54-46, that's my number: the Queens thread

the amount of shitty pizza places that exist in nyc really makes me question certain aspects of capitalism

supposedly wafa's on metropolitan is good, but that's so far from me it might as well be another neighborhood

we have a gastro pub/tapas thingy now called something like Jack and Nellie's. It's across from Nick's. Wife tried it with friends and said it was alright. At least it's not ridiculously cheesy looking like exo cafe and all those other places.

Wafa's was pretty good, but not the destination that chowhounders make it out to be. I went once at the original location when it was off metropolitan and tiny, then again when it was bigger and on metro. It was good, but not SUPER special.

I love Nick's, even if the mozz is a bit rubbery, which is something I kinda like anyway. I love the arugula house salad or whatever, and getting a root beer with my pizza. Also great is the calzone, totally ridiculous ricotta overload, and the desert canoli, which I had to ask them to not dust pistachio all over.

The other two places on metropolitan that got chow attention are/were the sushi place, I can't remember the name, and db wine bar. Haven't been to either.

What I'm most bummed about is after giving up on De Mole delivery because their quality has just been sliding for years and we got delivery that was straight up gross, I discovered Cafe 58, little market looking place on 58th just around the corner from Roosevelt/Woodside/Donovans that's been a dozen places and I never would've thought twice about till I noticed they had good reviews on Seamless so I tried it and it was actually GREAT tacos, quesadillas and burittos. And now they're not delivering any more. Maybe they're closed altogether. I don't know.

maybe you shouldn't live so far from de mole! idk the takeout I get is always fine. who do you do for indian delivery?

De Mole delivery always comes fast, but maybe I just wasn't lucky. In general, De Mole was good to great, but after a few years it dropped to dependable comfort food. For a while, probably depending on who was cooking, it'd either be great, fine, or just good but needs tons of salt. But these last two times, I don't know what was wrong. It was just BAD!

I don't do indian delivery! People seem to love Masala, but it seems like standard boring indian, and I've had gross stuff from them so we gave up on that pretty quick. I've ordered from Curry Point (thanks Seamless!) and it was ok but not great. We used to love to go to Mehfil in Jackson Heights, esp for their buffet. It was kind of the "white persons" option for that part of queens, but it was really good. Now it's gone. Indian is tough. I hate sounding like a snob when anyone says "oh you live in near Jackson Heights with all the good indian" and I'm like "uh, it's ok, but the Tibetan food is awesome!". I haven't been to a lot of the places people like, I know there's still some good indian there, but not nearly as much as people think. We drive to hicksville to go to Ikea and get Dosas. And I've been to Dimple in NJ.

What I do do, is drive over to Sammy's Halal WAY too often. That's my favorite food in NYC. I should probably try more of the places. Kababish is supposed to be good for these weird kebabs.

yeah when we lived in woodside I could just walk to sammy's and I would go a ton. I'm not in jackson heights as much these days and have tried to shift my diet so I don't feel like half the atoms in my body come from a halal cart.

for that reason I'm kinda lucky that the halal carts in sunnyside suck

oh this strange new columbian chain originally from...miami? opened up on greenpoint, I was gonna try it but their credit card machine was broken cause it was the first day. anyway I hope it's good.

what have you done about indian? The place on skillman is supposed to be awful.

I should mention having a real soft spot of Indian Chinese but never going because it's the unhealthiest stuff ever but I love Tangra on QB, the food is decent and the atmosphere is mind-boggling. Nan King in Jackson Heights was good as well.

Also re sunnyside. We tried Yeti of Heizen when we first moved to Queens and had some really bad sushi.

Finally tried the fresh tofu korean place after many years and I really liked it but girlfriend not as much. She got a veggie one and said it was flavorless, while my beef one was pretty tasty. We haven't been back but I liked the place.

my friend went to the newish sushi place and said it was good, I forgot the name. the skillman place is pretty whatever but they have a delivery special where you get a ton of food for $15. curry point, despite being two block away, is bad enough that I can't even justify going out of laziness. I am not really that picky about indian, like I like masala fine, but both me and the gf find curry point borderline inedible.

should we even talk about chinese? There's the weird expensive place on Woodside at 64th that's actually good, Chu Ying, but everything else has been terrible. Even just for crappy american take-out standards.

A few places get good reviews on Yelp but they're disgusting. I want the good american chinese for jews type stuff you can find in Park Slope.

I heard there's good uzbek kebab in rego park. I tried the one that's closest and it was meh, but the really good one is further away.

― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Tuesday, January 15, 2013 11:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I like Cheburechnaya on 63rd, especially the lamb fat kebabs. Istanbul right around the corner on QB is pretty good too.

Yeah we went to Danny Brown Wine Bar. It was very good, and it was probably like 20-30% cheaper than an equivalent place in manhattan. That said, I just don't get that excited by mid-high-range new american fine dining type restaurants, and I never feel like they're worth the money. It was also weird because we sat by the window and you're like looking out on this depressing stretch of Metropolitan Ave. with a Carvel and a Dunkin Donuts., and that kind of hurt the atmosphere.

(Istanbul is Turkish, obv)

Anyone tried Taiwanese Gourmet (used to be called David's) on Broadway in Elmhurst? I walk by all the time and want to go but have never been.

No. A bit intimidated by the variety of chinese places there. Went through a spell of checking out all the maylaysian and indonesian places and had some decent meals and some weird meais. Went to Uncle Zhou once and it was ok, I don't really remember. When we chinese we just go Little Pepper. Mostly in Elmhurst we just eat at Chao Too.

Been to New World Mall twice now in Flushing, it's the fancier one that looks like a food court and not the basement stall one that has the original Xian. The food at New World is more hit or miss, but there's a taiwanese stall where I got a combo plate that was fantastic, braised pork belly, rice, some kinds of pickles etc.

the bian dang truck (taiwanese rice bowls) that sometimes parks in midtown serves a similar combo, and I've had it, and I thought it was pretty good and very home-cooked tasting.

Ben's Best Deli in rego Park -- what shd I eat?

The document?

sorry

brisket/turkey

is that place worth a visit considering I'm nearby?

yeah

what to try at Ayada Thai?

Try walking a few more blocks and going to Chao!

Just kidding. People seem to like the fish there. We went a few times when it first opened, before the hype and after the hype and while totally good, we didn't like it as much as Chao or Srip on a good day.

Kind of a Latin surf/punk/psych band at Terraza tonight. They just played "The Guns of Brixton."

And there are a few Sherpas in the house.

I went to chao the night I posted that. It was awesome.

we went to Ayada. It was very good and I couldn't really remember if better than Srip since it's been a while, but I liked the atmosphere more. Had a whole fish with mango "sauce" that included a lot of shredded fresh mango -- awesome. Also had a larb na (ground pork dish) which was probably the most pungent version of the dish I've ever had. And some fish cakes and scalion pancakes which weren't really special but very good. Would go back.

Meanwhile, the best thing Forest Hills has gotten recently is a Chipotle.

The dubiously Viennese "Old Vienna Cafe" on Queens Blvd is changing into some kind of Irish gastropub (?). Glad to see someone else try to make better use of the space, but I have doubts.

The only places I've had decent meals in Forest Hills so far are Nick's Pizza and Bareburger, and the latter was actually good one time, bad the next (weird burger patty that didn't hold together at all). Just gives an excuse to cook at home or explore other neighborhoods though.

Weirdly, we had the best fucking turkish food ever yesterday in a random long island town (Westbury).

man bareburger is taking over this city

has anyone tried Andy's (the chinese/taiwanese place) in Rego Park? What should I order from thence?

well anyway, we got delivery from there. I don't think we ordered the right things -- everything was decent and fresh and much better than average chinese food, but not especially interesting either. Looks like seafood might be one of their things, will have to try. But I never get seafood delivered.

Stuck in Kew Gardens for another two weeks. Today ate an okay chicken sandwich at a burger and shake joint called Flipside across from the Kew Gardens Cinema, which I have never actually been to but looks intriguing- especially new Spanish version of Snow White with torero imagery- but otherwise I'm not sure of where else to eat: Austin's Steak and Ale House? Homestead Gourmet Shop?

I like the kew gardens cinema. used to be a porno house iirc? no food recs tho.

Don't know the history. Premises seem nice, selection of films is interesting and there is even a pleasant little outdoor public space around the side.

yeah we saw a film at the Kew Gardens Cinema once -- reminded me of the little court street theater in carroll gardens/cobble hill. It was alright but I don't think we'll go back any time soon, because on the rare nights we actually get to go out we don't want to feel like we're going to the suburbs.

Been to Kew Gardens cinema a ton. Great place. Same owners as Cobble Hill cinema on Court St. I like them on facebook and they announce things like "come in and whistle your favorite disney song and get a free home-made cookie". Saw Tree of Life there. Milk. A Serious Man. It's Queens version of the Angelica (which I've always hated anyway).

Just down the street is an italian joint called Dazies. The sit-down part serves pasta that looks absolutely terrible, but the little counter up front has really totally solid slices. Plus a surprisingly big beer/soft drink selection. Not a destination to leave Brooklyn for, but if you're going to the movies there's worse things in the world than sitting at that counter, having a couple of totally solid slices and a root beer.

There used to be a russian jewish deli that had great pickles but it's closed. There's a german bakery called Homestead or something that is totally charming, though the pastries are probably weird.

Has anyone ever remarked on all the faux half-timber up in this borough? I used to think it was cheesy but compared to some other fugliness it might be near it can be a breath of fresh air.

you mean the fake tudor?

Yup.

better than a lot of the borough that's so unbelievably ugly...like much of woodside.

forest hills' north-side-of-q-blvd mcmansions are particularly awful too (the ones up past 108th st.) -- they look like third world mafioso houses

Don't get me started

tbf, some might actually be mafioso houses

And I kind of wonder who else can afford the pricetags.

Like, i-bankers are not gonna buy one of those, they're going to buy in a manhattan co-op or a nu-brooklyn condo or maybe a fh gardens tudor, but not one of those monsters.

Coffee shop near the Kew Gardens LIRR station is pretty nice and has an interesting name, Odradeks.

Reasonably interesting selected of books lying around: Phineas Redux, The Tale of the Genji, Cecil Day Lewis translation of the Aeneid, Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman.

Was happy to encounter the last one since I had something I wanted to look up in it.

wow kew gardens, huh? might have to go out there to try it. Odradeks is from a Kafka story.

kew gardens is pretty cool. I mean it's not at all cool. but it's nice.