After selling their flan at Zabar’s, Union Market, and elsewhere in the city for years, chef Claudia Berroa and husband Richard Berroa have opened this brick-and-mortar business in the Bronx. The menu showcases Peruvian specialties like lomo saltado and pollo a la brasa, but best of all are the empanadas. Made to order, and packed with chorizo, chicharon, and other fillings ($3 to $3.50 each), critic Ryan Sutton found their golden crust to be “as light as a wonton wrapper.”

First launched as a food stall at the Queens Night Market in 2019, chef Amy Pryke is now serving her popular Singaporean noodle dishes from a small restaurant in Washington Heights. New to the brick-and-mortar storefront is the roti john sandwich, a toasted baguette sandwich made from from cumin-spiced beef, caramelized onion, and egg. In Singapore, the dish is often eaten as breakfast, but here it makes for a comforting midday meal.

At Chick Chick, chef Jun Park is putting an East Asian spin on Nashville hot chicken, resulting in tenders and wings that are not to be missed. Park batters and fries his chicken to-order, before tossing it in a blend of cayenne, paprika, gochugaru, onion powder, and garlic powder. Some might wish the chicken here had more heat — as is the case in Tennessee — but its “shatteringly crisp” skin makes for one of the best lunches in the neighborhood right now.

Arab-Latin flavors combine at the Migrant Kitchen’s first uptown location. Eater NY critic Robert Sietsema recommends chefs Dan Dorado and Nasser Jaber’s lamb torta: a Mexican-style sandwich served with a lamb roast seasoned with sumac and Oaxacan cheese. Elsewhere on the menu, there are bowls, salads, and more that make for a perfect fast causal daytime option.

In a stretch of Hell’s Kitchen known for its Thai food, Three Roosters has managed to find its own lane. The restaurant specializes in chicken over rice, served three ways: grilled and fatty with lemongrass, fried and coated in zab seasoning, and prepared in the style of Hainanese chicken. Skip the Hainanese version for now, and opt instead for the fried chicken, whose interior critic Ryan Sutton found to be delightfully “fatty and chewy, almost like pork belly.”

Jianbing, a street food staple in China, is the focus at this takeout counter in Downtown Flushing. Order the crepe-like dish with a variety of fillings — spicy ramen, Peking duck, and chopped crawfish, among a half-dozen others — and wait a few minutes for it to come off the grill. The restaurant also specializes in roasted cold noodles, which are neither cold nor resemblant of most noodle dishes in the city, but are preferred over the jianbing by New York Times critic Pete Wells.

Some of the items on the menu at this Rockefeller Center hotspot from Ignacio Mattos come with eye-popping prices. But with some careful navigation of the menu, Lodi may well be on its way to becoming one of Midtown’s best lunch spots. Items like the porchetta sandwich, a kale-and-egg tart, and a Dune-like ribbed croissant had Eater NY critic Ryan Sutton coming back for more.

Queens Night Market favorite Burmese Bites now has its own standalone brick-and-mortar located inside the Queens Center Mall food court. Owner Myo Lin Thway is cooking up chicken curry with flaky palata bread (there’s also a vegan version), shan kaukswe (rice noodles with chicken curry and pickled mustard greens), and nan gyi thoke (a rice noodle salad), as well as daily-changing specials — all available for dine-in or takeout.

At this one-man show, dishes come out thoughtfully-prepared from a small kitchen that packs in a ton of flavor. Sobak has a slender-but-filling menu of offerings to eat at one of just a few counter seats or pick-up for takeout. Here, protein-packed lunch bowls like a standout bibimbap with yukhoe (a Korean-style raw meat dish akin to tartare), unagi, or an option with wagyu help fuel diners throughout the day.

After a successful debut in Jersey City, Chinese takeout spot Chinah has expanded with this second location in the Financial District. Rice bowls are the star of the show here and, when topped with fist-sized meatballs or crisp pork belly, they offer a compelling alternative to the fast-casual chains that populate the neighborhood. Pro tip: All of the bowls can, and should, be ordered with forbidden rice.

Though Agi’s also has a standout breakfast program filled with pastries and egg sandwiches, lunch may well be where this Crown Heights newcomer really thrives. The hearty durans, Austrian-style open-faced sandwiches, such as the Ritzy Titzy (poached chicken sandwich, blue cheese, pickled grapes, and herbs) can also be ordered as a salad, depending on your mood. The stunning jammy egg mousse duran is also a showstopper.