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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.