The Top 63 Restaurants in Queens
-
Rank 1. Meju
Korean
Behind a fermented-foods shop in Long Island City, Chef Hooni Kim runs a counter where traditional Korean pantry staples—doenjang, gochujang, aged through his own decade-long practice—meet precise minimalism and Miyazaki beef. A final bowl of rice and kimchi, handmade ceramics throughout, and Kim's attentive presence transform an unassuming setting into something quietly unforgettable.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Hooni Kim
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Hooni Kim
-
Rank 2. Rolo's
Wood-fired Steakhouse
A wood-fire grill commands the dining room at this Ridgewood corner, its amber light catching the faces of newcomers and lifers alike. The polenta bread arrives fluffy and smoke-touched, ready for Calabrian chili butter or wild oregano; the dry-aged steaks demand green garlic. A bar up front makes cocktails with quiet competence, and the servers move through it all with genuine ease.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Rafiq Salim
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Eater 2026 · The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
-
Rank 3. Zaab Zaab
Isan-style Thai
A candy-colored room in Elmhurst houses Isan cooking that doesn't soften its edges. Larb ped udon arrives blistered with fried duck skin and lime leaves; whole fish fry and seafood-driven curries follow the same uncompromising path, all fermented fish sauce and heat. Come hungry and with company.
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Bryan Chunton and Pei Shan Wei
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Eater 2026 · The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
-
Rank 4. Xi'an Famous Foods
Xi'an-Style
-
Rank 4. Dar Lbahja
Moroccan
- The New York Times 2026 · #78 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
- The New York Times 2025 · Chicken Bastilla · Our New York Restaurant Critic Names Her Favorite Dishes This Year
- The Infatuation 2025 · #12 · NYC’s Best New Restaurants
-
Rank 6. Salsa
Neapolitan Pizza
-
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Yvan Lemoine
- Eater 2026 · The Best New Restaurants in Queens Right Now
-
Rank 6. Mano’s Pizzeria
NY-Style Pizza
- 50 Top Pizza 2025 · #8 · 50 Top Pizza Slice USA
- The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now
-
Rank 6. Hellbender
Mexican
A neon jaguar presides over Chef Yara Herrera's cooking, which channels her Mexican American upbringing through charred Yucatecan dips, assertive cilantro, and chile crisp so dark it borders on feral. The precision beneath that wildness is what keeps you coming back.
- Esquire 2024 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- The New York Times 2026 · #58 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
- The New York Times 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in New York
-
Rank 10. il Gigante
Italian
In a modest Ridgewood corner, il Gigante serves the Italian essentials with quiet confidence: silky lasagna Bolognese arrives with its own vessel of grated Parmigiano, while cacio e pepe and branzino demonstrate a kitchen that knows what it's doing without needing to announce it. The room is intimate and unhurried, the sort of place where neighborhood regulars outnumber tourists.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Grub Street 2026 · The 40 Best Restaurants for Kids (and Parents!)
-
The open kitchen at this Astoria taverna crackles with the rhythm of a neighborhood institution. Spinach pie arrives in flaky, sesame-studded sheets; whole branzino glistens under olive oil and herbs. It's the kind of place where servers slip into Greek if you seem to belong, where the food tastes like it knows exactly what it's doing and nothing more.
-
The narrow dining room glows with incense and dark wood, a cozy refuge where the kitchen executes a sprawling menu of curries and stir-fries with unusual care. Yum pla duk—crispy catfish draped in tart mango salad—and miang kha-na's brilliant tangle of lime, pork, and peanuts suggest a kitchen that understands Thai food's full range.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The New York Times 2026 · #60 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
-
Rank 10. Asian Jewels
Dim Sum Chinese
A Flushing institution where carts of shumai, spareribs, and chicken yuba arrive before you sit, chandeliers glinting above round tables in controlled chaos. Weekends dissolve into a blur of lifted lids and overlapping orders; come early or risk standing.
-
Rank 14. Renee's Kitchenette & Grill
Filipino
At Renee's Kitchenette, a Filipino stalwart in Woodside since 1992, whole eggplants disappear into omelets studded with pork, and ginger-streaked chicken soup arrives in modest bowls without ceremony. The cooking trades presentation for flavor—brown and unstudied, the food speaks for itself.
- The New York Times 2026 · #68 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
- The Infatuation Chicken Adobo · 25 Iconic Dishes That Define New York
-
Rank 14. Napali Bhanchha Ghar
Nepalese
In a Jackson Heights storefront, momos arrive wrinkled and substantial, swimming in a soupy chutney of chicken broth and chiles that clings to dough in equal measure. The Nepali kitchen treats the dumpling as a two-part experience—one you eat and sip simultaneously.
- Eater 2026 · The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
- The New York Times 2026 · #67 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
-
Rank 14. Trinciti Roti Shop
Trinidadian Caribbean
The A train's delays fade the moment you reach this cramped counter in South Ozone Park, where the buss up shut—a butter-layered roti fried to gossamer thinness—arrives with the flaky richness of a well-made biscuit. Each bite reveals another fold, each fold another reason the wait was worth it.
- The Infatuation #13 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
- The New York Times 2026 · #88 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
- The New York Times 2024 · Bake and Shark · Here Are Our Top New York Dishes
-
Rank 14. Hamido Seafood
Egyptian Seafood
-
Rank 18. Rocco's of Roc Beach
Italian
- The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now
- The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now
-
- The Infatuation Plain or Pepperoni Slice · 25 Iconic Dishes That Define New York
- The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now
-
Rank 20. Caleta 111
Peruvian
Beneath the Jamaica Avenue overpass near JFK, this cevicheria serves leche de tigre in a giant martini glass—octopus, scallops, and shrimp swimming in lime and ginger—that justifies the pilgrimage alone. A pork tamal steamed in bamboo proves the kitchen's range, its masa yielding and ethereal.
-
Rank 20. Legend of Taste
Sichuan Chinese
A strip mall in Whitestone conceals a kitchen that trades in fermented heat and smoke. The smoked pork with garlic leaf tastes like bacon gone through tea smoke, while crispy eggplant arrives with a glass-like shell and creamy interior—the kind of specificity that separates real Sichuan cooking from its Americanized cousins.
-
Rank 20. Alley 41
Sichuan Chinese
Down an alley off Flushing's Main Street sits a Sichuan restaurant with an unexpectedly refined interior of curved wood and concrete. Chicken dumplings swimming in chili oil and pork belly with sesame noodles arrive quickly, followed by mapo tofu and braised beef that crackle with roasted chilies—heat deployed not for shock value but for genuine flavor.
-
A bright, no-nonsense dining room in Flushing where tabletop grills define the meal: beef short ribs glazed in traditional soy marinade arrive alongside lettuce for wrapping, while fried rice crisps and softens simultaneously on the hot surface. The banchan—pickled turnips, fermented bean paste soup, house kimchi funky with garlic—set the tone before the fire begins.
-
Rank 20. Phayul
Tibetan
Momos arrive fat and pleated at this Tibetan restaurant on Roosevelt Avenue, their beef filling brightened with scallions and meant for dipping in the ferocious house hot sauce. The stir-fried noodles pull just as hard—chewy strands and tender meat against crisp vegetables in a savory gloss. Generous portions, lively flavors, and the kind of place where you could order anything and land well.
-
Rank 20. Cardamom
Indian
On a quiet Sunnyside block, Cardamom deploys a pan-Indian menu anchored by vivid curries and a working tandoor, with the chef's Goan heritage shining through vinegar-bright lamb vindaloo and restrained vegetable dishes. The kitchen's deliberateness pays off: breads arrive warm enough to trap sauce, and every plate tastes considered rather than rushed.
-
Rank 20. Hupo
Sichuan Chinese
Wok heat drifts through this understated Long Island City room where Sichuan cooking favors aroma and balance over spectacle. House-made tofu and ma-la wontons arrive with clarity and restraint, pitched for everyday appetite rather than thrill-seeking.
-
Rank 27. Gottscheer Hall
Classic German
-
-
-
-
-
-
Rank 27. Maxi’s Noodle
Hong Kong-Style
-
Rank 27. Taiwanese Restaurant Inc.
Taiwanese Chinese
The aunties work the room with brisk indifference, delivering plates of flies heads—fermented black beans, pork, garlic chives—that justify their reputation. An omelet studded with pickled radish and sweet sausage paired raw garlic show a kitchen that understands the pleasure of directness.
-
Rank 27. The Arepa Lady
Columbian
-
Rank 27. Maxi’s Noodle 2
Hong Kong-Style
-
Rank 27. Zaab Zaab
Isan Thai
-
-
-
Rank 27. White Bear
Chinese
A takeout window in Flushing dispenses wontons with gossamer skins and assertive pork filling, each one surrendered to a scarlet pool of chile oil and pickled vegetables that crackle with vinegar and heat. Item No. 6 is the argument for why this modest stall matters.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Rank 27. Temple Canteen
Indian
A fluorescent-lit basement beneath a Hindu temple in Flushing dispenses devotional comfort to anyone willing to descend: bisi bele bath arrives steaming, dosas sprawl across plates in crispy sheets, and the ghee roast stands upright like an edible shrine. The cafeteria's spartan efficiency—plastic trays, communal tables, no frills—only sharpens the generosity of what lands in front of you.
-
Rank 27. Birria Landia
Mexican
The Moreno brothers' birria truck beneath the No. 7 train in Jackson Heights has spawned a small fleet, yet the original location still draws lines on frozen nights, its beef-fat-gilded tortillas justifying the wait. What began in 2019 as an unlikely Queens phenomenon now defines a particular hunger across the city.
-
Rank 27. John Brown BBQ
Kansas City-Style Barbecue
-
-
-
-
-
-
Rank 27. Casa Enrique
Mexican
Cosme Aguilar's Long Island City kitchen works from a stable repertoire of family recipes, but the restaurant truly announces itself through ambitious plates: branzino cooked "al pastor," braised lamb shank in a spiced broth, mole in every incarnation. The crowds gathering outside understand what the kitchen knows—that restraint and mastery of a few things matter more than constant reinvention.
-
Rank 27. Vert Frais
Japanese Noodles
A sunny Long Island City café where a former Kanoyama chef serves unfussy Japanese comfort food—clean shio ramen and silky cha-shu—with the ease of a neighborhood hangout. Tall soufflé pancakes arrive light and jiggly, designed for quick, satisfying consumption.
-
Rank 27. R40
Argentinian
Smoke from a roaring grill perfumes this Argentine parilla, where shared plates of grilled meats and housemade pastas fill a dining room of exposed brick and dangling vines. Skirt steak with chimichurri and hearty empanadas justify the serious appetite required here.
-
Rank 27. Cholita
Ecuadorian
-
Rank 59. Andrew Bellucci's Pizzeria
Pizza Shop
-
-
Rank 59. Amore Pizzeria
NY-Style Pizza
-
Rank 59. Levant
Egyptian Middle Eastern
A Steinway Street storefront styled like Cairo's back streets holds a white-domed oven that turns out feteer—those impossible, gossamer-layered pastries folded around basturma or sweet clotted cream. The place has the stripped-down intensity of a pizzeria married to the sensory maximalism of North African street food.
- The New York Times 2026 · #25 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
- The New York Times 2024 · New York’s 14 Best New Restaurants
-
On weekend nights, Cleotilde Juárez Ramírez commands a sidewalk station with a massive comal, frying corn tortillas into supple vessels for beef, onions, and dual salsas. Ten dollars buys the whole stack and a terra-cotta cup of cafe de olla—transactional simplicity that feels like an inheritance.
- The New York Times 2026 · #99 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
- The New York Times 2024 · Chalupas · Here Are Our Top New York Dishes