Gastropub-like fare had been missing in Ozone Park, so Culinary Institute of America graduate Andrew Basdeo, and his business partner, Kimberly Mohan — both with lifelong connections to the neighborhood — sought to change that with the 2017 opening of The Local Press. Here, all the meats are sourced from Pat La Frieda, chicken and waffles are paired with honey butter, and six kinds of fries — including truffle parmesan, cajun, and sweet potato — come with a choice of nine sauces like truffle aioli and chipotle mayo.

This Pakistani-owned fast food halal joint on the busy intersection of Liberty Avenue and Cross Bay Boulevard, located under the tracks of the A train, serves typical food cart fare like chicken over rice, falafel platter, and beef gyro, but its Peshwari chicken chapli patties, cooked to order at $5 for two pieces or $8 for a platter stand out. 

This brick-and-mortar outpost of Arepalicious, whose arepacones shot them to fame at the Queens Night Market in 2013, has found a spacious home along the busy thoroughfare of Cross Bay Boulevard in Ozone Park. A steady stream of pick-up, takeout, and dine-in guests come for their signature arepacones, pastries like tres leches from the bakery section, juices made from frozen guava and soursop pulp at the juice bar, and hot foods like traditional Colombian sancocho and mondongo, along with eight types of loaded fries and four versions of hot dogs like the choriperro with pineapple sauce.

Peri peri chicken and Pakistani tandoor cooking join forces on the menu of the recently opened Flames restaurant in the quiet residential area down 101st Avenue in Ozone Park. The fusion is conspicuous in the boneless peri peri chicken roll wrapped in naan. Owner Umar Aslam serves up the peri peri chicken in other ways, too — as wings, full, half. or quarter chicken with a choice of spice levels and flavors like mango-lime and lemon-herb, over rice, and in a salad. Its Pakistani fare shines with both traditional and playful touches: chicken kabab twisted and baked into sesame seed-sprinkled naan dough; seven kinds of naan with stuffings that include minced chicken and mozzarella; tikka and kebabs finished off in a tandoori flame; and pink Kashmiri tea loaded with pistachio. Umar Aslam says all the meat is halal to serve the Muslim Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian and Middle Eastern community in the neighborhood.

S&A West Indian Restaurant has been doling out beloved Trinidadian dishes for so long that generations of local families claim it their favorite. Since co-owner Savi Samsair opened the local institution in 1996 (originally on Hillside Avenue before opening its current spot under the A train tracks in 2005), locals have been lining up for her aloo pies (brought out hot and steaming throughout the day by her husband, co-owner and chef Shane) and filled with a choice of around 30 curries, stews and sauteed vegetables, meats, and chunks of soybean protein. Mango curry, boneless chicken curry, channa (stewed chickpeas), and stewed pumpkin talkari are big hits here, and they can also be served with rice, chow mein, and roti (a rolled-up pizza pie-sized flatbread). Add any of Samsair’s housemade chutneys — mango, tamarind, pepper, and a spicy “mother-in-law” made from about 20 different ingredients — for an extra kick of flavor. Samsair has put the business up for sale — though she may stay on in an agreed-upon capacity — so come quick.

Don Peppe’s calling card — with praises sung to it in Hollywood — is its baked clams. The linguine with white clam sauce is a close second. This Italian restaurant dates back to 1942 — originally in Brooklyn with a move to Queens in 1968 — and it serves huge, family-style portions of old-school classics like chicken with butter and lemon, shrimp Luciano, zuppa di mussels, beef braciola, and veal parmigiana. There is only one menu, and it’s on a blackboard at the back wall of the large one-room restaurant. Go hungry — or with friends — and bring cash.

Locals favoring Latin American dishes line up in front of El Campeon de los Pollos, where an expansive L-shaped steam table holds no-frills Dominican classics: chicken stew, beef stew, oxtail stew, sancocho, steak and onions, pernil roast pork, arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), and of course, rotisserie chicken. Dessert flan and bread pudding are also on deck.

Even during the pandemic, lines in front of this Trinidadian-Indian-owned institution haven’t wavered, curving around the corner of Lefferts Boulevard and 111th Avenue in an otherwise quiet section of South Ozone Park. Hungry fans of Trinidadian and Caribbean food enjoy their rotis — both the plain, shredded buss up shut (paratha), and the dhal puri filled with crumbly ground split pea — dipped into their favorite chicken curry and goat curry. Triniciti’s doubles, fluffy, palm-sized fried dough sandwiches filled with channa and chutneys are also favorites. Order ahead to avoid the lines.

Dar Al-yemen’s calling card is its succulent and spiced lamb, which appears in the haneed (marinated and slow-cooked lamb served over rice with vegetable curry), mandi (clay-oven steamed lamb over rice), fahsha (lamb chunks stewed in tomato sauce with fresh coriander), soughar (stir-fried cubes of lamb fillet), and saltah (minced lamb stew with tomato sauce, fenugreek and egg) preparations, among others. The whole kingfish, fried and splayed open, makes for a foot-long stunner inside the four-table dining room whose beautiful tiling runs up and wraps around the ceiling. The fasolia, a kidney bean stew with eggs, typically eaten for breakfast, is also a local favorite. Desserts like fattah tammar (dates and chapatti flatbread pieces with olive oil and sesame oil) and masoub with banana, honey, and cream round out the Yemeni menu.

Three blocks down from Dar Al-yemen, locals make their way over to Satguru Sweets for its samosa chaat, filled with fresh cabbage, carrots, bell peppers, onions; chole bhature, a pairing of chana masala and fluffy, fried leavened puri bread; and palak paneer with corn roti; and other home-style northern Indian vegetarian food. As its name suggests, hundreds of colorful, housemade sweets like barfi milk cake; round, crumbly peda cookies; and flaxseed pinni balls line the glass counters. There’s also a crunchy snack bar where guests can mix up fried lentils, chickpeas, masala roasted cashews, salted matthi wafers, and garlic sev sticks from fried gram chickpea flour. Satguru Sweets is the rare NYC spot with a traditional kulfi machine that holds dozens of long, skinny, nut-studded rockets of the milky ice cream.