All you can eat (AYCE) Korean BBQ places are pretty sparse the closer you get to Manhattan. If you did find one, the quality is kind of questionable compared to the a’la carte places. We discovered this restaurant a few months back when we went to the Popeyes next door. It hadn’t opened yet, but there seems to be a few restaurants next to it that are opening in the very near future. This restaurant used to be called “HoneyPig”, but apparently it changed its name right before opening.

We walked by this restaurant one evening as we were walking back, and I was reminded that this was something I wanted to try. At a quick glance, the interior seemed pretty spacious, and I always go back and forth on whether we can go here. My partner is never fanatical about noodles, but luckily this restaurant has other things such as dim sum and cold cut appetizers. This restaurant opened last year during the pandemic in October and seemed to have a pretty steady flow of repeat customers.

This is located right next to the water near restaurants like Maiella and American Brass. Whenever we try walk-in, they always tells us it’s an hour wait even when there’s no one outside. Since we didn’t have anything else close by that we wanted to try, we were able to book a reservation for an early Saturday dinner again.

Ambiance

For some reason this restaurant is very popular with a large latin clientele. People will have massive birthday parties or get togethers.

Partners Coffee was formerly known as Toby’s Estate coffee. When I first moved to NYC many years ago to Williamsburg, I’ve always felt they had my preferred coffee beans and coffee. The general atmosphere probably falls a little under “hipster” coffee, but it’s quite delicious. I have always tried to visit other coffee shops in NYC for their coffee and beans, but I’ve always fallen back to this. In some locations, they have brewing classes and a roaster, but because this one in Long Island City is much smaller, it’s just a straight up coffee cafe.

We’ve visited most of the Long Island City restaurants around the Vernon Blvd area. We had stopped by Blend on the Water hopefully for a walk-in, but there was already a wait. We’ve walked by Manducatis Rustica several times, and we figured it was worth a shot to see if they can take us. When we arrived, there was hardly anyone there. They told us that they had garden seating, so we opted for that.

On a hot day, my partner wanted to eat at a Brazilian restaurant pretty far from where we live. I ended up walking 2 miles for this Brazilian restaurant. At first, I thought it was supposed to be an expansion of a Rice and Beans place in the city, but I learned this was entirely different. The first thought that came in my head when I sat down was that this restaurant definitely is more of a typical locals stop with no frills fair priced Brazilian dishes. I was not expecting any amazing Brazilian food, but who knows maybe they would surprise me.

Astoria has a lot of nice gems for affordable prices. My partner wanted to do a nice walk and try out this restaurant per recommendation from their friend. At first glance at the menu, I was thinking this seems kind of ok. I had already done the artisan pizza several times, so my expectations were pretty low. I read many reviews, but I was skeptical because they were all pretty positive. But this is Astoria, and it’s known for having good food, so I was very pleasantly surprised how my experience turned out.

One of the really cool things about the Astoria neighborhood that is different than Manhattan and maybe Brooklyn, is that Japanese food is reasonably priced compared to the other boroughs. I am thinking part of the cause is because of the density of the Asian demographics in the area and having to be competitive with other neighborhood restaurants. This particular restaurant was just a few blocks north of Suzuki Shokudo.

A new Trader Joes opened up in Long Island City, and I was hoping to make turkey tacos with guacamole. Unfortunately, the avocados were not ripe enough yet, so I mentioned to my partner we can eat out. The first thought that came to their mind was this place because it’s one of the few nearby restaurants we have not tried yet but have seen a lot of people standing outside. Ever since I moved here, I’ve always kept glancing at the menu, but nothing really screamed at me that I have to try it. But now that I have tried it, how was it?

Woodbines is another craft beer and bar restaurant on Vernon Blvd in Long Island City that has fish and chips on the menu which my partner as craving for. At 5:00 PM, there weren’t that many people, and it was easy to get a seat inside the restaurant. Keep in mind, they do follow COVID protocols, so they asked us to check our temperature against the wall. They definitely have an outdoor setup, and that seemed to be more popular with the guests as the night went on. There are some other affliate locations in the city such as Kent’s Ale House in North Williamsburg.