It’s the evening and where could be a good place to get fairly traditional Cantonese style Chinese food? Dim Sum Palace! We originally visited the Midtown location pre-pandemic, and it was pretty decent. Recently, they opened another location in Long Island City in a dense new-aged Chinese area. We’ve been missing Cantonese-style restaurants, especially dim sum, in this very close quartered area of over abundant boba places and spicy cuisines. We were able to walk in without reservations around 5:00 PM on a Saturday without issues. This restaurant is located in the former Brooks 1890 bar next to the Long Island City court house on Jackson Ave.

As we’re exploring the Long Island City neighborhood, this was a pretty good find. It’s on Vernon Blvd where there are a ton of neighborhood restaurants. About 2 blocks away is a park that is in vicinity of the Long Island City sign and lets you view Manhattan from the east. We’ve been here a few times, and we always notice a decent amount of locals that continue to stop by. It’s relatively easy to eat here without needing to make a reservation.

This is an updated entry to Dun Huang. The original East Village location is closed, but they opened another location out in Long Island City. They have several locations spread throughout the city. Dun Huang advertises itself as authentic Northwestern Chinese food. The menu at this location pales in comparison to what we got in the East Village location, so I’ll still share the differences for reference.

Ambiance

The decor at the Long Island City location is pretty no frills. It feels they have two rooms: one “main” dining area and another dining area next to the window.

Summary

Here is another nice neighborhood spot off Vernon Blvd in Long Island City. Reviews seem to rave about how good this neighborhood sushi spot is, so we decided to give it a try.

The peach sparkling sake was relatively inexpensive and mighty tasty. The peach flavor tasted artificial, but it was still pretty good. It felt like drinking champagne without the heavy alcohol taste and with that artificial peach sweetener.

Summary

This is a local restaurant to Long Island City that classifies itself as an Italian Argentine restaurant. The place is super small, but it feels nice and cozy.

The chicken piccata is served with capers in a lemon and butter sauce, served with roasted potatoes. This dish was actually really good. The potatoes had a nice crunch to them.

The lasagna marchigiane has bechamel, bolognese, and parmigiano. The tomato sauce was pretty good. It was sweet with a little sour to it, but I’m not sure if it was homemade or not. I wish the texture was more chunky though, but still it was pretty good.

Summary

This bar / restaurant is located on the 6th floor in the Ravel Hotel in Long Island City. The view is fairly nice as you can see Midtown from the east, but it is not stellar since it sits slightly lower than the Queensborough bridge and there are 2 smoke stack obstructions as you look towards the Empire State building.

We ordered some bottles of Rose and an entree.

Summary

I’ve been to this restaurant multiple times in various neighborhoods, but I haven’t documented it till now.

I usually get the spicy tingly beef. It’s pretty good, but to be honest I do like Very Fresh Noodles in the Chelsea Market more. However this place was next to me, so the convenience is much appreciated.

The spicy and sour spinach dumplings are also really good too. I love the vinegary taste wih everything.

Summary

The vibe in this place was pretty cool. It reminded me of being in one of those Lord of the Rings tavern.

The poutine was pretty salty, but it was a good match with the beers. I wish the cheese curds were a little warmer and more abundant.

The savage is actually regular hot wings. The hot wings tasted like they were fried first then doused in sauce after. It’s a nice texture combination, and it’s how I prefer my hot wings. The wings themselves didn’t seem to have a lot of flavor outside of the sauce though. There are some french fries that the wings sit on that soak up the sauce and oil.

Summary

Where to start with this. I loathe cash only places considering the price of this is not exactly cheap.

The U & I bowl was really good but not for +$20. The bowl was rather small although the ingredients were pretty fresh.

The flying pig bowl was the biggest disappointment I’ve had. The broth was just OK. It’s subtly different than the normal tonkatsu style broth. I also opted for an ounce of the jamon iberico. I added an additional onsen tamago, which is basically a sous vide egg.

Summary

The place was pretty dead when I went, but the pizza was excellent. In some ways I actually liked this more than Lombardis.

Got a margarita pizza with pepperoni on it, and it was tasty.

Would love to go back and try their stromboli or calzones as well.

Overall Impression

It’s a nice addition to the sparse Long Island City neighborhood. The pepperoni pizza quality and ingredients tasted really good.