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A small wooden stairway of ingredients wait to be dropped in a bowl of broth.
A stairway of ingredients waiting to be dropped in broth.
Deng Ji Yunnan Guoqiao Mixian

Where to Eat in Flushing’s Chinatown

From black tea-braised pork belly to sprawling new hot pot spots, here’s where to eat in dynamic Queens Chinatown

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A stairway of ingredients waiting to be dropped in broth.
| Deng Ji Yunnan Guoqiao Mixian

As early as the 1970s, Flushing began its transition from a predominantly Italian and Jewish community to a Chinese one. The first newcomers were primarily Taiwanese, and eventually, beginning in the 1990s, immigrants from Fujian and then from northern and southwestern provinces arrived. As immigration patterns shifted, so too, did rising rents and real estate developments that continue to chisel out a shimmering skyline. The dynamic ultimately transformed the working-class neighborhood brimming with mom-and-pop shops doling out superb family-style fare to a mix that includes first-time U.S. outposts of massive Asian restaurant chains.

The streets continue to bustle with shoppers — many more are young, fashionable, and with more disposable income — seeking out late-night karaoke, fresh fruit stands, rice roll takeout windows, Hong Kong-style milk teas, noodle soups, dim sum, Sichuan hot pot, and meticulously designed dishes in just as meticulously designed digs.

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.

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Chongqing Lao Zao 重慶老灶

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Fans start lining up well before the wooden doors swing open at noon, eventually to walk through corridors that lead them to a bi-level dining area that evokes an old Chinese village, complete with a water wheel, koi, and a faux fire at the foot of each table. One private section is elevated on stilts. Chongqing Lao Zao stands out from the high concentration of nearby hot pot spots — Hai Di Lao, Liuyishou, 99 Favor Taste. It offers varying grids: nine compartments to keep track of each ingredient, or three for just as many broths. On nearly every table, a hunk of red beef tallow slowly melts into the restaurant’s signature spicy broth that’s bubbling and fiery red — and can be ordered mildly spicy for the low of tolerance.

A hot pot spread includes a triple-divided pot, leafy greens, lettuce stems, and beef.
Three-flavor hot pot at Chongqing Lao Zao.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Maxi's Noodle

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This compact, no-frills noodle spot fills with families slurping together on glass-topped tables dressed with paper menus. It runs a streamlined operation where you choose up to three toppings to go with your solo broth, noodle soup or dry lo mein. Treasured toppings include wontons that burst with fresh, buoyant shrimp wrapped in slippery skin. The beef crumbles and the tendon jiggles in the beef stew. And the oblong fish balls exude a smoked meat — and not fishy — taste. They’re a balm for the starving who’d see the truth in the funny messages like “I’m sorry about what I said when I was hungry,” posted around the space.

A red awning features a woman eating noodles and letters that read “Maxi’s Noodle.”
Outside Maxi’s Noodle.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Tangram

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This shiny new mixed-use complex from the folks behind One Fulton Square injected another deluge of diverse options in sleek, modern settings. You’ll often find lines outside Shoo Loong Kan, the first U.S. outpost of a massive 1,000-plus-store hot pot chain from the Sichuan province. Newcomer Ju Qi landed in mid-August from Beijing with regional fare like Peking duck. For sweets and drinks, head to Cuppa Tea for Hong Kong-style milk teas; Machi Machi for fun and colorful boba drinks, and Meet Fresh for icy grass jelly and taro ball concoctions.

People are seated and standing to wait to get inside a restaurant located in sleek white-walled mall.
Outside Shoo Loong Kan at Tangram.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Fu Yuan 富源腸粉

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Joe’s Steam Rice Roll mainstreamed the sticky, chewy concentric Cantonese treat in Flushing, and now locals are lining up in front of the tiny takeout window of Fu Yuan. Favorites are the shrimp and watercress rolls as well as the thick rice logs (like those in Korean tteokbokki) with curry fish balls or peanut butter sauce.

Three people lined up outside of a takeout window.
Outside the Fu Yuan’s takeout window.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Szechwan Absolute

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Of the three exceptional Sichuan restaurants in the handsome and suburban-looking One Fulton Square development, Szechwan Absolute is the most no-nonsense — slightly cheaper than the other two. Hidden away on the third floor and accessible by elevator, the restaurant features a menu that mainly sticks to Sichuan standards like ma po tofu, sliced fish in chile oil, and Chongqing chicken, improved with the stylish dough twists called mahua. Don’t miss northern Chinese dishes such as boiled beef with Chinese sauerkraut. 

Szechwan Absolute Flushing

Jiang Nan

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Jiang Nan is part of the influx of modern Chinese establishments like Che Li and Szechuan Mountain House brought in by developer F&T Group to its One Fulton Square restaurant complex. Here you’ll find luscious rods of okra (without all the goo) in a delicate soy sauce seasoning, slices of lotus root with each cavity fastidiously stuffed with glutinous rice sweetened with osmanthus flower syrup, and fork-tender pork belly braised in black tea.

A white plate holds glistening chunks of pork belly.
Pork belly braised in black tea sauce.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Asian Jewels

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If craving top-notch Cantonese dim sum, such as is readily available in Sunset Park and Manhattan Chinatown, Asian Jewels is the place to go in Flushing. The dumplings go around and around on carts, often delivered only minutes after they’re made and steamed. The huge dining room is elegant and relentlessly red, and dim sum is served well into the afternoon. Pillowy vegetarian rice noodle rolls and minced beef balls scented with orange peel are particularly recommended, as are steamed chicken feet with black bean sauce and honeycomb tripe with black pepper sauce. Humongous servings of soup such as fish maw with diced seafood will satisfy an entire table.

Two dim sum dishes — bundles covered in a thin white wrapper and minced beef balls — stand next to a dipping sauce.
Two dim sum dishes with dipping sauce.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Miss Li Henan Cuisine

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For a simple breakfast or lunch, drop by Miss Li Henan Cuisine, a mural-decorated lunchroom loosely representing the cuisine of Henan. How about a bowl of cold skin noodles, not in swatches but in tendrils, slickened with chile oil and decorated with yellow chives? For handheld snacks, egg-stuffed bing are available, as well as the stuffed dough pocket called pork and chive cake. A version of the Xinjiang favorite known in Henan restaurants as big tray chicken is here rendered as a spicy brown stew. It stays open until 10 p.m.

A bowl of noodles are topped with bean sprouts, cucumber, and tofu.
House-made noodles with bean sprouts, cucumber, and tofu.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Shanghai You Garden

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The soup-squirting dumplings known as xiao long bao are damn near perfect at Shanghai You Garden, whether you pick the plain pork or the pork with crab. In fact, their only local competition is at Nan Xiang at One Fulton Square. In an elegant coffee house setting, You Garden goes far beyond the usual coffee shop menu, offering dishes featuring mushrooms and gluten, pig feet, lion’s head meatballs, other types of Shanghai dumplings, and rice cake stir fries, another dish associated with the city.

Six soup dumplings line a bamboo container.
Soup dumplings.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Fish With You 鱼你在一起

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This enormous fast-casual chain in China landed stateside in the summer with a sole focus: Sichuan fish and fermented cabbage stew. The five broths hit up all the distinctive traits of Sichuan: spicy, tingly, and sour with tangles of Sichuan peppercorns still on the vine. Take your pick of basa or snakehead (a thinner, flaky white-fleshed fish) fish fillets and toppings like enoki mushrooms. With rice on the side, portions are hefty

Two orange containers of Sichuan fish and fermented cabbage stews stand next to two white containers of rice.
Sichuan fish and fermented cabbage stews.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

La Mira Gelateria

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Know where to find a longan rose gelato in the shape of a cute bear? La Mira Gelateria is helping resuscitate the recently re-opened New World Mall with its Asian twists on gelato from founder Sharon Ye, who studied gelato-making in Italy. Scoops of sesame seaweed and peach oolong flavors are topped with little edible nubs to form a mouse, pig, or panda. 

A pink gelato scoop is shaped into a pig.
Longan rose piggy gelato.
La Mira Gelateria

Way before Malaysia’s wildly popular Papparich chain landed in 2016, Malay has been doling out sumptuous Malaysian dishes since it opened on a then-seedy side street in 1988. You’ll still catch vestiges of old Flushing before the skyscrapers cropped up. An employee assembles satay sticks in a tiny window at the left upon entry. A sliver of an aisle is made even more narrow by packed tables steaming with chicken curry noodle soup. Other hits include the al dente kang kung belacan, or water spinach heavy with shrimp paste; barbecued skate; roti canai; Hainanese chicken; and beef rendang.

Dishes of barbecued skate, curry chicken noodle soup, and kangkung belacan sit on a pink and blue floral table.
Barbecued skate, curry chicken noodle soup, and kangkung belacan.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Deng Ji Yunnan Guoqiao Mixian

Copy Link

In the last ten years, the food of Yunnan has been increasingly appreciated here, centering on a hand full of dishes featuring floppy rice mixian noodles, and lots of Southeast Asian flourishes. The two Flushing branches of Deng Ji — one occupying the old Fu Run space — have the largest collection of big-deal rice noodle soups that the city has yet scene, most involving dramatic tableside presentations, and add-in ingredients numbering 15 or more. This place is for the real Yunnan aficionado.

A bowl of broth with 14 small dishes above it waiting to be dumped in.
Ingredients just about to be dumped in the broth.
Robert Sietsema/Eater

Qing Dao Restaurant

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The fast-casual Qingdao Restaurant, named after a northeastern port city, where Tsingtao beer has been brewed since 1903, serves fantastic, recession-proof steam table fare, where a tray of three items, soup, and rice runs $8. On the left of the cashier counter, find proteins like lightly fried and battered nuggets of fish accented with white pepper and fist-sized meatballs. To the right, veggie dishes include still-crunchy green beans, and beyond that, a smoky house-made chile oil with a floral essence that calls to mind jasmine tea. Don’t forget the small display case jutting out of the storefront. There’s steamed corn, bundles of baos, and some of the longest sticks of still-warm fried crullers, or youtiao, all under $5.

A lunch spread includes egg drop soup, fried dough, and a tray of rice topped with green beans.
An $8 lunch spread plus youtiao.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Main Street Imperial Taiwanese Gourmet

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One of the best traditional Taiwanese restaurants in town is found just north of the LIE on Main Street in what constitutes almost a mini-Chinatown. The place calls itself Main Street Imperial Taiwanese Gourmet and has been in this spot since 2000, about the time northern Chinese and Fujianese became more prevalent in downtown Flushing and Taiwanese restaurants moved to other neighborhoods. All the classics are found here, including stinky tofu, three-cup chicken, oyster omelet, and meatball mochi, also known as ba-wan or “Taiwanese meatball” — meat tidbits embedded in gooey sweet potato starch. 

Main Street Imperial Taiwanese Gourmet

Chongqing Lao Zao 重慶老灶

Fans start lining up well before the wooden doors swing open at noon, eventually to walk through corridors that lead them to a bi-level dining area that evokes an old Chinese village, complete with a water wheel, koi, and a faux fire at the foot of each table. One private section is elevated on stilts. Chongqing Lao Zao stands out from the high concentration of nearby hot pot spots — Hai Di Lao, Liuyishou, 99 Favor Taste. It offers varying grids: nine compartments to keep track of each ingredient, or three for just as many broths. On nearly every table, a hunk of red beef tallow slowly melts into the restaurant’s signature spicy broth that’s bubbling and fiery red — and can be ordered mildly spicy for the low of tolerance.

A hot pot spread includes a triple-divided pot, leafy greens, lettuce stems, and beef.
Three-flavor hot pot at Chongqing Lao Zao.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Maxi's Noodle

This compact, no-frills noodle spot fills with families slurping together on glass-topped tables dressed with paper menus. It runs a streamlined operation where you choose up to three toppings to go with your solo broth, noodle soup or dry lo mein. Treasured toppings include wontons that burst with fresh, buoyant shrimp wrapped in slippery skin. The beef crumbles and the tendon jiggles in the beef stew. And the oblong fish balls exude a smoked meat — and not fishy — taste. They’re a balm for the starving who’d see the truth in the funny messages like “I’m sorry about what I said when I was hungry,” posted around the space.

A red awning features a woman eating noodles and letters that read “Maxi’s Noodle.”
Outside Maxi’s Noodle.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Tangram

This shiny new mixed-use complex from the folks behind One Fulton Square injected another deluge of diverse options in sleek, modern settings. You’ll often find lines outside Shoo Loong Kan, the first U.S. outpost of a massive 1,000-plus-store hot pot chain from the Sichuan province. Newcomer Ju Qi landed in mid-August from Beijing with regional fare like Peking duck. For sweets and drinks, head to Cuppa Tea for Hong Kong-style milk teas; Machi Machi for fun and colorful boba drinks, and Meet Fresh for icy grass jelly and taro ball concoctions.

People are seated and standing to wait to get inside a restaurant located in sleek white-walled mall.
Outside Shoo Loong Kan at Tangram.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Fu Yuan 富源腸粉

Joe’s Steam Rice Roll mainstreamed the sticky, chewy concentric Cantonese treat in Flushing, and now locals are lining up in front of the tiny takeout window of Fu Yuan. Favorites are the shrimp and watercress rolls as well as the thick rice logs (like those in Korean tteokbokki) with curry fish balls or peanut butter sauce.

Three people lined up outside of a takeout window.
Outside the Fu Yuan’s takeout window.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Szechwan Absolute

Of the three exceptional Sichuan restaurants in the handsome and suburban-looking One Fulton Square development, Szechwan Absolute is the most no-nonsense — slightly cheaper than the other two. Hidden away on the third floor and accessible by elevator, the restaurant features a menu that mainly sticks to Sichuan standards like ma po tofu, sliced fish in chile oil, and Chongqing chicken, improved with the stylish dough twists called mahua. Don’t miss northern Chinese dishes such as boiled beef with Chinese sauerkraut. 

Szechwan Absolute Flushing

Jiang Nan

Jiang Nan is part of the influx of modern Chinese establishments like Che Li and Szechuan Mountain House brought in by developer F&T Group to its One Fulton Square restaurant complex. Here you’ll find luscious rods of okra (without all the goo) in a delicate soy sauce seasoning, slices of lotus root with each cavity fastidiously stuffed with glutinous rice sweetened with osmanthus flower syrup, and fork-tender pork belly braised in black tea.

A white plate holds glistening chunks of pork belly.
Pork belly braised in black tea sauce.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Asian Jewels

If craving top-notch Cantonese dim sum, such as is readily available in Sunset Park and Manhattan Chinatown, Asian Jewels is the place to go in Flushing. The dumplings go around and around on carts, often delivered only minutes after they’re made and steamed. The huge dining room is elegant and relentlessly red, and dim sum is served well into the afternoon. Pillowy vegetarian rice noodle rolls and minced beef balls scented with orange peel are particularly recommended, as are steamed chicken feet with black bean sauce and honeycomb tripe with black pepper sauce. Humongous servings of soup such as fish maw with diced seafood will satisfy an entire table.

Two dim sum dishes — bundles covered in a thin white wrapper and minced beef balls — stand next to a dipping sauce.
Two dim sum dishes with dipping sauce.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Miss Li Henan Cuisine

For a simple breakfast or lunch, drop by Miss Li Henan Cuisine, a mural-decorated lunchroom loosely representing the cuisine of Henan. How about a bowl of cold skin noodles, not in swatches but in tendrils, slickened with chile oil and decorated with yellow chives? For handheld snacks, egg-stuffed bing are available, as well as the stuffed dough pocket called pork and chive cake. A version of the Xinjiang favorite known in Henan restaurants as big tray chicken is here rendered as a spicy brown stew. It stays open until 10 p.m.

A bowl of noodles are topped with bean sprouts, cucumber, and tofu.
House-made noodles with bean sprouts, cucumber, and tofu.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Shanghai You Garden

The soup-squirting dumplings known as xiao long bao are damn near perfect at Shanghai You Garden, whether you pick the plain pork or the pork with crab. In fact, their only local competition is at Nan Xiang at One Fulton Square. In an elegant coffee house setting, You Garden goes far beyond the usual coffee shop menu, offering dishes featuring mushrooms and gluten, pig feet, lion’s head meatballs, other types of Shanghai dumplings, and rice cake stir fries, another dish associated with the city.

Six soup dumplings line a bamboo container.
Soup dumplings.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Fish With You 鱼你在一起

This enormous fast-casual chain in China landed stateside in the summer with a sole focus: Sichuan fish and fermented cabbage stew. The five broths hit up all the distinctive traits of Sichuan: spicy, tingly, and sour with tangles of Sichuan peppercorns still on the vine. Take your pick of basa or snakehead (a thinner, flaky white-fleshed fish) fish fillets and toppings like enoki mushrooms. With rice on the side, portions are hefty

Two orange containers of Sichuan fish and fermented cabbage stews stand next to two white containers of rice.
Sichuan fish and fermented cabbage stews.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

La Mira Gelateria

Know where to find a longan rose gelato in the shape of a cute bear? La Mira Gelateria is helping resuscitate the recently re-opened New World Mall with its Asian twists on gelato from founder Sharon Ye, who studied gelato-making in Italy. Scoops of sesame seaweed and peach oolong flavors are topped with little edible nubs to form a mouse, pig, or panda. 

A pink gelato scoop is shaped into a pig.
Longan rose piggy gelato.
La Mira Gelateria

Malay

Way before Malaysia’s wildly popular Papparich chain landed in 2016, Malay has been doling out sumptuous Malaysian dishes since it opened on a then-seedy side street in 1988. You’ll still catch vestiges of old Flushing before the skyscrapers cropped up. An employee assembles satay sticks in a tiny window at the left upon entry. A sliver of an aisle is made even more narrow by packed tables steaming with chicken curry noodle soup. Other hits include the al dente kang kung belacan, or water spinach heavy with shrimp paste; barbecued skate; roti canai; Hainanese chicken; and beef rendang.

Dishes of barbecued skate, curry chicken noodle soup, and kangkung belacan sit on a pink and blue floral table.
Barbecued skate, curry chicken noodle soup, and kangkung belacan.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Deng Ji Yunnan Guoqiao Mixian

In the last ten years, the food of Yunnan has been increasingly appreciated here, centering on a hand full of dishes featuring floppy rice mixian noodles, and lots of Southeast Asian flourishes. The two Flushing branches of Deng Ji — one occupying the old Fu Run space — have the largest collection of big-deal rice noodle soups that the city has yet scene, most involving dramatic tableside presentations, and add-in ingredients numbering 15 or more. This place is for the real Yunnan aficionado.

A bowl of broth with 14 small dishes above it waiting to be dumped in.
Ingredients just about to be dumped in the broth.
Robert Sietsema/Eater

Qing Dao Restaurant

The fast-casual Qingdao Restaurant, named after a northeastern port city, where Tsingtao beer has been brewed since 1903, serves fantastic, recession-proof steam table fare, where a tray of three items, soup, and rice runs $8. On the left of the cashier counter, find proteins like lightly fried and battered nuggets of fish accented with white pepper and fist-sized meatballs. To the right, veggie dishes include still-crunchy green beans, and beyond that, a smoky house-made chile oil with a floral essence that calls to mind jasmine tea. Don’t forget the small display case jutting out of the storefront. There’s steamed corn, bundles of baos, and some of the longest sticks of still-warm fried crullers, or youtiao, all under $5.

A lunch spread includes egg drop soup, fried dough, and a tray of rice topped with green beans.
An $8 lunch spread plus youtiao.
Caroline Shin/Eater NY

Main Street Imperial Taiwanese Gourmet

One of the best traditional Taiwanese restaurants in town is found just north of the LIE on Main Street in what constitutes almost a mini-Chinatown. The place calls itself Main Street Imperial Taiwanese Gourmet and has been in this spot since 2000, about the time northern Chinese and Fujianese became more prevalent in downtown Flushing and Taiwanese restaurants moved to other neighborhoods. All the classics are found here, including stinky tofu, three-cup chicken, oyster omelet, and meatball mochi, also known as ba-wan or “Taiwanese meatball” — meat tidbits embedded in gooey sweet potato starch. 

Main Street Imperial Taiwanese Gourmet

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