Queens!!!
Looking for the best food the borough of Queens in NYC has to offer. It's your last meal and it has to be in Queens. Where are you going? Broad topic but why not?
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"Broad topic but why not?"
For reasons of which I don't know this board does better at narrowly defined questions. Three of our best articulate posters have chimed in to less advantage than they are want to achieve.›2 Replies -
I will second (or third) LIC Market which is quite an excellent restaurant. Granted they have strange hours but if you go it's well worth it. All local and/or organic. Haven't been to Salt and Fat yet been meaning to go, it's on Queens Blvd and 43rd in Sunnyside. As for the people who say that Queens doesn't have Brooklyn style restaurants, well it ain't Brooklyn. For Indian try Seva on 34th street just off of 30th ave, for pizza try Manducati's Rustica on Vernon Blvd LIC. For Kansas style BBQ you MUST go to John Brown Smokehouse, pulled pork, burnt ends, rib tips, pork belly etc all is delicious. I also haven't been to the New World Food Court in Flushing yet but have heard only good things. Tortilleria Nixtamal makes the best tortillas this side of mexico, Los Portales on Broadway has extremely cheap tacos and tortas.
As for the best pastrami, Katz's is over rated. Ben's is better, much better. But John Brown has a version that will knock your socks off...
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Ben's Best Kosher Deli
96-40 Queens Blvd, Queens, NY 11374Seva
30-07 34th St, Queens, NY 11103Manducatis Rustica
46-31 Vernon Blvd, Queens, NY 11101Tortilleria Nixtamal
104-05 47th Ave, Queens, NY 11368Los Portales
25-08 Broadway, Queens, NY 11106LIC Market
21-52 44th Dr, Queens, NY 11101John Brown Smokehouse
25-08 37th Ave, Queens, NY 11101 -
Polecat
Nov 20, 2011 08:07 PM
The original poster asked about the best food that Queens has to offer, and, somehow, this discussion got sidetracked into lamenting that Queens isn't Williamsburgh, Brooklyn Heights or Park Slope. I'm concerned that this will dissuade those that are truly adventurous, inquisitive, enthusiastic or just plain curious.
A poster above stated that Queens doesn't have much to offer. This is totally absurd. To anyone who is remotely interested in great food and, for that matter, how that great food is part and parcel with the people and cultures that produce it, there are few places in this country that are better to explore than Queens.
If anyone wants to read further on this, just do a search on Flushing, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Astoria, Woodside and, to a lesser extent, Long Island City, Richmond Hill, Corona, Bayside, Rego Park and Jamaica.
Yeah, we're not Brooklyn. That's a good thing. Brooklyn is Brooklyn and has its' own unique strengths. We have some great choices in this city and, if you ask me, most of them are pretty damned exciting. Eat up.
And, by all means, to anyone who's curious, get your asses out to Queens.
P.
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re: Polecat
Since my original post i have hit 2 absolute gems in Queens. 1st we went to LIC Market. Unreal. Everything is very well prices and incredibly good. They have weird dinner hours so check to make sure they are open before you make the journey. We also went out to Corona one Sunday afternoon for tacos at Tortilleria Nixtamal. If you like tacos and beer you MUST go here. Fish tacos and tacos al pastor. My wife is from LA and she gave the big thumbs up. Not the easiest spot to get to but well worth the journey. Be sure to take tortillas home with you. Does anyone have any good Korean suggestions?
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Tortilleria Nixtamal
104-05 47th Ave, Queens, NY 11368LIC Market
21-52 44th Dr, Queens, NY 11101
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Hate to say, I don't think queens has much to offer. I moved here one year ago and still looking for good and different restaurants like they have in Brooklyn. Seems to have an Italian place on every corner.
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re: wonka
Hi wonka,
Oh my. What neighborhood are you in? And, do you dislike ethnic food?
There's a lot of excellent food in Queens but it's a large area and a lot of the best stuff is ethnic.
Hope you'll keep an open mind. I'm sure some other chowhounds can chime in with specifics.
Please note - I live in Glendale, which is, overall, one of the weaker Queens neighborhoods for restaurants, so I can understand. Hey, it's what motivated my avatar (Glendale is hungry... for good restaurants). But I used to live in Astoria and had easy access to Sunnyside, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Corona and Flushing—each of which has many wonderful options—albeit ethnic.
Ciao,
Glendale is hungry...
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re: wonka
EricMM
Nov 19, 2011 09:11 AM
You have Danny Brown's on Metropolitan ave in Forest Hills. If you're in Middle Village, you have London Lennie's on Woodhaven Blvd, right between MV and Rego Park.
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Danny Brown
104-02 Metropolitan Ave, Queens, NY 11375London Lennie's
63-88 Woodhaven Blvd, Queens, NY 11374-
re: EricMM
Danny Brown's was one of the first places I checked out when I moved in and it wa OK....I'll give it another shot, and yea that's the type of places I wish we had more of in the area. Also went to anAsian place on the next block not so good and then you also suggest London Lennies??....really??...been there years ago...maybe I need to re visit as well, but I know it's not what I' looking for.
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Danny Brown
104-02 Metropolitan Ave, Queens, NY 11375-
re: wonka
EricMM
Nov 19, 2011 12:30 PM
London Lennie's is certainly not a "cool" place. Far from it. And its huge and always packed. The crowd is everybody.....from newborns to ancient, loads of families big and small, loads of couples, both elderly and young, loads of social groups big and small. Its definitely NOT a cool place, and nothing at all like a Williamsburg restaurant. Now I'm a big fan of Dressler....been going there off and on since it opened. But for good food- the most impeccably fresh fish and raw shellfish (they have a retail counter also...the only quality source of fish in the immediate area) and generous portions (much larger than Dressler), and a large winelist, with some of the most reasonable wine prices I've seen (good cocktails too), I'll take London Lennies over Dressler any day.
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London Lennie's
63-88 Woodhaven Blvd, Queens, NY 11374
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re: wonka
Hi wonka,
I'm hoping for more interesting stuff too (the more the better).
Right now, I think the parts of Queens to keep an eye on for the types of restaurants you describe are Hunters Point/LIC, the Broadway-Steinway part of Astoria (near the R and M trains) and the part of Ridgewood along the L train (hoping that places like Roberta's and Northeast Kingdom keep moving further out along that line).
It may take a while but who knows? You may get your wish.
ciao,
Glendale is hungry...
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Northeast Kingdom
18 Wyckoff Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237-
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re: wonka
Hi wonka,
Yes, it's possible but location is key. M. Wells did very well in LIC (although they ultimately had landlord issues) but probably would have gone totally unnoticed and gone belly up in weeks if they had been in say, Woodhaven, Glendale or Ozone Park.
Another factor is that some of the places we're describing might be perceived by the local populace as being a little too pricey for some Queens neighborhoods.
Oh well, time will tell. In the mean time, we can do what we can to enjoy the charms of what's nearby.
Some of my latest Queens faves include Tazzina (upper Glendale), Queens Kickshaw (Broadway-Steinway area of Astoria), and Chimney Cake on Jackson Avenue (Hunters Point - LIC).
Ciao,
Glendale is hungry...
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Tazzina
75-01 88th St, Queens, NY 11385Queens Kickshaw
40-17 Broadway, Queens, NY 11103Chimney Cake
10-50 Jackson Ave, Queens, NY 11101
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re: wonka
Woodside Al
Nov 22, 2011 11:13 AM
"I don't think queens has much to offer."
This is a joke, right? Queens has the widest diversity of restaurants available in the eastern U.S. If there's a country whose food you wish to sample just name it, and you're pretty likely to find it somewhere in the vast area of this borough. I've been here nearly a decade now and there are still whole neighborhoods and whole cuisines I haven't really explored yet.
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My husband & I only get back to Queens (where my parents live) once per year (we live in IL). We ALWAYS hit these three places: Rosa's in Maspeth for pizza, and Ben's Best (for pastrami sandwiches) and Istanbul (love the vegetarian appetizer platter), both on Queens Blvd. in Rego Park.
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Ben's Best Kosher Deli
96-40 Queens Blvd, Queens, NY 11374Rosa's Pizza
55-26 69th St, Queens, NY 11378Istanbul
95-36 Queens Blvd, Queens, NY 11374›2 Replies -
E Eto
Nov 2, 2011 12:02 AM
While you might think of Queens as just a neighborhood in NYC, it is, in fact, a city of about 2.3 million people, making it the 4th largest city in the US (just behind Chicago) if measured on its own (though the population in Brooklyn is slightly higher at 2.5 million). Maybe you want to refine your request a little. However, on that note, two of my final meals before departing Queens were at Rincon Criollo and Kabab Cafe.
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Kabab Cafe
25-12 Steinway St, Queens, NY 11103Rincon Criollo
40-09 Junction Blvd, Queens, NY 11368 -
morisaur
Nov 1, 2011 05:50 PM
i'll admit i haven't explored queens as much as i would like to, but speaking from my limited experiences there, i would have to say either sripraphai for thai food or one of the malls in flushing for chinese.
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SriPraPhai
64-13 39th Ave, Queens, NY 11377
