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A view of Ridgewood from the train.
A view of Ridgewood from the train.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

20 Great Restaurants in Ridgewood

A Queens neighborhood with diverse offerings

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A view of Ridgewood from the train.
| Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Across the Queens border north of Bushwick lies Ridgewood. The rhomboid-shaped neighborhood at the end of the M line is roughly bounded by Flushing Avenue on the west, Metropolitan Avenue on the north, the disused Bushwick Branch of the LIRR on the east, and Wyckoff Avenue to the south.

Home to the Mespachtes Indians centuries ago, it was farmed by Dutch settlers in the colonial era — of which the Onderdonk House on Flushing Avenue is a vestige — and eventually taken over by English settlers. They named it Ridgewood for its climbing elevation and thick stands of linden, red cedar, and beech.

Throughout the 20th century, it was one of Queens’ great working-class neighborhoods, home to Germans, Italians, Dominicans, former Yugoslavians, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, Romanians, Mexicans, and Poles, among others. This diversity persists, now intermingling with a new generation of restaurants that mark the changing neighborhood.

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Onderdonk Cafe

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Hidden on one of the neighborhood’s quieter streets there’s a small Indonesian cafe with an excellent egg-and-cheese, located in a former bodega. The sandwich consists of a thick, custard-like omelet (with add-ons like turkey) sandwiched inside a soft, chewy bun. Wash it down with a cup of bajigur, a latte flavored with ginger and pandan leaves.

A savory pastry from Onderdonk Cafe.
The breakfast sandwich at Onderdonk Cafe.
Andrew Karpan/Eater NY

The family-owned dining room with its large Sicilian menu, open since 1982, is a bounty of classics: a chicken francese swimming in lemon-butter sauce, calamari doused in fra diavolo, and fettuccine alfredo bathed in creamy sauce. The are six kinds of spaghetti alone (get the one with eggplant), and don’t miss the anchovy appetizer or the baked clams oreganata. A meal here feels like you’re sitting in someone’s living room.

Three meatballs in red sauce with spaghetti peeping out.
Classic spaghetti and meatballs at Joe’s.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Gottscheer Hall

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Founded in 1924 by an ethnic German group from Slovenia known as the Gottsheers, this auditorium and social club is filled with neighborhood memories, including a line of portraits of winners of an annual beauty contest to crown Miss Gottsheer. The bar downstairs has become a secret neighborhood hangout, where you can wash a bratwurst or plate of pierogies down with a German tap beer.

The exterior of Gottscheer Hall.
The exterior of Gottscheer Hall.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Salty Lunch Lady's Little Luncheonette

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This new luncheonette offers playful takes on sandwiches in a charming pastel room that’s friendly for takeout or long lunches. The “Fancy bologna” features mortadella and aged provolone smeared with the ajvar pepper paste, while the chicken meatball is served with Bulgarian feta. There are vegetarian options as well. Leave room for dessert, which might include layer cakes or pies, that owner Dria Atencio has come to be known for.

Two halves of a baguette with cheese and mortadella.
Salty Lunch Lady’s fancy bologna sandwich.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Varenyk House

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A large Ukrainian flag hangs in the window of Varenyk House. The varenyky made fresh daily are also done Ukrainian style, as is the borscht, cooked with a surfeit of cabbage and beef. The varenyky menu itself boasts no fewer than twenty varieties, but it’s hard to imagine going more Ukrainian than the “blue and yellow” — potato-filled and dyed the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

A plate a yellow blintzes with brown stripes.
Blintzes filled with Nutella are served with sour cherries.
Varenyk House

Decades Pizza

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Roberta’s alum Zack Hughes and Paul Cacici, co-founder of Italian sandwich shop Carmenta’s, are the latest owners to open a pizzeria in Ridgewood. Pies range from the classic pepperoni to versions with potato or oyster mushrooms. The chopped salad as well as the daily-special plates are not to be missed. The dining room is as stylish as its pies: Dark green mood lighting makes it one of the best options in the area for date night with prices that track with special occasions.

A pie at Decades Pizza in Ridgewood.
A pie at Decades.
Emma Orlow/Eater NY

Bosna Express

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Located just beneath the Forest Avenue M stop, Bosna Express is a small cafe that concentrates on the bar food of Bosnia, which means cevapi (skinless beef-lamb sausages) and pljeskavica (a hubcap-size hamburger). Both come on a round bun with yogurt and ajvar, a Balkan red pepper paste, along with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. You won’t walk away hungry after eating either.

Pljeskavica at Bosna Express.
Pljeskavica at Bosna Express.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Guadalajara De Dia 2

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Guadalajara De Dia 2 is a grocery-turned-taqueria that offers some of the best Mexican food in Ridgewood. The “dining area” is a pair of tables amid the dried chiles, stacks of tortillas, and imported candies and canned goods. On the mainly southern Mexican menu, standouts include eggs scrambled with cactus, a fiery chilate de pollo (chicken soup), the round Pueblan sandwiches called cemitas, and hand-patted huaraches with a choice of fillings.

Inside the deli-restaurant of Guadalajara De Dia 2.
Inside the deli-restaurant.
Robert Siestema/Eater NY

Mama Yoshi Mini Mart

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A Japanese convenience store, Mama Yoshi offers much more than a rich array of imported snacks. The packaged onigiri is fresh, as is everything from the potato salad to edamame-infused hummus. Primarily a lunchtime spite, Mama Yoshi’s spicy katsu sandwiches are remarkable for their size. The kurobuta sausages also taste great.

Products line the shelves at Mama Yoshi Mini Mart.
Products line the shelves.
Evan Angelastro/ Eater NY

Cachapas y Mas

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A Ridgewood staple for almost a decade, Cachapas y Mas presents a grab bag of Caracas-style street sandwiches, which come in the form of the titular cachapas. The same fillings are also sold in between thick patacones, the buns of a pepito, or inside a tacucho, an arepa, or a yoyo. For something bigger, order a maracucha: a maximalist burger made of at least four kinds of meat.

A sandwich filled with sausage, the bread consists of two deep fried plantain slices.
A Venezuelan patacon filled with sausage.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Pizzeria Panina

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Pizzeria Panina specializes in pies made of a chewy sourdough that comes sized for parties of two. Toppings run from tangy dollops of labneh yogurt to a forest of mushrooms, to hot honey-infused bacon that the restaurant buys across the street from the historic pork shop Morscher’s.

A pizza on a stand resting on a table.
A pizza from Pizzeria Panina.
Andrew Karpan/Eater NY

Burek's Pizza

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Burek’s Pizza serves flaky, tire-shaped Serbian pies that are freshly baked throughout the day in the small, family-owned shop. No pizzas are for sale, and the name is simply to give customers an idea that round pies are the focus. These come filled with either ground beef, crumbly cheese, spinach, or with spinach and cheese. Buy by the pie or by the slice, and dip each bite in the shop’s homemade yogurt.

A burek pizza from Burek’s Pizza.
A burek pizza.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

While in Kathmandu

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A fusion of Nepalese, Indian, and Italian cuisines,, While in Kathmandu recently expanded its dining area deep into the backyard. The star of the show is probably the creamy fettucine alfredo, which emulsifies a rich geography of cheeses and gives it a Nepali spice twist. Other compelling fusions include the “not a taco,” which packs charred chicken onto a rolled-up roti, and the masala-flavored fries. Classic Nepalese dishes are also available.

Food at While in Kathamandu.
Food at While in Kathamandu.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Las Chilangas

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Ridgewood has long been a neighborhood of taquerias. A few blocks away from the Seneca M station, the menu at Las Chilangas (from Mexico City) is long and rich with choices, including freshly prepared versions of all the basics. There are at least six different birria dishes, and the mole is also fabulous, rich and only slightly sweet.

A colorful storefront with painted chile peppers and a fenced off seating area in front.
Las Chilangas has an outdoor seating area.
Las Chilangas

Rolo’s

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An elaborate, expansive restaurant put together by a handful of ex-Gramercy Tavern alums, Rolo’s is remarkable for being just about as good as it appears to be. Almost everyone orders the polenta bread, for good reason: It’s an appetizer-sized side that lands somewhere in between naan and pita bread, but more pillowy than either. The headline event is the cheeseburger, which Rolo’s makes out of two casually smashed patties that meld together.

Pupusas Ridgewood

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Located near the neighborhood’s border with Glendale lies an El Salvadorean pupusa restaurant. Here, they come in at least 14 different varieties, filled with everything from the traditional crisp chunks of chorizo to vegetarian options, like beans, broccoli, or pickled loroco flowers, which taste something like oregano.

A hand holds a folded pupusa, whose glistening inside looks corn yellow and still chewy. In the background, a red takeout tray is visible.
Pupusas.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Benny’s Cuban Cafe

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Year-old Benny’s serves something like a greatest hits of Cuban cafe fare, starting with a perfect Cubano (Cuban sandwich) featuring mustard instead of mayo, ham, swiss, pernil, and probably more pickles than are necessary. The ropa vieja (shredded beef) and frita vaca (fried beef with sauteed onions and peppers) are totally up to par, and don’t miss the fresh-squeezed juices.

A Cuban sandwich in two wedges and shredded beef with onions and peppers.
Cuban sandwich and frita vaca at Benny’s.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Rudy's Pastry Shop

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A neighborhood fixture for birthday cakes and freshly-baked cookies for all holidays and occasions, the German bakery Rudy’s proudly dates to 1934. More recently, the bakery’s backroom doubles as a laptop-friendly cafe that, on mornings and afternoons, assembles a mean grilled cheese, a lean panini, or a croissant stuffed with ham, cream cheese, and a fried egg. Smaller treats abound, including lots of Italian pastries like cannoli.

Rudy’s Pastry Shop cake.
A cake at Rudy’s Pastry Shop.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Joe & John's

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A slice shop that outpaces every other on Myrtle Avenue, and located at the crossroads of the neighborhood, Joe & John’s offers full gamut of pizzeria fare with an attention to detail and a variety that results in everything from lush, leafy chicken Caesar slices, to a square-shaped vodka pie, to chewy pepperoni pinwheels.

Four pies in a matrix.
A selection of pizzas from Joe & John’s.
Joe & John’s

Nhà Mình

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Just over the border from Bushwick (the dividing line runs down the middle of Wyckoff at this point), Nhà Mình is one of the city’s most unique Vietnamese restaurants, located inside the music venue Trans Pecos. At heart it's a coffee shop and all-day breakfast spot, serving bowls and egg banh mi. As of late, it has evolved into a full-menu Vietnamese restaurant, despite its small size, turning out pho, bun, and the like, with a list of banh mi unique in its range.

Nhà Mình Vietnamese restaurant storefront
Nhà Mình in Ridgewood.
Melanie Landsman/Eater

Onderdonk Cafe

Hidden on one of the neighborhood’s quieter streets there’s a small Indonesian cafe with an excellent egg-and-cheese, located in a former bodega. The sandwich consists of a thick, custard-like omelet (with add-ons like turkey) sandwiched inside a soft, chewy bun. Wash it down with a cup of bajigur, a latte flavored with ginger and pandan leaves.

A savory pastry from Onderdonk Cafe.
The breakfast sandwich at Onderdonk Cafe.
Andrew Karpan/Eater NY

Joe's

The family-owned dining room with its large Sicilian menu, open since 1982, is a bounty of classics: a chicken francese swimming in lemon-butter sauce, calamari doused in fra diavolo, and fettuccine alfredo bathed in creamy sauce. The are six kinds of spaghetti alone (get the one with eggplant), and don’t miss the anchovy appetizer or the baked clams oreganata. A meal here feels like you’re sitting in someone’s living room.

Three meatballs in red sauce with spaghetti peeping out.
Classic spaghetti and meatballs at Joe’s.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Gottscheer Hall

Founded in 1924 by an ethnic German group from Slovenia known as the Gottsheers, this auditorium and social club is filled with neighborhood memories, including a line of portraits of winners of an annual beauty contest to crown Miss Gottsheer. The bar downstairs has become a secret neighborhood hangout, where you can wash a bratwurst or plate of pierogies down with a German tap beer.

The exterior of Gottscheer Hall.
The exterior of Gottscheer Hall.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Salty Lunch Lady's Little Luncheonette

This new luncheonette offers playful takes on sandwiches in a charming pastel room that’s friendly for takeout or long lunches. The “Fancy bologna” features mortadella and aged provolone smeared with the ajvar pepper paste, while the chicken meatball is served with Bulgarian feta. There are vegetarian options as well. Leave room for dessert, which might include layer cakes or pies, that owner Dria Atencio has come to be known for.

Two halves of a baguette with cheese and mortadella.
Salty Lunch Lady’s fancy bologna sandwich.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Varenyk House

A large Ukrainian flag hangs in the window of Varenyk House. The varenyky made fresh daily are also done Ukrainian style, as is the borscht, cooked with a surfeit of cabbage and beef. The varenyky menu itself boasts no fewer than twenty varieties, but it’s hard to imagine going more Ukrainian than the “blue and yellow” — potato-filled and dyed the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

A plate a yellow blintzes with brown stripes.
Blintzes filled with Nutella are served with sour cherries.
Varenyk House

Decades Pizza

Roberta’s alum Zack Hughes and Paul Cacici, co-founder of Italian sandwich shop Carmenta’s, are the latest owners to open a pizzeria in Ridgewood. Pies range from the classic pepperoni to versions with potato or oyster mushrooms. The chopped salad as well as the daily-special plates are not to be missed. The dining room is as stylish as its pies: Dark green mood lighting makes it one of the best options in the area for date night with prices that track with special occasions.

A pie at Decades Pizza in Ridgewood.
A pie at Decades.
Emma Orlow/Eater NY

Bosna Express

Located just beneath the Forest Avenue M stop, Bosna Express is a small cafe that concentrates on the bar food of Bosnia, which means cevapi (skinless beef-lamb sausages) and pljeskavica (a hubcap-size hamburger). Both come on a round bun with yogurt and ajvar, a Balkan red pepper paste, along with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. You won’t walk away hungry after eating either.

Pljeskavica at Bosna Express.
Pljeskavica at Bosna Express.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Guadalajara De Dia 2

Guadalajara De Dia 2 is a grocery-turned-taqueria that offers some of the best Mexican food in Ridgewood. The “dining area” is a pair of tables amid the dried chiles, stacks of tortillas, and imported candies and canned goods. On the mainly southern Mexican menu, standouts include eggs scrambled with cactus, a fiery chilate de pollo (chicken soup), the round Pueblan sandwiches called cemitas, and hand-patted huaraches with a choice of fillings.

Inside the deli-restaurant of Guadalajara De Dia 2.
Inside the deli-restaurant.
Robert Siestema/Eater NY

Mama Yoshi Mini Mart

A Japanese convenience store, Mama Yoshi offers much more than a rich array of imported snacks. The packaged onigiri is fresh, as is everything from the potato salad to edamame-infused hummus. Primarily a lunchtime spite, Mama Yoshi’s spicy katsu sandwiches are remarkable for their size. The kurobuta sausages also taste great.

Products line the shelves at Mama Yoshi Mini Mart.
Products line the shelves.
Evan Angelastro/ Eater NY

Cachapas y Mas

A Ridgewood staple for almost a decade, Cachapas y Mas presents a grab bag of Caracas-style street sandwiches, which come in the form of the titular cachapas. The same fillings are also sold in between thick patacones, the buns of a pepito, or inside a tacucho, an arepa, or a yoyo. For something bigger, order a maracucha: a maximalist burger made of at least four kinds of meat.

A sandwich filled with sausage, the bread consists of two deep fried plantain slices.
A Venezuelan patacon filled with sausage.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Pizzeria Panina

Pizzeria Panina specializes in pies made of a chewy sourdough that comes sized for parties of two. Toppings run from tangy dollops of labneh yogurt to a forest of mushrooms, to hot honey-infused bacon that the restaurant buys across the street from the historic pork shop Morscher’s.

A pizza on a stand resting on a table.
A pizza from Pizzeria Panina.
Andrew Karpan/Eater NY

Burek's Pizza

Burek’s Pizza serves flaky, tire-shaped Serbian pies that are freshly baked throughout the day in the small, family-owned shop. No pizzas are for sale, and the name is simply to give customers an idea that round pies are the focus. These come filled with either ground beef, crumbly cheese, spinach, or with spinach and cheese. Buy by the pie or by the slice, and dip each bite in the shop’s homemade yogurt.

A burek pizza from Burek’s Pizza.
A burek pizza.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

While in Kathmandu

A fusion of Nepalese, Indian, and Italian cuisines,, While in Kathmandu recently expanded its dining area deep into the backyard. The star of the show is probably the creamy fettucine alfredo, which emulsifies a rich geography of cheeses and gives it a Nepali spice twist. Other compelling fusions include the “not a taco,” which packs charred chicken onto a rolled-up roti, and the masala-flavored fries. Classic Nepalese dishes are also available.

Food at While in Kathamandu.
Food at While in Kathamandu.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Las Chilangas

Ridgewood has long been a neighborhood of taquerias. A few blocks away from the Seneca M station, the menu at Las Chilangas (from Mexico City) is long and rich with choices, including freshly prepared versions of all the basics. There are at least six different birria dishes, and the mole is also fabulous, rich and only slightly sweet.

A colorful storefront with painted chile peppers and a fenced off seating area in front.
Las Chilangas has an outdoor seating area.
Las Chilangas

Rolo’s

An elaborate, expansive restaurant put together by a handful of ex-Gramercy Tavern alums, Rolo’s is remarkable for being just about as good as it appears to be. Almost everyone orders the polenta bread, for good reason: It’s an appetizer-sized side that lands somewhere in between naan and pita bread, but more pillowy than either. The headline event is the cheeseburger, which Rolo’s makes out of two casually smashed patties that meld together.

Related Maps

Pupusas Ridgewood

Located near the neighborhood’s border with Glendale lies an El Salvadorean pupusa restaurant. Here, they come in at least 14 different varieties, filled with everything from the traditional crisp chunks of chorizo to vegetarian options, like beans, broccoli, or pickled loroco flowers, which taste something like oregano.

A hand holds a folded pupusa, whose glistening inside looks corn yellow and still chewy. In the background, a red takeout tray is visible.
Pupusas.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Benny’s Cuban Cafe

Year-old Benny’s serves something like a greatest hits of Cuban cafe fare, starting with a perfect Cubano (Cuban sandwich) featuring mustard instead of mayo, ham, swiss, pernil, and probably more pickles than are necessary. The ropa vieja (shredded beef) and frita vaca (fried beef with sauteed onions and peppers) are totally up to par, and don’t miss the fresh-squeezed juices.

A Cuban sandwich in two wedges and shredded beef with onions and peppers.
Cuban sandwich and frita vaca at Benny’s.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Rudy's Pastry Shop

A neighborhood fixture for birthday cakes and freshly-baked cookies for all holidays and occasions, the German bakery Rudy’s proudly dates to 1934. More recently, the bakery’s backroom doubles as a laptop-friendly cafe that, on mornings and afternoons, assembles a mean grilled cheese, a lean panini, or a croissant stuffed with ham, cream cheese, and a fried egg. Smaller treats abound, including lots of Italian pastries like cannoli.

Rudy’s Pastry Shop cake.
A cake at Rudy’s Pastry Shop.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Joe & John's

A slice shop that outpaces every other on Myrtle Avenue, and located at the crossroads of the neighborhood, Joe & John’s offers full gamut of pizzeria fare with an attention to detail and a variety that results in everything from lush, leafy chicken Caesar slices, to a square-shaped vodka pie, to chewy pepperoni pinwheels.

Four pies in a matrix.
A selection of pizzas from Joe & John’s.
Joe & John’s

Nhà Mình

Just over the border from Bushwick (the dividing line runs down the middle of Wyckoff at this point), Nhà Mình is one of the city’s most unique Vietnamese restaurants, located inside the music venue Trans Pecos. At heart it's a coffee shop and all-day breakfast spot, serving bowls and egg banh mi. As of late, it has evolved into a full-menu Vietnamese restaurant, despite its small size, turning out pho, bun, and the like, with a list of banh mi unique in its range.

Nhà Mình Vietnamese restaurant storefront
Nhà Mình in Ridgewood.
Melanie Landsman/Eater

Related Maps