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Fried fish and an arc of porridge under an okra gravy.
Flying fish and cou cou at Culpepper’s is the Bajan national dish.

40 Inexpensive Dining Destinations

Some of the city’s best food deals in the five boroughs and beyond

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Flying fish and cou cou at Culpepper’s is the Bajan national dish.

For many New Yorkers, rising prices mean that dining on a budget is more important than ever. Luckily, there are options throughout the five boroughs and beyond that don’t require spending an arm and a leg. Despite the pandemic and inflation, we have seen small, inexpensive, often immigrant-run restaurants continue to flourish. Here are 40 great dining destinations, including some old standbys as well as some new favorites, where you can dine well for $20 or less — and sometimes, much less.

New to this edition of the map are Native Noodles, TQTO, Chick of Us, Ankara #3, S Wan Cafe, Halal Diner, Ali’s Trinibago Roti Shop, New Park Pizza, Culpepper’s, Dog Day Afternoon, and Roll N Roaster

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Los Primos Resturant

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This Latin Caribbean diner is home to the most gorgeous steam table you’ve ever seen right next door to an expansive dining room. The menu offers classic breakfasts of green plantains, eggs, and longaniza, plus lumberjack pancakes and three-egg omelets, then moves on to lunches and dinners of well-seasoned rotisserie chicken, pork chops, kingfish or salmon, mofongo in several variations, meal-size soups like sancocho and mondongo, and pernil so good it might make you weep.

Two hands trim a pork roast with scissors.
Carving the pork roast at Los Primos.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Calle 191 Pescaderia

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Located in the northern reaches of Washington Heights, this Dominican establishment handily combines a fish market with a restaurant. Decorated with artificial palm trees, it also boasts a bar, and the lengthy menu features nearly every Spanish and Latin Caribbean seafood dish imaginable. One favorite is the marvelous asopao, a tomato-and-vinegar rice soup flavored with garlic and cilantro, generously dotted with large shrimp.

A hand lifts up a spoonful of red soup with shrimp.
Shrimp asopao at Calle 191 Pescaderia.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Myung Dong Noodle House

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A spacious multilevel palace of Korean food in downtown Fort Lee, New Jersey, Myung Dong specializes in two types of noodles. The first is the wheat noodle known as kalguksu, served in mildly flavored soups, of which the most engaging throws them into a broth with ground beef and dumplings. The second is naengmyeon, originating in North Korea and made from buckwheat or sweet potato and served cold with boiled egg and pickled vegetables: very refreshing.

An opaque white broth with thick white held aloft by chopsticks.
Kalguksu in soup with dumplings.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Native Noodles

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One of the city’s few strictly Singaporean cafes is tucked away in a relatively quiet corner of Washington Heights, with a comfortable interior, and dishes handed through a window from the kitchen. Yes there are noodles galore, including laksa noodles and peanut satay noodles, but look to fritters, dumplings, and buns for smaller feeds. The roti john sandwich is a unique delight, a hero of ground beef omelet with spicy ketchup and caramelized onions.

A big ass sandwich with egg and ground meat visible and ketchup in the background.
Roti John sandwich at Native Noodles.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

This branch of a Grand Concourse restaurant is a bit grander, with a dining room a few steps up from the steam table where a dozen or so Ghanaian dishes are displayed. Pictures of the food over the counter assist in your selection, and don’t forget you can combine dishes on one plate. Get sauces of fish, mutton, or chicken — or pick a mixed meat sauce that contains all of them — then choose a starch ball like white yam fufu to go with it. As far as the goat pepper soup goes, it’s hot: watch out!

A steam table with various stews, a woman behind the counter looking down from above.
The steam table at Papaye.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Jerk House

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Harlem has rarely seen a Jamaican steam-table restaurant with such a broad selection of island dishes. Sure, the jerk chicken is great, finished over a flame right before being served, but you’ll also find jerk pork, jerk ribs, and even jerk fried chicken. There’s also escovitch fish, curry chicken, and, perhaps best of all, curry goat. The restaurant is one of three locations.

A clear plastic container of chicken pieces in thick brown sauce.
Jerk House’s jerk chicken is some of the best in Harlem.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Bigoi Venezia

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There are still plenty of budget-friendly pasta mills around, a fad that peaked late in the last century and lingered thereafter. These places encouraged you to pick a pasta and match it with a sauce. In a similar but simpler vein, Bigoi Venezia takes a single pasta — freshly made Venetian bigoi, tube-shaped spaghetti — and offers a choice of a dozen or so treatments, some particular to Venice, some not. Turkey sauce or peas, ham, and cream are two top contenders.

A plate of spaghetti with an olive-dotted red sauce.
Bigoi with puttanesca sauce.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Tengri Tagh

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The location may come as a surprise — a full-blown, sit-down Uyghur restaurant only a dumpling’s throw from Macy’s in Midtown — but all the Uyghur classics are here, from steaming plates of dumplings, a wide variety of noodles, a plethora of lamb, and the classic big tray chicken (da pan ji), a spicy stew of chicken and potatoes served with wide noodles.

A plastic container of chicken and potatoes flecked with red bell peppers, with white broad noodles on the side.
The fabled big tray chicken.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Amazing Grace Restaurant

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A successor to neighborhood mainstay Krystal’s, Amazing Grace took over the same Little Manila space, offering a similar mix of Filipino standards that go from barbecued brochettes (the pig ear is splendidly chewy), to set lunch and dinner plates, to the omnibus breakfasts known as silogs. The one featuring smoked milkfish is a favorite, also including garlic rice, fried eggs, eggplant, and a fresh salsa of onions and tomatoes.

In the foreground on a white plate, a whole fish head and all browned from smoking, with an array of dishes around it.
A milkfish silog breakfast.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Deli El Chapincito

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This Murray Hill deli offers packaged Guatemalan spices, soups, and baked goods, plus a small prepared-food concession to go with them. Proceed to the rear of the walk-down premises to find a steam table offering three or four stews of beef, chicken, and fish. The pollo guisado is particularly good, tomatoey and mellow, served with black beans, rice, and freshly made tortillas. Fried chicken and grilled steaks are also available.

A black plastic tub with red chicken parts and black beans.
Pollo guidsado — a Central American chicken stew, served with rice and black beans.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Harry Sweets & Snacks

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This modest spot just south of the Queens County Farm Museum concentrates on Mumbai-style street snacks and is strictly vegetarian. One favorite is bun chole, a small round roll stuffed with chickpeas, potatoes, and onions sweetened with tamarind sauce, very much like Trinidadian doubles. The menu also offers samosa chaats, vegetable curries, milk-based sweets, and snacks combining fried lentils, nuts, chips, and crunchy noodles.

A flatbread stuffed with chickpeas and potatoes,
Bun choley at Harry.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Asian Taste 86

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Little Jakarta is a small neighborhood centered at Whitney Avenue and Broadway in Elmhurst, with groceries and small cafes (a modest number of both to be sure) radiating from that corner. The name doesn’t suggest an Indonesian cafe, but it is, and a very good one. It specializes in full-plate combinations that may contain rice, a coconut-laced composed salad, shrimp chips, and a satay or two, all halal.

A square plate with a pink flower design with rice and satays.
A combination plate at Asian Taste 86.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

This tiny walk-up space in the hurly burly of MacDougal Streets restaurant row offers a handful of dishes in a Tex-Mex vein, or so it says. Truthfully, its specialty of taquitos are popular across Mexico and the Southwestern United States sometimes under such other names as tacos Dorados, flautas, and rolled tacos (in San Diego). These arrive freshly fried and smothered in salsas and cheese, with potato and chicken favorite fillings.

Three tubes smothered in red and green salsa and grated cheese.
Chicken or potato are two great choices for taquito stuffings.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Terra Thai

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This tiny cafe just south of Tompkins Square specializes in the street food of Bangkok with a limited menu of full meals that will make deciding what to eat easier. The best dish on the menu is basil chicken, with ground poultry cooked down to a rich mixture served with rice, a poached egg, and boiled sweet potato. For vegetarians, there’s a very nice pad Thai.

A black plastic carryout tray with a green chicken stir fry on one side, and rice with a poached egg and sweet potato on the other.
Basil chicken at Terra Thai.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Pierozek

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This modern take on a Polish obiady (lunch room) offers an airy setting, and a menu focused on pierogi in its many savory and sweet permutations. Fourteen in number, the savory come floundering in butter served with garlic-and-dill sour cream, and the choice includes such unusual examples as potatoes and eggs and blood sausage. The rest of the menu is slender, but includes borscht, stuffed cabbage, and a substantial kielbasa sided with pierogi, which makes a substantial meal.

A long sausage with three dumplings.
The kielbasa meal at Pierozek.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Little Myanmar

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Little Myanmar is quite simply the best Burmese restaurant the city has yet to see. The interior is bare bones and not particularly comfortable — though your ability to see into the kitchen is an advantage and a pleasure. The 100-item menu covers the vast sweep of the national cuisine, from the salads called athokes (try the tea-leaf version) to noodle soups, stir fries, and curries.

A metal wok of dark red meat curry on the bottom right, with a plate of rice and cup of soup on the upper left.
Goat curry comes with a bowl of lentil soup at Little Myanmar.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Chick of Us

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Korean restaurant Chick of Us is a playful fast food newcomer to the Lower East Side, looking like a chain though this is the only store. The specialty is thigh-meat chicken nuggets with a variety of flavors, but even more snacky are a series of rice noodle skewers interspersed with meats, and dressed potato helixes on sticks, combining the best elements of potato chips and cottage potatoes, giving you yet another opportunity to make an entire meal of potatoes.

Potatoes, rice cakes, and sausages.
The pornado and rice cake skewer at Chick Of Us.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Ankara #3

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This new halal Turkish restaurant is successor to the long-closed Bereket, a late night favorite of clubgoers. Lots of salads, dips, and kebabs at bargain prices, but my preferred choice is a doner kebab in Turkish bread (other breads include pitas and flatbread wraps). Three rotating cylinders of meat are available: lamb, chicken, and veal, each with its own attractions. It’s one of the few Turkish kebab joints in town that still serves lamb instead of a lamb-beef amalgam.

A sandwich heavily stacked with meat and vegetables.
A lamb doner sandwich on Turkish bread.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

S Wan Cafe

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The Lower East Side is home to many Hong Kong-styles cafes serving the hybrid Chinese-English cuisine called cha chaan tengs. S Wan is a charming walk-down spot offering a full range of breakfasts designated by letters that might includes fried eggs, waffles smeared with peanut butter, Spam, toast with butter and honey, and pork chops, in addition to lots of noodle soups and stir fries.

Waffles, eggs, and a pork chop.
Typical breakfast at
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Beijing Dumpling

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Hearty working-class Chinese fare at favorable prices is the forte of this bare-bones shop conveniently located on Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills near the Kew Gardens subway station. Noodles, dumplings, and soups make up most of the menu, with Sichuan dumplings and dan dan noodles available in memorably good renditions.

A plate of noodles on an orange tray and another of dumpling dabbed with chile sauce.
Sichuan classics from a northern Chinese perspective.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Yi Zhang Fish Ball

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This family-run Fujianese lunch counter is one of Chinatown’s best budget-friendly restaurants — and best kept secrets. Like the name suggests, the pork-stuffed fish balls in soup make a memorable repast, but there are also all sorts of other agreeable noodles and soups. The pan-fried pork buns are another standout, darkened on the bottom, puffy on top, and generously stuffed.

A room with counters on the left and right at which people are seated.
The semi-subterranean dining room is busy all day.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Taiwan Pork Chop House

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Most patrons of this Taiwanese cafe tucked away on picturesque Doyers Street pick the first or second items on the menu: a pair of soy-glazed pork chops over rice with mustard greens, or an ample chicken leg with a similar treatment. Either way, it makes a perfect full meal. Rice cake stir fries, oyster pancakes, fish ball noodle soups, and taro cakes make other fine choices.

A pile of pork chops on rice in a round black plastic container.
Choice number one on Taiwanese Pork Chop House’s menu.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Bakhtar Afghan Wali Baba Grill

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This Jamaica Estates Afghan restaurant offers kebabs of chicken, beef, and lamb in various combinations — and little else. The lamb chops, in particular, are superb, often cut to order from the rib cage (you can hear the saw thrumming in the kitchen), smeared with a reddish spice rub, and grilled to complete succulence. A few curries are also available, though as the attendant said, “We don’t have vegetables.”

A platter or dark rice, small metal bowl of curry, and reddish lamb chops heaped on another plate of rice.
Goat curry and grilled lamb chops.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Halal Diner

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Two doors down from a mosque, this chandeliered restaurant occupies a lively corner location that was also previously a diner, though one with a more conventional menu. This place upholds diner principals, filling out its menu with Afghan kebab platters as well as Bangladeshi and Indian dishes, plus pizza and excellent hamburgers. The platter shown here features yogurt-marinated chicken and beef kofta with pulao rice, Afghan bread, and salad, with several sauces.

Two meat sticks on brownish rice.
Platter #33 at Halal Diner.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Taqueria Al Pastor

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Sure, there are dozens of great, old-fashioned, mainly Pueblan taquerias within the borders of Bushwick, but this place opened early in 2020 with a zingier demeanor, including a brightly painted minibus on its exterior. The lure is a humongous rotating trompo of pineapple-marinated pork al pastor, sliced and deposited on a rustic corn tortilla. Cactus, chicken, and carne asada fillings are also available.

A man in a blue shirt with a long knife bends over a twirling vertical spit of meat.
The al pastor spit twirls at Taqueria Al Pastor.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Pera Ždera (Peter Eater)

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This small storefront in the wilds of Glendale specializes in Balkan bar food, an apparent branch of a place in Subotica, Serbia. It concentrates on grilled meats and pastries, the former including the skinless sausages cevapi and the burger-like pljeskavica, which comes on a round bun that may be dressed with kaymak (thick sour cream) and ajvar (a red pepper paste) — plus the usual onions, tomatoes, and lettuce. Burger lovers: Don’t miss it.

A burger in a mottled and irregular bun with some angry looking red sauce visible on the bottom half of the bun, lettuce, too.
Pljeskavica from Pera Ždera.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Pupusas Ridgewood

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Many places make their own Salvadoran pupusas, sometimes hand-patting the masa or rice dough, but this establishment takes the process one step further. Its pupusas are of larger circumference, juicier, and stuffed with a choice of 10 fillings. Some, like broccoli and cheese, are unusual, but neophytes should first try cheese and loroco — a pickled flower that resembles oregano; and revueltas, which combines pork rind, beans, and cheese.

An assortment of outsize papusas, browned stuffed pancakes sometimes broken open to show fillings, on a red plastic tray.
Pupusas at Papusas Ridgewood.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Ali's Trinbago Roti Shop

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This decades-old Trinidad and Tobago roti shop was closed for a time and recently renovated, and you probably won’t be able to tell the differences as the line snakes out the door at lunchtime. The list of roti is expansive, but I still prefer the bone-in goat, chicken, and conch.

A black plastic container of chicken curry with a folded flatbread on the side.
A chicken roti with the flatbread on the side.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Mama Kitchen

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Mama Kitchen is a kosher Israeli restaurant that far exceeds expectations (everything except the composed salads are cooked to order) at a lower price than you might expect. Entrees include a full plate of food plus another plate from a salad bar with over a dozen selections. The Ashkenazic schnitzels are superb, but there are Sephardic North African tagines, too, and there’s no better place in Bed-Stuy for a falafel sandwich.

A browned irregular chicken cutlet on a mottled green plate sitting atop rice, with some reddish steamed veggies on the side.
A perfectly breaded chicken schnitzel at Mama Kitchen.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Gloria’s

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Named for founder Gloria Wilson, this cafe with makeshift seating — there was once a more famous branch north of Eastern Parkway — specializes in Trinidadian homestyle cooking, ladled out in massive portions. The goat curry is profuse with curry powder, and better still when served as a roti with a dal puri wrapper and plenty of extra heat with the condiment called simply “pepper.” A tofu dinner, callaloo, and bhaji roti are other choices.

A flatbread opened up to reveal meat, bones, and brown gravy.
A glimpse inside the goat roti at Gloria’s
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Ethel & Annie Mae's Soulfood Kitchen

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Catering veteran and master baker Danielle Moore started this corner soul food cafe, mainly takeout, in Flatbush, showcasing the cuisine’s standards, featuring chicken wings, fried porgies, and New Orleans po’ boys. But at whim she ventures outside the canon, producing a wonderful lamb burger with a thick sear and a tzatziki dressing. Also don’t miss the pineapple upside-down cake and banana pudding.

A blackened patty in a bun with bright green lettuce and slice of tomato sticking out.
The lamb burger at Ethel & Annie Mae’s.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

New Park Pizza

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Open since 1956, New Park is one of Queens’ most cherished pizzerias, as a pit stop on the way to the beach or a drop-in during Saturday errands along the commercial strip of Cross Bay Boulevard. The pizzas come out hot and fast and oozing cheese, and lines form to buy slices (the line inside moves faster). Don’t go expecting to find anything but pizza and calzones, and what a scene!

Guys in red shirts and baseball caps baking a cutting pizza.
The busy scene inside New Park Pizza.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Culpepper’s

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Culpepper’s, opened in 1998 by Winston Lewis, is one of the city’s very small collection of Barbadian (Bajan) restaurants. Since the pandemic, it’s takeout only so make a plan where you want to eat the excellent island food. Often identified as the national dish, the cou cou and flying fish consists of a cornmeal porridge shot with okra and said fish. Jerk specialties and pastries are also available.

A corner storefront in shades of bright yellow and blue.
Culpepper’s bright blue awning.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Dog Day Afternoon

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Specializing in Chicago-style hot dogs, Dog Day Afternoon is named after an Al Pacino movie about a bank robbery that was partly shot on the same block of Windsor Terrace. The hot dog boasts a couple of small innovations (New York style pickles, for example, and sweet miniature plum tomatoes), but otherwise the genre remains intact. Get a free bag of chips with every red hot, and the jambalaya’s not bad, either.

A hand holds two Chicago hot dogs, adorned with tomato, pickle, and sport peppers on a seeded bun.
Chicago dogs from Dog Day Afternoon.
Nat Belkov/Eater NY

Bedawi Cafe

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This Windsor Terrace staple celebrates the contributions of Bedouins to Middle Eastern cuisine, focusing on the cooking of Jordan. The interior is small, charming, and well-decorated like someone’s living room and the menu features kebabs, sandwiches, and platters, plus many of the same ingredients made into flatbreads called pitzas. There are snacking opportunities galore, including garlicky fava beans and a Levantine spin on potato salad.

A hand holds a meat and lettuce sandwich with a pickle chip sticking out almost wrapped completely in a flatbread.
The leg of lamb sandwich at Bedawi.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

New Asha

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Located a short bus ride straight uphill from the Staten Island Ferry, New Asha, founded in 1999, is a funky sort of place with excellent Sri Lankan food. A glass case displays heavy tubular fritters that are good for snacks, but why not sit and chow down on halal meats like mutton or jackfruit curries, poured over rice and served with yellow dal and a chopped vegetable salad?

The front of a storefront with a green awning that with the words “New Asha Srilankan Restaurant” in all capital yellow letters
New Asha is a Staten Island mainstay.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Al Aqsa Bakery & Restaurant

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Only recently have Palestinian restaurants become an attraction unto themselves in the city with the advent of places like Al Badawi, which offer sit-down dining. At lower prices and with more of a lunch counter atmosphere, Al Aqsa specializes in pita or laffa sandwiches, tucked or rolled, respectively, and filled with chicken shawarma, falafel, or lamb shish kebab, slathered with a strong toum, a garlicky white sauce. Kufta, bread dips, lahmacun in several variations, and even schnitzels round out the menu.

You can see shreds of meat inside a flatbread tube dabbed with white sauce.
The mixed shawarma laffa at Al Aqsa.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Lahori Chilli

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This 24-hour West Midwood Pakistani cafe with a chile-pepper logo has it all, from snacks like samosas and stuffed breads that are great for rapid snacking to full meals that include meat and vegetarian dishes served with rice, bread, or both. Go for the ground meat kebabs, which absorb lots of smoke in the clay oven, or haleem, a delicious porridge of lamb, wheat, and lentils. The steam table offers many vegan dishes.

A steam table with bright yellow, orange, and brown dishes in metal tubs, with two headless figures standing behind.
Cast your eye on the steam table at Lahori.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Roll N Roaster

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Open since the early 1970s, Roll N Roaster is the anchor of Sheepshead Bay’s restaurant row facing the bay. It specializes in roast beef sandwiches on kaiser rolls, the meat rich, moist, and deliciously rimmed with fat. Dip it in meat juices (small extra charge), or eat it plain. And don’t neglect the hot dogs, onion rings, clam strips, and turkey sandwiches, but ignore the imprecation to put “cheez” on everything.

A round roast beef sandwich on a small paper plate.
The iconic roast beef sandwich.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Little Georgia

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A stone’s throw from the beach, Little Georgia, is a convenience store in front and a bakery in back. It can get pretty crowded on weekends as patrons line up for multiple forms of khachapuri — often hot out of the oven — along with roast chicken, stout smoky sausages, and other beach-friendly tidbits. Lamb or chicken shawarma sandwiches of mind-boggling volume are a sideline.

A round flatbread with a cheeseboard pattern of cheese on top.
One of many cheesy khachapuris at Little Georgia.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY