Where to Eat in Queens, New York

Queens is one of the most diverse counties in the U.S., and 47 percent of residents are foreign-born. Walk the five miles from Astoria to Corona through Elmhurst and you’ll catch conversations in Greek, Makassarese (a language spoken in Indonesia), and Cuicatec (an Indigenous language of Mexico).

The immigrant communities that call Queens home do much of the all-hours labor that fuels New York. Nearly 24/7, there’s a steady stream of residents headed from Queens into Manhattan for work and coming home to sleep. Whether it’s a 5 a.m. corn-husk-wrapped breakfast tamal from a street vendor in Corona on the commute to work or a comforting bowl of bubbling tofu soup in Murray Hill on the way back home, this borough’s food culture is designed to sustain its residents at all hours.

This is New York City, so nothing stays the same for long. Gentrification has been rolling through Queens, now hailed as a more affordable housing alternative to Manhattan and Brooklyn. In 2023 the borough-wide asking rent for residential properties rose to a record high, particularly hitting the neighborhoods in northwest Queens closest to Manhattan. Small immigrant-owned businesses in Queens are dealing with some of the biggest rent increases in the city.

Despite the challenges facing many small business owners in Queens right now, these local legends—some have been thrumming along for over 20 years—continue to cater to their communities. Whether in Little Egypt, Little Guyana, Little Manila, or Little Colombia, the restaurants in Queens’ cultural enclaves serve as pillars of community. I grew up and still live here, and I’ve been reporting on Queens’ food scene for years. And still it’s hard to keep up with the sheer breadth of restaurants opening and developing around me. This guide is not exhaustive by any means, but it is a great way to start getting to know one of New York’s most delicious and layered boroughs.

The many neighborhoods of Queens

To get the most out of a visit to Queens, it’s helpful to situate yourself in each of its neighborhoods. Queens is the geographically largest of New York’s five boroughs. Making up the easternmost part of the city, it sits on a massive island that it shares with Brooklyn in the southwest. Immediately to its west, above Brooklyn, the East River separates it from the Bronx and Manhattan.

Long Island City and directly to its north, Astoria, make up the northwestern end of Queens. Just above Long Island City, Astoria is a huge, sprawling residential neighborhood that spans five subway stops and, beyond the last station, a network of bus lines. Many immigrant communities—Greek, Mexican, Brazilian, Serbian, and countless others—have settled and set up restaurants in this expansive neighborhood. Walk east underneath the train tracks in Long Island City and you’ll find yourself in Sunnyside, where Irish bars stand alongside restaurants selling Ecuadorian stews, Paraguayan cakes, Bolivian empanadas, and Turkish flatbreads.

East of Sunnyside is Jackson Heights, one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the world. After the 1965 Immigration Act abolished country of origin quotas, Hispanic immigrants settled along Roosevelt Avenue and Indian communities along its intersecting 74th Street. Even further east, at the end of the 7 subway line, is Flushing, with a foreign-born population of 71%. Chinese residents represent a large portion of that population. About a 20-minute walk east of downtown Flushing, Murray Hill is the home of Queens’ Koreatown. The restaurants here specialize in traditional soups, banchan, noodles, and barbecue.

Start your day in Astoria by hitting up the Mediterranean bakery Artion, a wonderland of both sweet and savory treats. Inside it’s all white tiles, blonde wooden accents, and cake stands brimming with just-baked goods. The pie stuffed with a stew-like filling of spinach, leeks, and hunks of cheese is a must. There are also flaky cheese-filled spirals of phyllo, eliopita (olive turnovers), and tomato-stuffed koulouri (slightly tangy rings of dough). Complement them with frappes (foam-topped iced coffee) and freddos (iced shaken espresso). Slip on the provided gloves and pick from mounds of cookies and brittle in glass cases so you have snacks to last the rest of your day in Queens.

For a tropical breakfast there’s nowhere better than Pão de Queijo, a casual all-day spot serving Brazilian fruits and snacks, about a mile south of Artion. It has a streetside takeout window, a small outdoor structure, and a dine-in area featuring an exposed brick wall, dark wooden tables, metal chairs, and a large Brazilian flag. Wake up with a bowl of frozen acai laden with guarana syrup. The sweet syrup is made from the highly caffeinated seeds of paullinia cupana berries, native to the Amazon basin. Stay in fruit mode with freshly blended juice containing Brazilian fruits like creamy cupuaçu, which is similar to soursop and coconut. Alongside your juice go for something hot and savory like the namesake pão de queijo (small baked cheese buns) or kibbeh (deep-fried croquettes of ground beef wrapped in a layer of bulgur wheat).

In Long Island City, take in the Manhattan skyline and walk through Gantry Plaza State Park

A 20-minute subway ride from Astoria takes you to the Gantry Plaza State Park, which sprawls along the East River shoreline in Long Island City. The park features a flower garden, swaths of grass, a children’s playground outfitted with sprinklers in the summer, and lounge chairs where you can lay back for river views and people-watching. You’ll often catch photo shoots of weddings and quinceañeras. For a quick bite walk to the Center Boulevard border of the park. Here you’ll find a lineup from about 20 food trucks, including not-to-be-missed birria from the Chinelos Tacos truck.

After a taco or two, walk north along the waterfront promenade, taking in views of the Manhattan skyline. You’ll eventually reach the huge landmark Pepsi-Cola sign, a vestige of industrial 1940s Long Island City. Plop down beneath it and chill as the water taxi makes its route down the East River to Brooklyn.

For lunch, Colombian seafood stew or award-winning Nepalese momos in Jackson Heights

The stretch of Queens spanning Northern Boulevard from 79th to 84th Street is known as Little Colombia. The immigrant community here swelled during the Colombian Civil War in 1948 and brought bakeries and rotisserie chicken joints to the neighborhood. Mister Cangrejo, which opened in 2017, specializes in the cuisine of the port city of Buenaventura and the broader western Pacific coastline. Its owner, Mario Montaño, is a Buenaventura native and Queens resident and serves Pacific-Colombian seafood dishes in a casual family-style setting. The dish that’s spotted at almost every table is the cazuela de mariscos. The stew is bubbling hot and loaded with mussels, squid, shrimp, and fish in a thick, creamy yellow broth. The dish comes with a plate of white rice and tostones—green plantains, smashed flat and fried crisp. Also order the namesake cangrejo: gigantic snow crab legs splayed out in your choice of garlic or coconut sauce with chunks of potato and plantain.

Five blocks from Mister Cangrejo, Yamuna Shrestha opened Bhanchha Ghar (“home kitchen” in Nepali) to the neighborhood’s growing Himalayan community in 2015. Alongside her brother, the chef Shree Shrestha, the pair have perfected their momo recipe: The annual fall momo crawl through Jackson Heights has crowned Bhanchha Ghar the winner multiple years in a row. The restaurant’s Nepali jhol momos—juicy thin-skinned dumplings stuffed with beef, chicken, or goat and swimming in a broth of chicken stock, tomatoes, and chile peppers—are not to be missed. And don’t skip the sel roti, sweet and salty circles of hot fried dough served with a spicy chutney for dipping. You’ll often see Shrestha zooming through the no-frills dining room, chatting with customers or ferrying bags of ingredients into the kitchen.

In Jackson Heights shop for spices and hit up food carts

On a stroll through Jackson Heights, you’ll hear people talking in any of 300 languages. Follow the Spanish and find yourself among fresh fruit juice stands and food trucks like Birria-Landia, which pioneered the Mexican birria craze in New York. If you’re still feeling peckish, hit up Arepa Lady, a local chain that grew out of a pushcart in 1990 and to this day makes some of New York’s favorite Colombian arepas.

Follow the Urdu or Bengali and you’ll encounter gigantic watermelons, spiky jackfruits, and bumpy bittermelons carted onto the sidewalks from the many grocery stores that feed the neighborhood. Head to the Indian spice sections at Patel Brothers or Apna Bazar and get your hands on black cardamom pods, mustard seeds, ghee, and all kinds of dal (split black lentils, pigeon peas, chickpeas) to take back to your kitchen.

For dinner, Sichuan hot pot or Korean barbecue in Flushing and Murray Hill

Step out of downtown Flushing’s heavily packed commercial district and into a stunningly decorated Chinese village scene, circa the 18th century. This is Chongqing Lao Zao, a restaurant that specializes in hot pot, which is said to have originated in Chongqing. The hot pot here features beef tallow and heaps of Sichuan peppers, with spice levels catering to Sichuan palates. To cut your wait time short, get here at least 15 minutes before the restaurant opens. Inside, close to a koi pond and water wheel, you can take your pick of up to three of the seven broths on offer—ideal for balancing the Sichuan chile broth with milder ones like tomato or chicken and herb. There are over 100 options that can be added to your broths, like sliced lamb, fish balls, shrimp paste, pea shoots, and lotus root. Don’t skip the serve-yourself bar of sauces and sides where you can create your own dipping sauces from a dozen options like sesame oil, soy sauce, and cilantro. To finish off the meal, opt for the brown sugar crystal jelly or milk mochi.

Take a short ride on the Q15 bus at the busy corridor of Roosevelt Avenue and Main Street or walk the 25 minutes from Chongqing Lao Zao to an area in Murray Hill that Korean locals call Meokja Golmok (Let’s Eat Alley or Food Alley), which has a high concentration of excellent Korean restaurants. The barely decorated, beige exterior of Mail Garden might mislead passersby into thinking it’s an abandoned office building, but walk through the glass doors and you’ll find a spacious, homey restaurant with dark wooden tables and posters advertising various flavors of soju. While Mail Garden offers Korean barbecue staples like kalbi and bulgogi, the restaurant stands out for its finesse with grilled pork. Thin marinated slices sizzle and soak up the smokiness of the charcoal, but the servers will also grill the rib bones separately for nibbles of tender, seasoned meat that’s charred at the edges. Per Korean custom, complement the barbecued meat with mul naengmyeon (noodles in an icy beef and radish broth), or bibim naengmyeon (noodles mixed in a slightly spicy, tangy, and sweet red seasoning of gochugaru and cucumber). The space is sprawling, with an outdoor back patio and a parking lot.

Cap off your night with pisco cocktails in Sunnyside or hookah in Astoria’s Little Egypt

Sunnyside has a quiet, small-town vibe with lots of residential properties and storefronts dotted along the main commercial streets. Once a predominantly Irish enclave, the neighborhood is now home to immigrants from countries including Ecuador, China, and Mexico.

The Peruvian bar and restaurant Limeña, which took over from an Irish pub, demonstrates this dynamic. It serves beautifully presented cocktails featuring pisco—a white brandy made in Peru from grapes—and infusions like butterfly pea flower, hibiscus, or basil. Step in and the servers will greet you with shots of pisco and a green grape, as a reminder of the spirit’s roots. If you’re up for snacking, get the ceviche, causa de atún (layers of ají amarillo chili pepper-seasoned mashed potato and flaked tuna, topped off with a slice of boiled egg), or a splendid aguadito de pollo (a chicken and rice soup that’s heavy on cilantro).

If you’re seeking a buzzier scene than you’ll find at Limeña, head to Astoria’s Little Egypt, where the sweet scent of shisha wafts down Steinway Street. Of the dozen hookah lounges there, Sands of Persia offers an experience that stands out from other, more no-frills hookah spots. Seated at one of the lounge’s plush, tufted lavender banquettes, order non-alcoholic drinks, desserts like spiced Persian affogato, and teas such as qahwah (Arabic milk tea) in ornate, pearl-covered gold pots.

If you’re still not ready to end your night, Queens is always alive: you can go hunt down one of those 5 a.m. tamales and start all over again.