnima Kitchen in Woodside last year, only to open Spicy Nepal in Sunnyside, a casual spot with traditional Nepali and Indo-Chinese dishes. The chicken choila — like a shredded chicken salad — is smoky and spicy and dotted with fenugreek seeds. And the tofu chile is coated in a crispy batter slicked with dried, sliced red peppers and a hint of Sichuan peppers. On warm days, take a seat in the spacious back patio covered with a roof.