These are some of my favorite spots throughout Queens in New York City.

While everyone has lists of their favorite parts of New York City in Brooklyn and Manhattan, I’m a Queens girl at heart. I say it’s because my great-grandmother lived in Queens, her apartment funded by her Italian sugar daddy that kept her well fed and clothed until he passed away. When I moved to the city for college, I always ventured into Queens.

Every time I come back, having moved back to my hometown, I always make the trek from where I stay in Brooklyn to Queens. From Park Slope area to Flushing, it takes about an hour and a half on the subway, but it feels like a pilgrimage I have to take every time I’m in town. If I ever move back, it’ll be Queens or nowhere.

All my friends also live in Queens, making it the perfect place to hang out in. As a major foodie, we’ve ventured across the borough so many times, trying out new restaurants and cuisines each time we step foot outside.

I love Queens from the bottom of my heart, so I thought to write this blog post with some of my favorite spots. My list of places to go is endless, giving me more reasons to come back to Queens.

Tong NYC has the most flavorful Bangladeshi fuchka.

I was shown this place by a former friend of mine who was Bangladeshi, and it has been my obsession ever since. Tong is open until about 3 AM and is a food truck, but oh man those fuchka are full of secrets and love.

My go-to order is the original fuchka, which clock in at about $6-7 right now. Some people love to order the doi fuchka, which are the fuchka covered in yogurt. If you’re not familiar with this dish, pani puri is the cousin of the Bengali fuchka.

Bangladeshi style fuchka is made with shredded egg, potatoes, onion, cilantro, and spices. They serve it with a sweet and sour tamarind sauce that you drizzle over the fuchka. They have some stools so you can sit on the sidewalk and pop these bad boys into your mouth—I recommend eating them immediately, as the filling might make them soggy.

Sami’s Kabob House has some solid Afghan food.

I went to the Long Island City location of Sami’s Kabob House, which is located right near a cute pier that has a great view of the city at night. I recommend it, although I felt a little unsafe walking back alone at 11 PM to the G train for about twenty minutes. Lots of shadowy corners in these parts.

Anyways, Sami’s sells Afghan food. I had never had Afghan food before I went here, but I am Iranian and familiar with Soviet flavors, so I kind of had an idea of what to expect when I walked into the restaurant.

I ordered the chicken kabob dinner portion, and it came out pipping hot over a bed of rice, candied carrots, and a side salad. There was a lot of flavor, especially when you add some of the sauces that were sitting to the side of the table. I enjoyed my meal a lot, and plan to go back very soon.

Spring Shabu Shabu is my all-time favorite hotpot place.

I’ve been to Spring Shabu Shabu in Flushing so many times, but the very first time I was with my friend. We were on the 7 Train when they dumped us off three stops early, so we Ubered all the way back to Spring Shabu Shabu. By the time we got there, we were famished and ready to eat our hearts out.

At Spring Shabu Shabu, at the time of typing this, it was $23 without tax + tip to eat there. We don’t eat the meat, which is an additional price, so that’s the flat rate. They have so many options and seafood available that you’re not even going to miss the meat.

My favorite broth here is the mala one. It hits perfectly every time, although the oil stains napkins and shirts pretty easily. We also adore their green tea vanilla ice cream swirls; they are so good even when you’re too full to eat anymore.

Tangra Asian Fusion has Indo-Chinese food, done Kolkata style.

I went to Tangra only once, but it was so memorable. It’s right off of the seven train, but there are multiple locations to choose from. I wanted to go here because I heard it was the only restaurant that is specifically Kolkata Chinese food, and I wanted to try it at least once in case I never made it to Kolkata myself.

The decor in here is so outdated, with a chandelier, but I loved how gaudy it was. It’s like peeking into another era, specifically the 1980s even with some of the chairs. It reminds me of old school Iranian taste.

I ordered the Chicken Manchurian, and it was so cheap for what we got. The food came out hot, and I was pleasantly surprised by the mesh of Chinese and Indian flavors in the food. I was also very full by the time I finished because of the portion size.

My only complaints are that their chai wasn’t very good (it was watery) and that the Chicken Manchurian was full of cilantro. It says that on the menu, which is my fault, but I have the cilantro soap gene.

I absolutely adore Shanghai You Garden.

I went to Shanghai You Garden when I was giving my friend from out of town a food tour of Flushing. This was our fourth stop of the day, and served as a intermediate break before we went out to Nurlan Restaurant in the evening to meet up with my friend from Queens.

I’d always heard the hype about this place, but never got the chance to go. Something to note is that they have takeout bao peking ducks for $2.50 each if you don’t want to go inside, takeout is a thing, and if you dine in and spend $10 they will give you an order of soup dumplings for free.

So we pressured ourselves to spend $10. The food here is cheap, but man it is so good. We ordered the nian gao, or Shanghai rice cakes, with chicken, and then got the order of soup dumplings with it. The nian gao was seasoned well, and the soup dumplings had such a rich broth.

In addition to this, they give you a pot of tea for free, which tasted like jasmine to me, and then a tangyuan dessert. We were so pleasantly surprised by all of this because we had only spent $12 for the meal total, and I swore to myself to go back in the near future.

Copacabana Brazilian Grill has pay by the pound Brazilian steaks and meats.

With the same friend I was doing the Flushing food tour with, we also did a Jackson Heights food tour on a different day. Copacabana was our first stop on this day for food, and we were pumped. We were splitting one dish wherever we went, so we loaded up our takeout container here at Copacabana with the thought of splitting.

We grabbed a little bit of everything in the prepared foods section, then wandered over to the guy who was running the meat skewers. We had never had Brazilian meats before, so we were asking him what he suggested, and he said to try the medium rare sirloin skewers.

So we got that and some Brazilian sodas for each of us: Guarana. There’s a thirty minute limit to eat in here, but the food is so good. Most people just get their takeout and dip.

Definitely recommend going here if you want to eat good! Ours was about $22, and we loaded up the platter.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more.