Lately, we’ve been looking for budget type of restaurants outside of the main areas of Manhattan. This restaurant came at a suggestion from my partner’s friend. It’s located pretty close to us on Broadway in Astoria and fairly close to the N subway. It really is a no frills restaurant with a lot of local take out and dine-in traffic. We arrived here around 5 PM on a Sunday evening, and finding a seat for 2 people was pretty straight forward.

My partner on a late Saturday evening was planning to get some food with their friend, so that means I can venture out on my own. As people know from reading this site, I’m a ramen fiend. I love to try all sorts of ramen, and I never mind eating it by myself. This ramen location recently opened only a few weeks ago, and I definitely prefer early dinners. It’s located very close to the 7 train Court Sq stop, and is just around the corner from the Long Island City Trader Joe’s.

We have been here before prior to the pandemic when it was a weigh by the pound buffet-style. My partner took me here once because they had been here before several times and said it was their favorite. However that one time, I didn’t really enjoy it because the meat was all overcooked, and the rest of the sides were very mediocre. They agreed with me and were surprised by how mediocre it was on that day. Years later, we decided to try it again to confirm if it was a one time mishap.

This Peruvian restaurant was also on my partner’s list of cheap eats to try. The menu was quite similar to the prior Peruvian restaurant, Caravan Chicken we went to a few weeks ago. It’s conveniently located off the Ditmars N/W train on Ditmars itself. We arrived here at 7 PM, and there was no line nor patrons inside. We were not sure what to make of this considering how much we enjoyed the last restaurant.

Near where we live, they semi-opened this restaurant on Jackson Blvd at the start of the pandemic only to shut it down pretty quickly. We’ve walked by here several dozen times, and it was never really opened until the last 6 months. Reading online, it seemed they had to change their menu several times for adjustments for some reason, and the menu itself initially seemed basic and not overly attractive. It felt they were trying really hard to attract a brunch crowd, so we have not been enthusiastic about trying. They sent coupons to neighboring apartment buildings to lure in. Finally, we decided today would be the day that we would give this a shot, and we were able to walk in without reservations at 6 PM on a Friday easily.

We were on our way to get some delicious Popeyes chicken on the 7 train, and little and behold, the 7 trains were running express from Queensboro towards Flushing and were running local heading towards Manhattan. Normally the 7 runs local both ways, but they were doing track work, and it wasn’t quite clear. The next stop after Queensboro was 61st Woodside, which basically skipped our desired stop by 3 stops. Instead of waiting, we decided to take the opportunity to check out this restaurant that we have ordered a few times on delivery apps.

In the city, there are not too many Afghan restaurants to choose from. I’ve only had Afghani food once in my life in NorCal, and it didn’t ever make me yearn for it. However, I thought the menu looked enticing since we were looking for hummus and kabobs around Long Island City. This restaurant is located on the busy Vernon Blvd, which is becoming a happening street for this area. This location of Sami’s Kabob is their second location, whereas their first location is in Astoria.

This restaurant is sandwiched at the cusp of Sunnyside between a AYCE Korean BBQ restaurant and a newly opened Sonic fast food joint. The menu looks pretty traditional Korean, and it’s always nice to try these types of restaurants in different neighborhoods. This one is rarely as busy as its next door neighbors, but I had some expectations of how this would turn out. When we arrived at 5:30 PM on a Friday evening, we were the only patrons in the restaurant. So how was it?

Flushing is the NYC mecca for Chinese food. It’s at the end of the 7 train line heading east, and it takes about 40 minutes from Manhattan on weekends. Many restaurants and stalls only accept cash, so it’s quite different than being in Manhattan or Long Island City. My partner had a friend that wanted to meet in Flushing to try out Korean BBQ. I thought there would be several near Main Street, but it seems all the decent Korean BBQ places are least a mile east of the Main street subway station. Instead, I selected this “Gan Hoo” because I thought it was Korean BBQ, but I learned much later it’s really a Chinese interpretation of Korean BBQ. So how was it?

This area of Astoria is not in the heart where Ditmars and Broadway are, but rather on the cusp. There are a lot of different restaurants around that are not overly busy, so it’s easy to get a seat on most nights. We decided to stop by this new-ish BBQ restaurant on our way to the market. Pig Beach actually has alternative locations in Miami and in Brooklyn, and it has its own unique BBQ zest to its mix.